90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!
Great going, Krigs and Peacenik! Fabulous! Just jumping in is the best path! Sitting in a chair is absolutely fine! As you both have seen, the point isn't to be on the floor, or cross-legged, or in full lotus (I couldn't do that to save my life!), but to be in a stable, upright position that we can hold still in for 20 minutes or so. It's best not to be leaning back against anything, if possible. Keeping the spine upright and reasonably straight is a signal to the brain that our intention is to stay awake, and pay attention.... so, if possible, it's best not to be doing our meditation practice lying down.
Here's a link to the instructions about posture, that Kriger mentioned, on the Tricycle site.
My 20-minute sit this morning was good... they say that if we stay in our meditation posture for the entire time that we set for ourselves, then we had a "good" session! I find it best to sit first thing in the morning, after getting dressed, and before I put my shoes on. For some reason, I find it harder to go back to my sitting after I have put on my shoes and gotten into the rest of the stream of my day.
Peacenik, you had an interesting experience... and I am SO glad to hear you say that you will go back to your next session with NO EXPECTATIONS! It is always best to let go of any hope, wish, or expectation that meditation will bring us any particular sorts of feelings, emotions, or other experiences. Especially in the beginning, when we have a lot of cultural beliefs and baggage about how meditation "should" be (instant nirvana, anyone? I think not.... not in the real world!), we will have a hard time persisting if we keep getting disappointed when all that "happens" is that we keep getting distracted, and keep re-focusing our attention. It is the very act of NOTICING that we have become distracted AND REFOCUSING OUR ATTENTION that is the key thing here... it is like building a muscle in weight training, lifting a weight over and over again... each repetition makes us stronger.
So... getting distracted is OK (and VERY normal!).
Great going, Krigs and Peacenik! Fabulous! Just jumping in is the best path! Sitting in a chair is absolutely fine! As you both have seen, the point isn't to be on the floor, or cross-legged, or in full lotus (I couldn't do that to save my life!), but to be in a stable, upright position that we can hold still in for 20 minutes or so. It's best not to be leaning back against anything, if possible. Keeping the spine upright and reasonably straight is a signal to the brain that our intention is to stay awake, and pay attention.... so, if possible, it's best not to be doing our meditation practice lying down.
Here's a link to the instructions about posture, that Kriger mentioned, on the Tricycle site.
My 20-minute sit this morning was good... they say that if we stay in our meditation posture for the entire time that we set for ourselves, then we had a "good" session! I find it best to sit first thing in the morning, after getting dressed, and before I put my shoes on. For some reason, I find it harder to go back to my sitting after I have put on my shoes and gotten into the rest of the stream of my day.
Peacenik, you had an interesting experience... and I am SO glad to hear you say that you will go back to your next session with NO EXPECTATIONS! It is always best to let go of any hope, wish, or expectation that meditation will bring us any particular sorts of feelings, emotions, or other experiences. Especially in the beginning, when we have a lot of cultural beliefs and baggage about how meditation "should" be (instant nirvana, anyone? I think not.... not in the real world!), we will have a hard time persisting if we keep getting disappointed when all that "happens" is that we keep getting distracted, and keep re-focusing our attention. It is the very act of NOTICING that we have become distracted AND REFOCUSING OUR ATTENTION that is the key thing here... it is like building a muscle in weight training, lifting a weight over and over again... each repetition makes us stronger.
So... getting distracted is OK (and VERY normal!).
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