Post: #1

Hey, everybody!

Meditation is probably the most beneficial habit that I could possibly adopt. Whenever I meditate I feel mentally lighter, I become more grateful for even the smallest of blessings, and I often gain powerful insights about myself and my life. But for some reason meditating on a consistent basis has always been difficult for me. I will meditate for maybe three or four days in a row then quit for three or four days. I think the benefits of meditation can be much more powerful when it is practiced for an ongoing basis over a fairly long stretch of time.

I have decided that starting Saturday I will commit to meditation everyday for 100 consecutive days. This is a bucket list item for me and i am excited to cross it off.

This challenge will run from Sunday January 30 through Monday May 09. Feel free to join us at any time even if you don't begin on Jan 30.

If you are interested in solidifying meditation as on ongoing habit in your life I encourage you to join me in this effort. Just reply to this post if you are interested in this practice. I'm sure we can all benefit from this. And even if you do decide to join this challenge but skip a few days here or there, don't panic . Just begin meditating again as soon as you are able to. The point isn't to do something every single day out of grim determination but to cultivate this incredible practice in our lives where useful to experience the amazing benefits. If you don't think you will be able to meditate every single day for 100 days that is fine. Just commit to meditating often during the next 100 days.

I personally plan on meditating every morning for 30 minutes to an hour. This is my personal plan but feel free to adopt whatever works for you. If you find meditating for 10 minutes during your lunch break or prior to going to sleep at night is convenient for you then do that.

Come back to this thread whenever you feel to update your progress. I plan on updating on a weekly or biweekly basis.

To aid us I have included a few links which I'm sure some of you are already familiar with.

Project Meditation offers a fantastic guided meditation audio file that is free do download. If you have never meditated before or you are not sure if you are practicing meditation correctly I would recommend you start there.

Celes has written some wonderful articles on meditation as well.

10 Reason You Should Meditate

How To Meditate In 5 Simple Steps

I wish you all the best while we work this new habit into our lives.

Official List of Participants

Ish
ozcaveman (Charles)
Andreea
tperez330 (Tony)
Glenn
Kirsten
Kaya
Moirawr
Matt

Post: #2

Hey Matt! This is a great initiative Many members have been talking about wanting to instill meditation as a habit into their lives so it'll be interesting to see who joins in.

By the way,

Matt Wrote:This challenge will run from Saturday January 2 through Sunday May 1.

Do you mean Feb 2 to May 1?

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #3

Oh, Ha! Thanks, Celes. I had the dates completely wrong. Fixed it now.

It will be Sunday January 30 through Monday May 09

Post: #4

Hi Matt , thanks for this initiative!!
count me in
My attempts at meditation started with the Sept and Dec 30DLBL. I have been meditating more consistently since 21DHL.
I will not be meditating for 30 mins yet. I usually meditate for around 10 mins daily. I'll try to increase this gradually.
Meditation will definitely become a normal daily habit

Post: #5

Matt,

Count me in! This gets me motivated to practice the various
meditations from the book I borrowed. I copied the exercises so now I just need to practice them.

I will also share notes from Herbert Benson's book THE RELAXATION RESPONSE which has an effective meditation technique.

Charles

Post: #6

Fantastic, Ish! Yes, feel free to meditate in whatever way works for you. When I began I didn't like meditating for long stretches of time either.

Charles, it's great to have you on board. Thanks for offering to share what you learned in the book.

BTW you should share more videos of your Toastmasters meetings if you get a chance. I know I would like to see more of them. Your experiences with meditation might be an interesting subject too.

Post: #7

Oh, well, if I`m not doing this right now, I will never do it.. Ish and Charles and you are already here, so it`s going to be wonderful..

Please count me in!!

Thank you so much for this fabulous idea, Matt!

Post: #8

Count me in! I've been very interested in this topic from the start. I have done some light reading on it and would be happy to share with the group.

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.- John Milton

Post: #9

Yay, Andreea is here!

Tony, I'm glad to have you with us. I like that quote too.

Post: #10

Thanks to everybody who has signed up so far. Part of the reason that I wanted to do this challenge for 100 ways is to truly make it a part of my daily routine for the rest of my life. I recently came across an interesting article from LifeHacker.com which explains Jerry Seinfeld's technique for improving his comedic skills. While the article says nothing about meditation I think that the method described can be very helpful to us and any other habit we are looking to work on.

Quote:Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime...

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don't feel like it.

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

Over the years I've used his technique in many different areas. I've used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.

It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard "inch by inch anything's a cinch." Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don't break the chain, you'll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn't. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides "compounding interest."

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

I've often said I'd rather have someone who will take action—even if small—every day as opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day.

Think for a moment about what action would make the most profound impact on your life if you worked it every day. That is the action I recommend you put on your Seinfeld calendar. Start today and earn your big red X. And from here on out...

Don't break the chain!

I love this idea. I have created a calendar which you can download here. I'm printing this off and I will be crossing off each day with a sharpie until I reach May 1. I hope this is helpful to others.

The original article can be found here.

Post: #11

Now that it's starting on February 22, I can make it! I only just noticed this post last week actually when the starting date was early January.

Matt, how about a 100 hour fast too?

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By the way, that Seinfeld article is inspiring. So true too about not breaking the chain. Actually I'm going to get started today on a couple of things I've been meaning to do on a daily basis.

Glenn Thomas - Sydney, Australia
Avene Website | Personal Website | Facebook Page | Twitter

Post: #12

I would like to take part as well. I would like some advice I write my drivers test for the fifth time at the end of March. I have failed before on the same thing every time. Could meditation help and what type of meditation?

