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Celes · 10-09-2011 06:01 PM

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 2 of 21DMC!

Congratulations to those of you who have completed your Day 1's meditation - I'm so proud of you!

I have included your name in the group progress chart. Here's the group progress chart so far (see below):

To be included in the chart every day, simply fall into the group meditation threads that are posted in this very forum daily.

If you were unable to do your meditation for Day 1 for some reason, don't fret. Simply identify the reasons why you weren't able to, note them down in your meditation journal, then try again today (Day 2). Remember, it's not a race - it's about cultivating this habit for the long haul!

IMPORTANT: Is your name in the participants list???

Before you proceed, please ensure you have:

Signed up for the challenge. I noticed quite a few members have created their meditation journals or posted their introduction threads, but have not signed up officially for 21DMC yet! Please visit the sign-up thread link and see if your name is in the list of official participants in the first post. If it isn't, follow the instructions on that post to sign up first.
Read Day 0's Preparation Post - It contains your 21-day meditation progress chart, instructions on how to post your meditation journal in the forums, and 9 tips to succeed in your 21DMC journey.

Share Your Meditation Experience For Day 2!

Were you able to complete your meditation practice today? Why/Why not?
If yes, how did your meditation go? What meditation did you do? Where did you meditate? How long did you meditate for?
Anything you want to share about the meditation itself?
Anything you have learned for yourself today? (whether related or non-related to meditation)

Look forward to reading your updates!

Amanda · 10-09-2011 06:46 PM

Finally...

Have been waiting for this post since morning!

Have done morning and afternoon (special session) meditation!

MorningDid a short 2min 37 seconds guided meditation.
AfternoonDid a quiet self-meditation, lasting 7min 23 seconds (I put a timer so that the total for today (so far) will be a round number - 10 minutes)
EveningWill be updating later. However my plan is Breath In The Heart (16 minutes 15 seconds) and another short self-meditation, for 3 minutes 45 seconds.

So for total (the whole day, including the later evening session), it is 30 minutes.

Update: managed to complete the evening meditations!

~Amanda

niem · 10-09-2011 06:51 PM

Good Morning! I did my meditation today in the morning. Yesterday, I meditated in the evening and I wanted to try which time of the day would be suitable for me. I tried another kind of Meditation, Still from the 'Fragrant Heart' website. This time I tried the 'Seven Chakra Lotus Flower Meditation'.

It went fairly well. My lights are well lit and so maybe that makes it a little too bright for my concentration, next time, i'll turn them down a bit. and we'll see. It took at least 19 mins this time.

I wanted to be able to find the meditation that suites me. That is why I am trying different ones. I think the Yoga Nidra makes it a little bit more relaxing since I am lying down on the carpet floor. So maybe, I'll try meditating the Yoga Nidra again later this evening.

The 'Seven Chakra Lotus Flower Meditation' allows you to focus on your 7 chakras all over your body. This is new to me, and so this makes it interesting.

Day 2 and I am looking forward on this extra time for myself. I am still a beginner and I know I have yet to learn so many things.

I am positive. Have a great day everyone!

elezhara · 10-09-2011 07:53 PM

Day 2 completed!! I did a 10 minute guided meditation. I will be meditationg tonight too, I hope to do a longer one, maybe 30 or 40 minutes. I´ll be updating tonight

30 min meditation completed

Total for the day 40 min.
Have a great day, smile and be happy!! :dance:

ASLO · 10-09-2011 08:10 PM

Day 2 done
managed 25 minutes of guided meditation today
later on would put up my thoughts and insights gained

angelo · 10-09-2011 08:28 PM

Day 2, I will meditate at night for 20 to 30 minutes I will update tomorrow : )

Lots of Happiness : )

annanabananamc · 10-09-2011 10:01 PM

Today my son woke early so at first I was disappointed to not have "MY" time to meditate. I even asked him to try to sleep more. Finally, I just went to him and told him I would be meditating, and that I needed the quiet time to myself. That was a good solution! I meditated for 19 minutes listening to Tara Brach - Inner Space meditation. This one was really powerful and my mind wandered less than usual. I have a meditation cushion that is very special to me, and I sat on it with my back to the window. I could hear the rain falling gently, and sometimes the birds. I felt so peaceful afterwards, and my mind had slowed...

zoom6628 · 10-09-2011 10:46 PM

Interesting to see so many people using forms of guided meditation. Would be worth a poll at the end of the challenge to see what was most used techniques and perhaps get some insight in what works for the people who took part in this. Personally I have not found guided meditation of any help - I cant listen and empty my mind at the same time (probably far too arrogant to allow other opinions into my micro-brain). I started doing meditation to a "system" when learning kendo and found the concentration on counting breath to be a simple but powerful technique (and very hard). So later when i did a 12 day vipassana course the concentration on the sensation of breath seemed to be very logical to me. Was easy to accept as a valid technique, but of course difficult for me to do as I have a brain that holds way too many ideas, threads in brain at the same time. What I have learned is that what it may take time to find a technique that works for us. Seems to be helpful to keep up the same technique for while in order to develop the practice. After a while you will make the practice yours.

