Tag Archives: meditation

Time For A New Meditation Plan (or Over 2000 Days Later And I’ll Be At Day 1 Again Soon)

Posted on March 23, 2022 | Comments Off on Time For A New Meditation Plan (or Over 2000 Days Later And I’ll Be At Day 1 Again Soon)

Several years ago, I set a monthly challenge to try to meditate every day. I had tried meditation in the past, but I just couldn’t stick with it. But I was really hopeful that by setting it as my monthly challenge, I could keep it up for a week and maybe start a new regular habit. I don’t know if I really thought I could keep it up every day after the challenge was over, but I knew even if I could do it most days of the week after that first month, I’d be doing better than I was without any meditation.

I was successful in meditating every day during that challenge, and I have been successful in continuing that every day since! I was very lucky that I found an app that I really clicked with when I started my challenge and that I was happily using it so I could just continue after the month was done without having to test out new apps. I think that was just luck because this wasn’t the app that most people use for meditation but it really worked for me. And I’ve been very happy using it ever since then.

I love how it’s become a regular part of my daily routine. I’ve completed a meditation on the app every day for over 2000 days in a row now. This is something I never expected to be possible. I was shocked when I was able to do it for the entire month that I had the challenge. And I have noticed a difference in my mood and how I feel after completing my meditation each day (which I typically do in the mornings now).

But the other day, when I opened the app to do my daily meditation, I saw this alert on the welcome screen.

I’m really sad that the app is shutting down because it has been a regular part of my life for so many years now. And I also have to think about how I want to continue my meditation practice. I know there are so many apps out there, so I might need to start testing them out and seeing which ones I like (and which ones don’t cost me too much). I’m still planning on continuing my meditations in my current app through the last day. I think in a way, I’m holding out hope that maybe they will change their mind and will not close down. And because my daily streak has been going since the day I started, I don’t want to lose my streak!

But if I do have to switch apps or if I decide to do meditation on my own without an app, I know the thousands of days I have done in this first app will still count. Even if a new app starts me off with a 0 day streak, I will remind myself that it’s not a fresh start. It will just be the start of a new phase and I will be building off of the meditation practice I have worked on building for the last several years.

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Recapping My June (or Still Thinking Up New Monthly Challenges)

Posted on July 5, 2016 | 1 comment

With June over now, I wanted to not only reflect back on my monthly challenge for June but what I’ve been able to do for the first half of the year. When I saw my therapist recently, he was really proud of the work that I had been doing and especially with my monthly challenges. I never expected that I would be able to keep every challenge up beyond the challenge month when I started.

But I’ve been keeping accurate food tracking since January, doing daily gratitude lists since February, not ordering delivery food since March, weighing myself every day that I’m home since April, looking to self-submit for acting jobs since May, and now meditating every day since June.

I’ll admit, the meditation thing was tough since I hadn’t really ever been able to do it for more than a few days in a row before. But because I’m an all or nothing person, it made sense to jump in right away without thinking about it too much.

I’ve been using an app called Breathe for meditation and I’ve been liking it a lot. You do check ins before meditating and it will recommend different meditations for you. Most of the free ones are under 10 minutes long, which is perfect for me. The ones I was doing the most were between 2-5 minutes.

It wasn’t easy to start and I’ve had to adjust things to make it better for myself. Because of all the hip issues, I get fidgety when sitting still. So I can’t sit while meditating most of the time. Instead, I lay down on my bed and try to find a comfortable way to lay down before I start the app. Also, I had set reminders for myself to meditate with the idea that I would try to do some in the morning and some at night. The morning meditations never worked for me this past month. I’ve been doing them right before bed each night and I’m actually really liking that. Maybe one day I’ll try to add in morning ones, but for now I’m happy with adding something new to my bedtime ritual because it helps to signal to my body that it’s time to fall asleep.

After so many months in a row of awesome monthly challenges, it’s getting harder and harder to pick a new one. I actually started thinking about my July challenge halfway through June because I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to figure out. I had planned out a couple of ideas and tried to pick something that I knew I’d be able to be successful with (for example, saying I’ll have a binge free month is not really achievable at this point and I don’t want to set myself up for failure). In the end, I think I thought of something great for this month.

