First of all, I tried meditating at work today in the middle of the day to see how it would impact the rest of my afternoon (or, at least that's what I tell myself so I don't feel guilty that I turned off my 5am alarm to wake up up 6am instead!), so this blog entry should be my 1:30pm meditation, not my 5am meditation.
One thing that my racing mind did reward me with was the reminder of the metta practice I have been building with my daughter. Metta meditation is also known as lovingkindness. Years ago I came across an article written by a father about how he meditates nightly with his sons. I was so inspired by his story that I decided to try the same with my daughter. I looked up the story again for this blog article, and while it's in a different place, it's still the same story. We start by sending love and kindness and positive thoughts and energy to ourselves, then to our immediate family and friends, aunts and uncles and cousins, then teachers and others we encounter during the day, then it usually gets sent off to animals and trees and mountains and even the dolls in the room.
LovingKindness Meditation to do with Children at Night
What I am going to take away from today's racing mind is that I want to make a stronger commitment to both my own daily 5AM practice as well as my nightly metta practice with my daughter.
I don't know how you are fitting any meditation in at all. It seems that life is so busy and there is no time for relaxation. My mind is also racing daily. I feel it races during my sleep because sometimes I feel so tired when I wake up, but I have a lot of ideas when I wake to write on my blogs, or how I'm going to change my lesson plans today or timing out my schedule to get everything done that needs to be done for thetoday. I have noticed my devotion time is shorter and shorter. Sometimes I will read my devotion and scriptures while driving to work. Not a good habit. Don't give up. I will continue to see how the meditation is progressing. In the mean time, I am going to try to slow down myself.
ReplyDeleteEven though I often feel like I don't have time to breathe, I realize how important it is to take the time simply to breathe, to refocus, and to center myself. It's all about priorities. Taking the 15 minutes out of my day ensures that I will be more focused late in my day, and if it means waking up earlier each day, then I need to make that commitment to myself. I want to meditate and I see the need and its benefits, but waking up early is definitely something I struggle with, particularly during the cold New England month of January. I am a bear- I would prefer to hibernate and just stay in the cave of my bed all day! It's a work in progress. I'M a work in progress. We're all works in progress trying to achieve the best versions of ourselves, even if it means reading scriptures in the car!
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