I hope this is okay
A Day in the woods

Post: #13

Like the Seinfeld strategy. I can vouch for it, I have been doing that on a 30-day calendar now and I agree it is a great visual motivational tool that helps you see your progress. I've been using "F's" and "V's". F for "fail" and "V's" for "victory" for the 21 day challenge. I think a yearly calendar would be better, and using x's to make chains will remind me of Seinfeld and his inspirational story. Thanks for creating one Matt!

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
.
- Buddha|

Post: #14

Kirsten, I'm really not sure. I think meditation can help diminish anxiety if that is your problem. I'm personally doing still meditation that is recommended in Celes's article. I just sit on my living room floor in the lotus position for a half hour, close my eyes, breath, and observe my thoughts. Sometimes I use the manta "I am" as described in the Project Meditation link above.

Thanks, Tony.

Sometimes it's kind of crazy how when you begin to focus on something new resources and evidence of it's benefits seem to pop up everywhere you look and you begin to discover and notice things you may not have before. I've read very little about the law of attraction or the reticular activation system but I should definitely look into it. Just today I found this article.

Quote:Just a few weeks' worth of light meditation can change the structure of your brain, seemingly for the better. Thirty minutes a day can actually increase people's capacity for learning while shrinking the parts of the brain responsible for stress.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital asked their sixteen study participants to take part in an eight-week meditation program centered on building non-judgmental recognition of one's own feelings and sensations. The participants only had to meditate for thirty minutes a day.

After the program was completed, the researchers imaged the participants' brains. The gray-matter in the hippocampus had consistently increased, which suggests an increase in their capacity for learning and memory building. Meanwhile, the density of the amygdala had actually decreased, specifically in the areas governing anxiety and stress. However, there wasn't any apparent change in the insula, the part of the brain in charge of self-awareness. That seems like an obvious part of the brain for meditation to affect, but the researchers suspect more long-term meditation would be required to alter its structure.

Indeed, it's important to keep in mind just how little the participants were really asked to do. It wasn't as though they were locked away in a yoga prison or anything similarly strenuous - rather, they just did a total of 28 hours of meditation spread out over eight weeks, and yet this was enough to alter the structure of their brain. It's a powerful reminder that our brains are incredibly malleable and structurally responsive to even modest changes in our lifestyle.

Amazing.

Original article here

Post: #15

Hi Matt, thanks a lot for the articles. They are great.
I love the idea of the Seinfeld technique. I will definitely try it with meditation and exercise.

Post: #16

(01-24-2011 11:58 AM)Glenn Wrote:  Now that it's starting on February 22, I can make it! I only just noticed this post last week actually when the starting date was early January.

Matt, how about a 100 hour fast too?

---

By the way, that Seinfeld article is inspiring. So true too about not breaking the chain. Actually I'm going to get started today on a couple of things I've been meaning to do on a daily basis.

Hey, Glenn! I just noticed your reply. I'm glad you have decided to join us.

I might try a three day fast in the coming weeks. I just want to try a few juice recipes first before I jump in. I don't want to have to make 3 attempts this time. What is your overall motivation to fast? When I did it, it was mostly out of the desire to show self control and determination rather than cleansing my body of all the garbage I put in it.

BTW what does Avene mean?

Post: #17

Quote:BTW what does Avene mean?

I was also curious about that
For me Avene relates to french cosmetic / skin care brand

Post: #18

Matt, those 2 articles are awesome, thank you a lot for sharing it!!
I read your post with the idea of "not breaking the chain" before leaving to work in this morning and it remained in my mind all the day - it`s such a strong and beautiful metaphor, I just love it..

I wanted to start applying it from this evening, but it seems my friends from the "real world" heard about my idea of "a friend a day" project, 3 of them wanted to talk and spend time with me in this evening after work, one after another
Even if I couldn`t meditate or do anything that I planned, it was beautiful spending time with them, I must admit I quite neglected them since the beginning of December..

I`ll start building my chain from tomorrow for few things, so thank you so, so much, Matt for the calendar that you created and shared, it`s exactly what I`ve been looking for!

Kirsten, Glenn and Tony - yayyy, it`s great seeing you here!!



p.s: I can`t wait to hear the "Avene" story as well!

p.p.s : I meditated yesterday for 15-20 minutes while listening classical and relaxing music, the effect was a special feeling of calm and serenity inside and an inner guidance to something that I needed on that day without realizing it - as soon as I opened my eyes after meditating I gently opened the folder with photos from my holiday at home - seeing and remembering it made me to smile a lot and to feel so much love, strength and gratitude inside of me.

p.p.p.s : I will not admit under any circumstance that I realized only today that this challenge will start only on 22 February, no, no - it wasn`t me!

Post: #19

Yeah, I totally typed the wrong dates at the beginning. It's fixed now. I really need to start proof reading my posts before I hit the submit button.

And whenever you have the choice of sitting alone and doing nothing with your eyes closed for a half hour or hanging out with dear friends you haven't seen in a while, I say choose the latter

Last night I meditated right before going to bed. I think I fell asleep within 10 minutes which is very unusual for me.

A great reason to meditate is to take a break from the constant stimulation we get from the outside world. We get used to it and then have trouble relaxing or concentrating on a single thing at a time. I found this great great website that will be a great test for us. Can you do nothing for 2 minutes?

If you hit a key or move your mouse you will fail. I was able to make it two minutes but I found that my mind was wandering and thinking of other things within only 30 seconds. Let everybody know if you were able to pass the challenge.

Post: #20

Odd, for me it went the other way round - first my mind was still restless and I found myself asking, "Isn't looking at the timer doing something? " Towards the end, I noticed my head become much emptier.

The waves probably helped

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."