Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 5 of 21DMC!

It's already been 5 days of meditation so far. How are you feeling? Some of you are quickly clocking in a huge amount of time for your daily meditations. Keep it up guys - I'm so proud of you! You probably realized that once you get into the flow, everything just occurs very naturally.

And that's the whole thing about meditation - it's about going with the flow, and seeing reality as it is. Feeling frustrated about the process, resisting it, resisting yourself, wondering why it's so slow, wondering why it's so boring, wondering why nothing is happening - all these are just internal resistance. Simply observe that, accept that it's happening, and don't *fight* the fact that you're fighting it (if that made any sense at all to any of you). Those who have meditated for the past few days and are slowly coming into sync with the process would probably know what I'm talking about.

With that said, let's now move on to Day 5!

Group Progress Chart To Date

Please find 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.

Share Your Meditation Experience For Day 5!

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

Look forward to reading your updates!

"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

Meditated for 30 minutes.
I am observing my breathing more and realise that when I control my breathing I also can control my thoughts. By being almost still or motionless I perceive more with my senses, for example - each individual sound - my focus is sharper and I can zoom in and out on thoughts with clarity.

Hello Celes and everyone,

Today I meditated for 44 minutes.

It wasn't much different from yesterday, I feel that I get less stray thoughts these days. I felt quite relaxed.

Details here.

Have a great day and great meditation, everyone.

Completed 10 minutes. This time I pictured myself between wild orchids with black panther at my side. More details in journal.

I have meditated for 10 minutes today, with another one Just Being or something like that, from Meditation Oasis. VERY distracted today with mind chatter. I may try for more later when I can release some of these constant nagging thoughts about my to do list. Still, so much better than skipping.

For the second day, I noticed my son had got out of bed and sat quietly listening to the meditation in the next room. I think it's good for him, too. He seems to start the day happier.

Ten minutes today.
Was preoccupied but glad I stuck to it.

25min for day 5

Cheers
GaneshMuthiah

I meditated on my bed. Followed the steps on the article "how-to-meditate-in-5-simple-steps" on Celes's blog. Did it for 8. 47-8.53 minutes. I was planning on doing it for an hour or two, but I had work to do

Well, anyway, it went great

"Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you." -Eckhart Tolle

Morning: 10 minutes

I did change up my rotation. By doing my stretching exercises first I was wide awake when I meditated. I was able to focus for the entire 10 minute session and ended feeling truly rested...rejuvenated; This is quite unusual for me - normally, morning is just a necessary evil to begin my day. The energy that I had to kick off my day was definitely an added bonus. Funny, when I got to the office I didn't even think about getting my morning cup of tea until about an hour after I was there - it is usually the VERY FIRST thing I do in the morning.

Evening: 22 minutes

I also changed up my evening routine. Instead of setting a timer to alert myself when my meditation time was up, I set the stopwatch on my phone to time my meditation. This allowed me to forget about time completely. Though initially I was losing focus I continued to let my breathing guide me until I was completely in tune with my inner being... when I finished I was at total peace with myself. What a fantastic feeling!!!

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
~Henry David Thoreau

Hey Celes
I have been updating my journal on the N-S pages. I just updated for days 3 & 4. I am not sure if i should post here every day to get the chart updated? I am always a day behind because my internet is at work not at home. I know , in this day and age a person who doesn't have internet at home! That's Greece for you.

My day four was really interesting - 25 minutes with someone in the room. Let go of all self consciousness. Not easy but achieved. My journal tells the story. Personal drama turned in to happiness followed by meditation.


This has been such a good exercise. I wish i had found you and this amazing website a year ago! Thank you

Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who matter don't mind and the people who mind don't matter.

This morning I managed to find some time to myself. I meditated in the living room when I was alone in the house and meditated for 15 minutes which is quite an achievement for me. I am not sure why I visualize things happening and see faces while I meditate. Is this common?

Day 5.

