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Amanda · 10-09-2011 10:50 AM

My Day 1 Meditation Update (Part 2: Evening/Night)

Note-> This update is written on the day after the meditation because I fell asleep :shy:

.

Meditation 2 - Sleep Meditation for Children The below is the update I made for the morning and for meditation #1 today night, and I changed whatever necessary - however you'll find the headings are the same.

What Meditation?
I did a guided meditation with a podcast on Meditation Oasis. Here's the link for the meditation if anyone wants it.

The meditation is aimed to help students/adults relax and release tension, and serves as a "mini break" for them. It is 15 minutes 30 seconds long.

Here is their "official" description:
#40 – Sleep Meditation for Children - Simple phrases to help children relax at bedtime, including a guided visualization to create a Make Believe Sleep Friend. Please listen first to make sure this meditation is suitable for your child. (Time = 15:30, last 8 mins music alone)

More details
I meditated on my bed. Here are some measures I took in case I fell asleep. Because I'm streaming audio from the computer, I let the computer to sleep (and it could still play the audio) so that it would save some electricity if I fell asleep. I switched off all lights in my room and kept everything that wasn't needed away (eg. book, revision materials).

I don't know exactly when I fell asleep, nor do I know if I fell asleep because of tiredness or the meditation.

What did I observe?
When I was still awake

, I felt light and peaceful and calm. Tension was all lifted from my arms and legs and everywhere. :dance:

Benefits

It worked!
I felt light, peaceful and calm
There wasn't any tension from anywhere on my body (as far as I can tell)

Cons

It made me sleep and the computer was on the whole night!

Barriers faced when meditating/trying to meditate
Er...nothing.

My Thoughts
This meditation is great and meditation overall is great too!

So far all them meditations I've tried are superb and great.

So, any more stuff would you like to know? I'll reply ASAP. Thanks for reading!!

~Amanda

@AngeloThanks for replying. I'll try!

@LeahYup! That's why I said I totally recommend it!

~Amanda

My Day 2 Meditation Update (Morning)

Hi all

What Meditation?
For today morning's meditation, I tried one of Meditation Room's mediation.

I did "Guide to Restoration" and chose this picture (they will instruct you to).

I purposely chose this meditation as it is a short 2 minutes 37 seconds but has a nice aim - restoring yourself.

More details
I did it on my bed with curtains closed. There was nobody around so it was (again), deadly silent.

I did the whole 2 minutes 37 seconds (but it is very short) 1h after I woke up (my disgusting habit - I have not bathed yet :shy:

)

What did I observe?
I felt at peace, but I think Meditation Oasis' meditations are better.

Benefits

I was at peace
I was calm
It helped me to focus more on whatever I'm doing

Cons

The audio was quite boring

Barriers faced when meditating/trying to meditate
Nothing.

My thoughts
So far meditation has been an essential part already. Without meditating I feel lost and tense and unsure.

After meditating I feel so confident of myself and can do whatever I want with confidence.

Most probably, I'll be meditating after 21DMC and if possible, continue using this journal (except I won't update so specifically and everyday.)

And also, I've noticed that since Day 1's morning meditation, I haven't had any barriers when trying to meditate/meditating!
Anything to ask? I'll reply ASAP.

~Amanda

Amanda · 10-09-2011 06:44 PM

My Day 2 Meditation Update (Afternoon)

My afternoon session (special, surprise one) was great! It lasted 7min 23 seconds (I timed myself). (So in total for today it will be 10 minutes, so far - I will do another meditation later in the evening)

The session was to prepare for tomorrow pre-exam meditation (I will write down my meditation details on a notebook after the exam, then transfer it here) - a self-meditation.

I tried to pretend that after the meditation, I had to sit for a paper. Thus, I tried to relax myself so that I would be calm during the paper. I focused on my breathing and tried to release the tension in my body.

I won't go into details (as I'm kinda in a rush for time, this is just a quick update) but I'd safely say it was a great self-meditation.

~Amanda

My plan for the evening is:

Breath in the Heart by Meditation Oasis (16 minutes 45 seconds)
Self-meditation (3 minutes 15 seconds)

Ariane · 10-09-2011 09:16 PM

Hi Amanda,

It's great that the meditation helped you in your revision. I wish I had known how to meditate when I was a student it would have saved me a lot of anguished nights.

I relate to what Angelo says : when you hear a noise you just acknowledge it without judging, exactly like your thoughts.
One day, one of my cats sat on my lap while I was meditating; I did not move, I just thought : "oh the cat is here". Anyway she might have sensed that I needed peace, because she sat on the arm of the armchair and stayed there until my meditaiton was finished. It was really cute :love:

Amanda · 10-09-2011 10:40 PM

Your cat sounds so cute. :heart:

And yeah, meditation really helped. And tomorrow's my exam!!!

Okay, my plan for tomorrow morning (on the way to school) is to play a guided meditation I have downloaded (http://elearning.batc.edu/Test%20Anxiety/index.html, first one on the list).

