What 30 Days of Meditation Taught Me

I recently read an article by one of my favorite authors on the subject of habits, James Clear. It was about using the Seinfeld Strategy to not “break the chain” of an action. If there’s a goal that you have, or a healthy habit you want to establish, do it every day (if even for one repetition, or a few minutes) and don’t break the chain. It’s as simple (and hard) as that!

I decided to implement this strategy with meditation using a free app called Insight Timer. I have meditated in the past but have never established a regular habit. There are many meditation apps available such as Headspace, Calm, or 10% Happier, but I like Insight Timer’s interface and the options to either use a timer for your own meditation practice or to use guided meditations. There are thousands of guided meditations to choose from, depending on how much time you have available. I meditate before I go to bed, and like the option to meditate for one minute or a luxurious fifteen minutes if I can (and my baby stays asleep).

At the end of your meditation, it also tells you how many consecutive days you have completed and notifies you of milestones. I love getting gold stars so this is the perfect incentive for me to keep the chain going.

Here are some of the main things I have learned in my last 30 days of meditation. If you are a beginner or even more experienced at meditating, hopefully these will encourage you to meditate a little bit each day.

The breath is the normal anchor, but it doesn’t need to be. Most people focus on the sensation of the breath during meditation, whether it be at the nostrils, the chest, or the abdomen. Since you are always breathing, this is a logical place to rest your attention. However, if this doesn’t work for you, it’s OK! You can place your hands on your heart and anchor to your heartbeat, or the vibrations in your still fingertips. Find what works for you.

It’s OK to think during meditation. When people start meditating, they tend to get nervous that they are doing it “wrong” because they have thoughts, so they judge themselves, try to push away the thoughts, and stress themselves out trying not to think. This simply doesn’t work. You will have thoughts during meditation. The point is to notice you are thinking, not attach to the thoughts or to the stories around the thoughts, release them and begin again. You can find your anchor again, whether that be the breath or something else. I like the visualization provided in this meditation where you see your friend in the crowd. You don’t push other people out of the way to get to your friend, you just see them, acknowledge them, and make your way over to them. This is what you do with your anchor during meditation.

I am not my thoughts or my emotions. If you think of yourself as being grounded to the earth, thoughts and emotions are just weather patterns passing through you. This meditation helps you stay grounded through the visualization of yourself as a mountain, unshaken and unchanged by weather. I’ve also heard meditations where you visualize yourself as a clear blue sky, and your thoughts and emotions are clouds passing through. I often get caught up in emotions of frustration, anger, and impatience and remembering myself as a mountain or the bright blue sky can help me see that these feelings will pass like rain clouds.

Quieting the mind is vitally important for self-care. Meditation helps us quiet the body in stillness so we can then quiet the mind. We are barraged with messages, thoughts, emotions, noises, and other static the entire day. Sleep is our only respite, unless these things keep you from that also. Even if you just quiet your body and mind for one minute a day, you can sense the stillness beneath the waves, and know that this is your true nature. The more we can tap into that stillness, the better for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Here are my favorite teachers on Insight Timer, if you want a place to start:

Sarah Blondin. If you don’t want to download the Insight Timer app, you can find her Live Awake podcast. I will be writing a separate blog post about what she has taught me. She is absolutely amazing. This is not a “normal” guided meditation but it will help you clear the way to find and care  for your innermost self.

Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. Both of these teachers are well-known in the meditation world because of their work with the Insight Meditation Society. Their guidance is clear and helpful for beginners as well as those more advanced in their meditation practice.

Tara Brach. Tara is also very well-known in the meditation world, and her book Radical Acceptance is on my list. She also has a very calm, straightforward, and clear approach which is helpful for beginners.

Do you meditate regularly? If not, are you up for trying it for ten days in a row? I’d love to hear from you about your practice and how it’s going for you.