For July, I’m challenging myself to read 10 pages of an eating disorder recovery book every day. I’ve actually had monthly goals in the past to read an eating disorder recovery book, and I’ve never been successful at finishing one. I get distracted or want to read a fun book so I’d take a break and never came back to the book I started. For me, I’m usually able to start a book and finish it without breaks, but I just can’t seem to do that with eating disorder recovery books.

So if I set up a plan to only have to read 10 pages a day, I’ll still get to do my fun reading but I should be able to finish an entire book this month. I used to do this with personal development books when I used to be in an MLM type of job, but when I stopped working with that company that habit was dropped. But I think this is a perfect time to bring that back to my life and I think it’s going to be a really positive thing for me.

I’m happy with this challenge I’ve set up for July, but knowing how hard it is to come up with new challenges each month I think I need to start thinking about my August challenge now!

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May Challenge Recap (or It’s Time For Meditation)

Posted on June 1, 2016 | Comments Off on May Challenge Recap (or It’s Time For Meditation)

We are getting close to the halfway point of the year! I’ve been keeping up with using my Spark Planner and I’m loving it so much! It’s such a great accountability thing and I’ve found new ways to keep myself on top of the tasks I want to get done. There’s still a ton more I think I could do with my planner, but I figure that I can figure those out in time. If I don’t do it this year, there are many more years to come to make sure I do.

I had a lot of goals for May, and unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of them done. I got about half done this time. I did push myself to do a bit more (like wanting to try new recipes or to do more yoga at home) and I know I could have done the things I wanted to do if I had managed my time better. Time management is on my list of things to work on, but it didn’t quite happen in May.

But of the things I did get done in May, I’m happy with what I did! I did 15 workouts at Orangetheory, I went out to 2 dinners with friends, I cleaned out my closet (I had way too many workout clothes and tank tops), and I read a non-fiction book (I read “I Thought It Was Just Me” by Brene Brown).

I also had 100% success with my monthly challenge for May. I wanted to search the acting self-submitting sites every day. I set an alarm that went off on my computer and phone every day to remind me to look to self-submit. Most days, I would forget to do it until the alarm went off so it’s clear I needed an alarm for this task. I have no intention of getting rid of this plan, so my alarm is set to continue indefinitely. Every single challenge I’ve set for myself each month has been something that I’ve continued every day without fail. I know that won’t happen forever, but to know that I’ve gained 5 new positive daily habits so far is pretty amazing.

I’m definitely starting to struggle with what monthly challenges I want to do each month. There are a bunch of things I’d love to do, but I know I can’t do them for an entire month (at least not yet). I also want to focus more on adding things to my life rather than trying to avoid things in my life. I did have the one challenge to not order delivery food for the month (which I’ve kept up), but I didn’t feel as empowered by that as I did with others. Not doing something is much more passive than trying to do something every day.

After some thought for the past few days, I found what I want my June monthly challenge to be: I want to meditate every day in June. I’ve tried in the past to meditate, but it hasn’t stuck. I know it can take a month or so to create a habit, so making this my monthly challenge is perfect! I have 2 different meditation apps on my phone, but after checking out both apps a bit more this past week I think I’m going to focus on Stop, Breathe, and Think.

Meditation

The mediations on there are free (you can pay for some, but there are a bunch of free ones) and they all seem to be pretty short. I have 2 alarms set every day for this, one in the morning and one at night. I don’t know if I will like to meditate during one time more than the other, so I’m setting myself up for success either way. I have a bunch of friends who meditate and I’ve only heard positive things about it. It can help to keep my anxiety and panic down, and anything that has the potential to do that makes me pretty excited! Worst case scenario, I don’t love doing this every day and I don’t continue it after June. It’s only going to take a few minutes each day so it won’t be a time waste. But if I love it and it makes a ton of positive changes in my life? I’ve got to try this out seriously to make an informed decision on if meditation is right for me or not.

I’m still working on the rest of my June goals like how many workouts I want to do and maybe even setting a goal related to running! But for now, I’m excited that I’ve set up my monthly challenge and I’m ready to start!

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