Sunday: 15 minutes sitting
Here’s an initial challenge to blogging about a meditation journey (as opposed to blogging about an Ironman training journey): While doing the meditation “training,” you don’t get to amuse yourself by writing your next post in your head. Writing in your head is an amazing distraction for, for example, swimming laps, but here the whole point is to not get distracted.
Actually, all sorts of ideas pop up while you’re sitting and breathing, but rather than entertain them, you’re supposed to pat them on the head, set them aside, and go back to focusing on your nostrils.
At this (early, early, early) stage, I have to say that ideas are a particularly tempting distraction for me. I really love to entertain them and have even been known to form elaborate plans and acronyms around them.
But all this is just a monkey running off with my elephant, so I’m patiently walking the path.**
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* I am specifying “sitting” because at some point down the road I may break up longer sessions with a walking meditation or something else.
** The monkey is distracting thoughts, the elephant is my mind, and the monk at lower right is me.
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