Today's the last day of Sharon's 28-day meditation challenge. Though I didn't meditate for 20 minutes a day, I did meditate every day, which I've never before done in my life.

Here's what I noticed:

• I've started relying on deep breathing and focusing on that breath to calm myself down when I get upset -- it really, really helps.
• I am better able to see emotions and situations as ebbing and flowing, and I'm starting to recognize that bad situations will soon leave.
• I feel better equipped to deal when out and about -- you can meditate anywhere, and if you don't close your eyes, people don't even know you're doing it.

I don't know that I'll become a huge practitioner, because I do really seem to have trouble with either guided meditations or scheduled meditations. I also reserve a lot of time that I probably could meditate for prayer, which is totally different in my experience. However, I'm immensely glad I took this challenge and forced myself to try it -- I'm inherently bad about taking time for myself and only knowing that I'd promised Sharon I'd do this kept me at it on really crazy-busy days.