5am Meditation Days 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 - Challenges

I have two challenges facing me- meditating and remembering to blog about my meditating. I have had several different experiences over the last several days ranging from meditating at 5am, not being able to meditate until 9pm, and completely forgetting to meditate period. What incredibly insightful knowledge did I gain from these experiences? I truly believe that it does take 90 days for a behavior to become ingrained in your being as habit. So when I go away for the long weekend (after only 3 days or meditation), it doesn't occur to me to remember to pack a yoga mat or prayer rug or meditation cushion yet, and I don't remember (or necessarily feel the need) to set my alarm for 5am. I think after taking the challenge on for 90 days, I will feel the benefit to the point that I want to meditate, and I crave to meditate, as if it's in my blood. And I will feel empty or stressed and anxious or somehow different on the days that I don't get a chance to meditate, making me feel that I have to do it as a part of my daily routine and self-care. That';s my goal at least. Clearly not there yet.

Another one of my goals is to be meditating enough that I have thoughts worth sharing through a blog, that I learn from my experiences so that I can pass on my knowledge and share in the process. I have been reading about meditation since my last blog post, and I have discovered another blogger who took on the challenge of daily meditation practice. She said meditating was like taking a shower for her mind every day. She also had some insightful comments about the thoughts that come up during meditation- that there tends to be about 7 recurring thoughts that you slowly become aware of over time. When these thoughts appear for me, I try to sit quietly and listen to my thoughts, just watch them floating by me like clouds and not get upset that the thoughts appear and feel that I am somehow failing at meditation. But what this blogger said that I found really interesting was that she talked about using the meditation practice to retrain her mind, to change negative thoughts or worries into positive thoughts or hopes. I am truly hopeful that after continuing my journey, I will have similar useful nuggets of information or inspirational comments to pass along to you, my readers and faithful followers.