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<p>This week the @ecoTrain have initiated  the <strong>'meditation-challenge'. We are all committing to this, and are inviting you to join us at any time. We are sharing our experiences,
 and  below are my experiences from the first three days. I hope it helps to inspire you, as well as help me to commit to and journal this process. </strong></p>
<h3>If it weren't for this challenge, i don't think I would be meditating every day or for 15 minutes! Sometimes I guess that is what it takes for us to be motivated, for whatever reason!      I use a candle to help me feel cozy and bring in the light, and some sweet incense to help me relax. I also start with some chanting, which I have to say makes the 15 minute meditation much easier to do, and i also am able to go much deeper into it. I will be posting more about chanting very soon, and hope to inspire a few of us to try it out. <br>
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<h2><strong>Day 1: Monkey Mind</strong></h2>
<p>I started by cleaning up my meditation area, as it is by my fireplace and was covered in wax drops, incense dust and half burned tea lights and things. It felt much nicer to sit in a clean space! Sunday was a good day to choose to start this challenge, because i had no excuse this morning to not do it! I'm REALLY happy I just did it, and I have to say that it didn't go exactly how I expected. I started with some chanting, which really helps me to settle down and get use to being still. Then my cat Forest joined me and started distracting me and meowing a lot whilst he sat staring right at me. I started the meditation with a few OM's which i always like, and i decided to ignore the cat and let him sit next to me and make noise. I just tried my best to focus on my breath, and letting go of thoughts.</p>
<p>My mind was SO full of thoughts this morning I can hardly believe. Not only did i not even have 2 seconds of silence between them, but I could not even put them aside. Most of my thoughts were totally unimportant random thoughts about Steemit, Cryptocurrency, and just blah blah and  I was able to realise that I have no breaks on my thinking right now. This was good to realise, and I did not feel like I was doing it wrong. I also felt like nothing was happening, and it was pointless doing this, or at least that is why my ego mind was telling me.. But i persisted and I did the whole 15 minutes! I think that is the main point to learn on this first day. Have no expectations and you will not be disappointed or disheartened. Just follow this commitment to its end and see what happens.</p>
<p>Now just 15 minutes after it, I DO feel MUCH calmer and I can hear everything around me again. I feel like I am here again, which is actually a really nice feeling. I haven't felt like that for a while, so that is already one benefit. I can also see better now, which may sound weird.. but I think I have been Very dissociated for a long time, almost totally stuck in my head, and now i can feel myself seated in my body with much more awareness of my senses. It may have felt like nothing was happening whilst I was meditation, but now the change is palpable!</p>
<p>I also didn't smoke yet and started writing before I did anything else, which is also unusual for me these days. I just fed Forest and now he is quiet, so next time I will feed him before I meditate.</p>
<p>I feel like my mental health is at a kind of rock bottom right now, and this 15 minutes has helped me realise where I am at. It really was NOT that hard to do this, and i easily waste 15 minutes every day messing around with my phone and so I believe this may be the best thing I could have done with my time today. I am looking forward to tomorrow, and hope that I can go even deeper into this commitment.</p>
<h2><strong>Day 2: Slightly Less Monkey Mind</strong></h2>
<p>I'm happy i have done the meditation today without even questioning it. I even mysteriously woke up at 5:30am and just couldn't sleep any more. I still started the morning with a coffee, and a smoke.. and yes i checked my Steemit comments and the cryptocurrency markets! Maybe one day I will be able to meditate before I do anything, but one step at a time! My mind was still VERY active, but slightly less manic and uncontrollable than yesterday. I felt like I was able to notice that I was thinking and remind myself to put it down and thinking about things later~! Yesterday I was so lost in thought that I didn't even realise I was thinking half the time. </p>
<p><strong>One good tip for you if you also have a busy mind is to just TAG what is going on. Since this meditation is about WITNESSING ourselves wherever we are, and being present with it, it can really help to label what we are doing. For example, i kept saying to myself.. &quot;Thinking, Thinking&quot;.. to remind myself that I am just thinking a lot, and was able to then put it aside more easily. You can do the same thing if you are worrying about money, or your children, or how you are going to manage to do all the things you need to do that day. Just say to yourself &quot;Worrying, Worrying&quot;, and tell yourself that you can worry about it later and put it down. Just keep doing this and then come back to your awareness of your breathing and body, something like 70% of your attention on breathing and 30% on your body. </strong></p>
<p>My cat Forest was much more quiet this morning ( I fed him well last night), but he did decide to sit on my lap. I didn't stop him and get distracted with it all, and by the end of it I barely notice him there at all. If you are peaceful, the cat will be peaceful! </p>
<h2><strong>Day 3: Just About Did it!</strong></h2>
<p>This morning I realise that I really have to meditate before I do anything on line. I spent a good 2 hours staring at the market charts from 06:30-08:30 and it didn't feel good.. I have to learn to relax and stop making panic moves as it makes things worse. I didn't do any chanting this morning to see how the meditation was without it. I can see how much the chanting helps and so tomorrow I vow to myself two things. I will meditate BEFORE i do anything else, and I will also chant from tomorrow onwards. I think this will make the difference I have been looking for, and this process has helped me to see it. What is the point of being anxious all day, every day, when its more likely you will better off doing nothing! Such is the power of a monkey mind!!! So I am going to have to be strong, and writing this really helps me to set this intention clearly.</p>
<p>Wish me luck!!! If you are reading this, please do consider joining us as I think it is a powerful process to commit to something, and also to share and support each other in a safe space, which this is! You can just try one day and see how that goes if one week sounds like too much. I think one day is enough for many people to realise the benefits come very quickly!</p>
	<center><p><img src="https://s20.postimg.org/bsut9f64d/divider.png"></p>
	  <h2>Will You Join Us For The Meditation Challenge?</h2>
      <p>Anyone who already meditates on a regular basis can testify to the powerful and wide range of effects and benefits that they get from it. These days meditation is starting to gain traction in mainstream media, and we are seeing meditation being taught in schools, even in Europe and USA. Many of us make important decisions every day whilst leading stressful lives. It is often when we are feeling fearful or under stress that we make bad decisions, and are unproductive and inefficient.</p>
      <p>What better challenge could we have here on Steemit than a meditation challenge!? This challenge is for everyone, whether you have never meditated before, or you used to meditate but haven't in a while, or even if you do meditate regularly. I hope you will join us in this opporunity to make your day and the world even better!      </p>
      <h2>Are you ready for the details! !?</h2>
      <p><strong>Click the link belowfor more information and how to join us<br>
      </strong>https://steemit.com/meditation-challenge/@eco-alex/7-day-meditation-challenge-everyone-wants-to-meditate-but-no-one-actually-does-it-join-us-today</p>
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