Date #11

Meditation

Extract from The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal

Today you are going to meditate.

If that makes you want to run screaming to the hills, never fear.

I believe - as an ex-card carrying mediation hater and now convert - that a couple of minutes to begin with every day built up to 10 minutes most days - is enough to get the benefits mentioned above.

Meditation allows your mind to calm down enough to change not only your behaviour, but beliefs and unconscious impulses around your body image. It prepares the ground for deeper understanding of your hidden beliefs and a conversation with your inner child, should you want to do that work.

What To Do On This Date

Three Options:

Option #1

Guided audio #1:

If the audio player doesn't work, visit https://www.theshiftinside.com/4minmeditation/

Option #2

Listen to a relaxation audio. Listen to the one from date #7, or look around online.

Option #3: Just Meditate

This usually prompts the following question...

What if you can't just meditate?

This is what I did when I started non-guided meditating and got distracted by thinking:

When a thought happened I would see my mind as a big empty room with a door at either end - no furniture at all. I would see the thought or thoughts as a crowd of rowdy people coming in through one door. The other door opened and they would all rush out through it. Then I would focus on the lovely empty room again.

Another thing you can do is focus on one detail in your visual field just as the very top of a tree or a door handle.

Another idea: spend the whole of your meditation time doing diaphragm breathing or box breaths as demonstrated on this page. I frequently do this and it is my favourite way to keep on track.

IMPORTANT: Whatever you do, it will feel like failure. That is the point - if you want to gradually develop the ability to stop thinking, of course you will see your initial efforts as failure because you are so addicted to your thoughts.

This is how you WILL start. Everyone does!

So accept that fact and enjoy these ‘failures’