It is 11 minutes long.

Okay, I hope I do my exam well!! It's Chinese (my worst subject), to add to it...

My Day 2 Meditation Update (Night)

Before meditation: Hey this is me before meditation.

I'm doing "Breath in the Heart" by Meditation Oasis (link in one of my previous posts) for 16 minutes 45 seconds and 3 minutes 15 seconds of self-meditation. My room, again, is deadly silent and I doubt there will be any cons and any barriers faced. So, here I go. Ten minutes later, I will update this post.

After meditation
Hi! I feel so relaxed now! Okay, for now I'll split this into 2 parts: (1) Guided Meditation (2) Self Meditation

(1) Guided Meditation
My first instinct when the speaker said "as if the heart was breathing", I was like, "WHAT??"

But I put that "biasness" away and just did it. It was definitely working, I thought 5 minutes later. My heart seemed to control my whole body as when my heart seemed "calmer", my whole body also felt calmer. It is great.

Unlike what I thought, one barrier faced was that my dog was barking (in my room). She's a loud dog... Anyway, I tried to put the sound of the dog into my meditation, but it seemed to distract me. Sigh...

But there were no cons.

(2) Self meditation
The best meditation ever!! Even though it is a mere 3 minutes 15 seconds...

I sat on my bed and leaned back on my pillows. I then decided to split this time into two parts (a) 1 minute 15 seconds -> empty my mind (b) 2 minutes -> study affirmations (for tomorrow's exam).

The splitting worked perfectly!

(a) I emptied my mind. It was quite an easy task to do since I didn't have much thoughts running through. :dance:

After that, I just focused on my breathing, and ignored thoughts that passed regarding tomorrow's examinations.

(b) I imagined a lot of things:

I imagined myself doing the examination with confidence.
I imagined myself checking my paper 3 times to eliminate all those tiny careless mistakes.
I imagined myself checking it again just to make sure.
I imagined my teacher walking down the aisles collecting the paper.
I imagined myself preparing for the next examination the following three days.
I imagined myself doing everything I imagined again for every paper.
I imagined myself being happy and satisfied with myself.
I imagined getting back my paper and got a very high mark.
I imagined rewarding myself.
I imagined myself being in a state of calm.

It was a fantastic imagination session. Totally great for a mere 2 minutes.

I realised: be independent with meditation.

~Amanda

Ariane · 10-10-2011 01:05 AM

Great Amanda ! Meditation seems to be the right thing for you at the moment.
Good luck with the exams !

Ish · 10-10-2011 03:34 AM

Hey Amanda, you're doing great with the meditation practice.
Good luck for the exams

Amanda · 10-10-2011 04:04 PM

Thanks Ish and Ariane!

Update on Chinese exam (today) -> Quite easy, expect to get around 44/60

~Amanda

Hi everyone (again), here's a note: I will be posting my meditation sessions on a Google Docs, so that I can edit it from my com and laptop and without constantly saving it.

Click here to view it for anyone who wants it (more details provided there).

I only let people to view it, so if you have any comments just post it here (this is so to prevent nuisance people from comment there.

~Amanda

Amanda · 10-11-2011 05:09 PM

My Day 3 Meditation Update

Hi, this is my day 3 update - I fell asleep right after meditating and went to school this morning, followed by 2h of Math studying when I finally decided to take a break.

---
I've completed everything I planned to do (visit My Meditation Plans, link in the above post) so it adds up to a total of 52 minutes. :dance:

But I'm just going to talk in general here since if I do all 5 parts specifically, it's gonna take a long post and a long time.

Anyway, here is my update...
---
What Meditation?
Visit My Meditation Plans (link in above post) for the details.

More details
I meditated on my bed. This time I put the songs onto my MP3 player. I put the volume at an all-right volume so that it would sound relaxing but not booming.

Benefits

I felt very calm and relaxed
It was very peaceful
I managed to "accomplish" my "Why?" (aim)
It was fun and not boring at all.

Cons

Er...nothing?

Barriers faced when meditating/trying to meditate
Well, (at first,) I kept thinking that the meditation was wasting my time (but it isn't - I know I knew it deep down) and I'd better start revising. What I did was that I just told myself that I would be able to accomplish more if I meditate. And it kinda worked. That irritating voice

started to quieten down and I managed to complete my meditation.

My Thoughts
Another great day of meditation! Will be very happy to continue 21DMC!

So, any more stuff would you like to know? I'll reply ASAP. Thanks for reading!!

~Amanda

~Eleven October, Day 4~

Today, I have basically used the same plan as yesterday since there’s exam tomorrow as well, and I found the plan very helpful for me. However for Night (Part 2) I have added an extra 10 minutes - from 7 minutes 3 seconds to 17 minutes 3 seconds. Visit My Meditation Plans for more info.

Amanda · 10-14-2011 07:33 PM

Hi everyone. As part of my goal not to use too much computer, I've decided to write down my meditation stuff instead of updating it on the forums everyday. I'll only be updating this every few days with a brief update (again as part of my goal).