Thanks so much to everyone else for sharing their experiences as I find it instructive to read.

With Metta.

ganeshmuthiah · 10-09-2011 11:55 PM

Day 1 - 7 min
Day 2 - 25min

Vroom · 10-10-2011 12:29 AM

After yesterday's superb meditation, I was disappointed by the 20 min today. I will sit for 20 min again before sleeping. 40 min.

My thoughts seemed to overpower me, i wasn't able to pull back, I was drawn into them. Was breathing shallow too. I was feeling relaxed, but not too good as yesterday.

Look fwd to a better session later today.

Andreea · 10-10-2011 01:20 AM

On day 1 I meditated for 5 minutes by listening a guided meditation from the Silva Center (thank you so much, dear Celes, for the tip about it on the article from the PEbook - and from the blog, of course, but I enjoyed it more and better on my dear book :heart:

), but I stopped doing it when I realized I don`t understand all the words in English about the body parts, uff.. :shy:

Today, after some research about the words for body parts in English, I listened it more careful, I succeeded to meditate again with it again for 10 minutes, until my neighbors started to talk very loud

A friend will come to sleep at my place in this evening, so I hope that tomorrow evening I`ll succeed to meditate by listening the "centering exercise" during all its period (33 minutes).

Even if I meditated for a very short time on these 2 days, the effect of the guided meditation was beautiful, I`ve never experienced such feeling of relaxation in my body and also in my mind.. I just love it.

I`m planning to wake up early from now on, so there will be silence around me, so I can meditate for a longer time in peace.
It`s funny that I didn`t want to tell anybody around me about this new challenge, for being sure I won`t receive strange looks from them and because I feel this is something private, in a way.. but now I`m so excited about it, that I feel like talking about it with everybody

Thank you immensely for this chance of enriching my life, dear Celes, I love this new experience and I`m sure it will go better and better for all of us, thanks to you.. glomp

Lots of love to you and everybody :hug:

I wish you a wonderful new week! :heart:

Luis_magalhaes · 10-10-2011 02:10 AM

Ok, today was a bit harder to fit it into my life - for some reason I have a lot more trouble managing my time on the days I don't work!

But still, I managed to meditate for 32 minutes.

Feel free to check out the new post on my journal.

Good work everyone, and have a great day!

Andria Yiasmin · 10-10-2011 02:38 AM

Today I managed to meditate for 5 mins

I write the answers to almost all of celes questions in my journal: http://personalexcellence.co/forums/thre...mc-journal

Ariane · 10-10-2011 02:46 AM

Today I did a 20 minutes guided meditation.

More details in my Meditation's journal.

ilianaki94 · 10-10-2011 02:48 AM

Today I meditated for about 10 minutes . I felt like today I had more thoughts than yesterday or I could hear my inner dialogue better .

Celes · 10-10-2011 02:59 AM

Hey Ganesh, please report into the individual day's thread for your day's meditation. It'll be easier for tracking purposes. Thank you!

To everyone - Please note that I will only log down your meditation for the day if you post a confirmation that you have meditated during the day's group thread. I will not be noting down tentative plans to meditate, as things may always change after the initial posting. Thank you!

Thulemin · 10-10-2011 03:10 AM

I'm just done with my meditation session tonight

I missed it yesterday, so did a "catch-up session" this morning for last night. In truth, it's 2 sessions for today, but I decided to visualize it as 2 days meditations. Hehe, it's my life, I can visualize it how I wish

I meditated 10min both. Put my alarm clock (with a nice sound) to stop it, because I want to see if I can start noticing the passing of time after a while. Like, if I can guess when the 10min is coming close to an end instead of just "hum, it should be soon"

This morning was uneventful. You can see it detailed here. For tonight... Hum... It was quite, say, "emotional".

I started with alternating breathing patterns, as this morning. And then, something popped up about a friend's comment & I started smiling like stupid. And then, after a while, I saw a scene with my grandparents (they don't agree with me living in Malaysia & always give me tricky questions as a way to blame me - this time, only 2) and I started crying.

I think it's the first time I'm crying during a meditation. Not sure if it's because I was feeling sad at the regular clashes or afraid at the truth they might be holding.

Anyway, my question was more: should I stop concentrating on that thought & let go, or keep on digging a bit?

Hope you guys had a cool session

Celes · 10-10-2011 03:18 AM

Hey Thulemin, thanks so much for sharing your powerful meditation! I'd say do whatever your gut tells you at the moment. If you feel like digging it, then dig it. If you feel like letting it float away, then let it float away. Either way, just do what feels right at the moment. If you chose to let it float away and it later turns out to be an important thought, it'll float back even if you let it float away. So don't worry about any implications or outcomes and dedicate your whole being to the process itself.

Ish · 10-10-2011 03:18 AM

Day 2 done. 25 minutes today. Details in myJournal

DaphneZA · 10-10-2011 04:22 AM

I spent 30 minutes doing two guided meditations from Meditation Oasis. I didn't wait for the family to be asleep, so there was quite a bit of background noise, but I still felt relaxed afterwards.

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