I have tried meditating today and just feel a bit distracted. I get to meditate for only 6 mins.

When I started to get emotional, I just decided to sit and open my eyes.

I think there will be days when I will get distracted and out of focus, but that won't be a reason to stop. I will try again tom. and hopefully things will go back to normal.

I think I managed about 8 minutes, listening to Bodhipaksa talking. It was lovely! I did find my mind resisting his words though, resisting his statements that we cling to our thoughts and emotions, giving them meaning and being...I just sat through it all, letting go of my ego every time a resistant thought welled up. I think it was good practice!

Hello !

I am back from my 3 days training. After living quite powerful things with 16 other individuals, the majority of which I have very positive feelings towards (but 2 or 3 persons who awakened not so nice feelings : irritation, annoyance, boredom) I needed a very powerful meditation to feel whole and myself again. So I did a 45 min guided meditation on Metta (or benevolent love). I did it latter than usual (8pm), because I slept a little after coming back home.

More details in the journal.

Peace to all of you

Ariane

(10-12-2011 11:27 PM)pollykala1970 Wrote:  Hey Celes
I have been updating my journal on the N-S pages. I just updated for days 3 & 4. I am not sure if i should post here every day to get the chart updated?

Hi pollykala! You've to fall into the daily group threads to be counted in the progress chart. Please refer to Day 0's Preparation Post, Step 3 - Point #8:

Quote:Group Progress Chart. I've created a group progress chart which tracks the meditation progress of each member - whether he/she has done the meditation for the day, and how long she did it for. Only members who report their progress in the group thread will be counted in the group progress chart. Please report your progress on the respective day's thread i.e. Day 1's progress in Day 1's group thread, Day 2's progress in Day 2's group thread, and so on..

Hope that helps, and let me know if you've any other questions about this. Also it doesn't matter if you post your updates 1 day later (just make sure it's posted in the respective day's thread). They'll be recorded accordingly onto the chart when you update via the group thread.

pollykala1970 Wrote:My day four was really interesting - 25 minutes with someone in the room. Let go of all self consciousness. Not easy but achieved. My journal tells the story. Personal drama turned in to happiness followed by meditation.

Thanks so much for the update! I've recorded your Day 4's meditation on the chart but would need your help moving forward to update the day's meditation in the respective group threads (this is Day 5's thread, so Day 5's meditation updates will be posted here, and so on.)

pollykala1970 Wrote:I wish i had found you and this amazing website a year ago! Thank you

Thank you to you!

(10-13-2011 01:55 AM)Atira Wrote:  This morning I managed to find some time to myself. I meditated in the living room when I was alone in the house and meditated for 15 minutes which is quite an achievement for me. I am not sure why I visualize things happening and see faces while I meditate. Is this common?

Everyone's meditation experience is different, so don't worry if yours seem unlike what others are reporting. On that note, it's not uncommon to be visualizing while meditating. Simply just let it be, and observe what's happening. It may well be your subconsciousness trying to share a message with you which you normally can't see/hear as you're rooted in the physical world/reality.

"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

Afternoon - 10 minutes

Used a guided breathing meditation. It was awesome. Feel very relaxed. Was amazed at how few thoughts entered my head during this time. Since I have not had the chance to meditate and practice and get rid of the clutter I thought I would be overwhelmed today. It was really nice!

10 minutes only for today; but it felt very good

Completed another 30 min of yoga in the morning today. Took a bit longer to get my thought's to calm down today but eventually they did. And I had a really great session.

Hi everyone!!!! Today I did a personal best!!! 18 minutes!!!!!! I am so excited about that!! details in my Journal: http://personalexcellence.co/forums/thre...2#pid14972

The Amazons: http://higherpotential.wordpress.com/

(10-13-2011 04:42 AM)Andria Yiasmin Wrote:  Hi everyone!!!! Today I did a personal best!!! 18 minutes!!!!!! I am so excited about that!!

Fantastic - congratulations on your personal feat, Andria!!!

"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