As I’ve made space to meditate daily in the past month leading up to & during the Real Happiness challenge it’s begun a chain reaction of change. Nothing dramatic or worth spending to many words on but I’m beginning to see a slow accumulation of a little more concentration & I’m being mindful in areas of my life I never expected to be: like with my time management.
For years I’ve always considered myself scattered, forgetful & generally a mental mess. Now that I’ve developed a little concentration & regularity in my meditation practice the insight is flowing in more & more frequent flashes. A contributing factor in these old feelings, I’ve discovered is the fact that I take on way too many projects, campaigns & things that consume much more energy than I understand when taking them on.
With that in mind I’m going to keep this post short but to shout out to my fellow co-challengers: It gets better!!! Since starting the challenge I’ve also been reading Joseph Goldstein’s The Experience of Insight in addition to the suggested reading sections from both of Sharon’s Real Happiness books, which I’m finding incredibly supportive. One of the tools I’ve been using is Joseph’s counting the breath meditation practice he calls ‘The Concentration Game”. The practice is super simple & has given me a tool set that allows me to see just how focused I am that day. I’ve found playing the game in the morning useful in gathering my attention & getting a bit of feedback on where I’m at.
Some days doing the ten count is a struggle but more & more often I’m finding myself getting through easily. This wasn’t the case when I began my daily practice in January.
Still haven’t tried the sound meditation. Soon.