My Day 4 Meditation Update

Managed to complete the planned 62 minutes. No barriers, no cons. Benefits: as usual, I felt calm and relaxed and at peace.

My Day 5 Meditation Update

Managed to complete my planned 60 minutes (I won't update what exactly it is, but I'm not lying :happy:

)

My Day 6 Meditation Update

Managed a shorter 30 minutes meditation.

My Day 7 Meditation Update

Will not do any night meditation tonight - but have done 1h of meditation already.

My Day 8 Meditation Plan

30 minutes morning meditation, may be guided or self, not too sure yet
30 minutes afternoon meditation (self)
30 minutes guided mediation

So if everything goes smoothly tomorrow, it will be a record breaking (for me at least) 90 minutes (i.e. 1.5h).

~Amanda

Amanda · 10-15-2011 10:42 PM

Hi everyone!

My Day 8 Meditation Update

Managed to do everything I've planned, except I did all self meditation.

It was an eye-opening experience.

I've learnt more today (about myself) than any other.

Anyway, I've been thinking of doing 2h for the coming Mon-Thu, because I am very free during that period, what with my exams completed ( :dance:

) and no school for those days due to marking of PSLE papers.

I'll update in due time.

By the way, pleasure updating my meditation sessions for this week!

~Amanda

Amanda · 10-17-2011 04:54 PM

My Day 9 Meditation Update

Hi everyone!

Okay, today I've got a lot of free time (and I emphasise on a lot) since there's no school (and consequently till Thu), so I'll be doing a more detailed description of yesterday's meditation session.

Yup, session...I only managed to catch one session since it was a quite hectic Sunday. It was in the morning. I faked that I was sleeping; I stayed in my room and did it. :dance:

At least it's better than nothing. Great thing is that I managed a whole hour!!!

Anyway, I did a self-meditation (I've sort of learnt to be more independent in meditation already) because so far the results when I do self-meditation totally overrules the ones where I do guided meditation.

And yesterday was no surprise.

In my offline meditation journal, the cons page was left empty (again).
The benefits page? Quite full. Just to name three most important, or unique ones (that wasn't experienced before):

I managed to focus more on writing my articles (for my new blog)
I managed to tolerate my brother for the whole day. That means no verbal fighting (yeah, I verbal-fight my brother many times, and most of the time I win!! )
I managed to stay calm when my computer crashed and my hard work was gone; usually I'd freak out!!

There was no barriers as my parents thought I was asleep (and I jolly well was going to be, I was almost falling asleep again!) and didn't disturb me.

(A great trick, I realised!)

I've found I've cultivated a strong :heart:

towards meditation. It's almost being a part of me already! :angel:

My Day 10 Meditation Plan

Morning - 30 minutes
Afternoon - 30 minutes
Evening - 30 minutes
Night - 30 minutes

Evening means before dinner, around 6.30PM and night means after dinner, and rest, so possibly about 9PM

Completed
(Will update when I've finished my last two sessions)

Morning - 30 minutes
Afternoon - 30 minutes
Evening - 30 minutes
Night - 45 minutes

~Amanda

Apu · 10-18-2011 10:35 PM

Hey Amanda,

Your thread inspires me immensely!To me, your thread and writing does not seem like from a 10 year old at all! Your writing seems much more mature

.

Bye and thanks :heart:

-Monisha

Amanda · 10-18-2011 11:18 PM

Oops. (I just keep forgetting people's names.

So on forums I just use their usernames. Will make it a point to remember everyone at PE though...(gonna be a feat to me)...)

Anyway Monisha, you're flattering me.

(Yeah, and I'm creating a book now, with 2 other friends for a competition).

And...np.

~Amanda

Apu · 10-18-2011 11:59 PM

(10-18-2011 11:18 PM)Amanda Wrote: Oops. (I just keep forgetting people's names. So on forums I just use their usernames. Will make it a point to remember everyone at PE though...(gonna be a feat to me)...)

Anyway Monisha, you're flattering me. (Yeah, and I'm creating a book now, with 2 other friends for a competition).

And...np.

~Amanda

Wow, you are going to create a book. What is that book going to be on?

And thanks for your reply on my thread :hug:

Sure, tomorrow I am planning to make it a task for 2 hours and fifteen minutes now that you told me

Much love

Amanda · 10-21-2011 07:08 PM

Hi everyone! Okay, it's pretty obvious I've been keeping myself busy

I've done 2h for everyday, from Day 11-14 (today). It's a constant rate since I purposely planned it.

Anyway, Monisha - it's a book on divorce, inspired from one of my friends (also the author of this book) whose parents are divorced and aimed to help young children who are in the same situation as her (my friend) to live strongly.

~Amanda

Apu · 10-22-2011 11:12 PM

(10-21-2011 07:08 PM)Amanda Wrote: Anyway, Monisha - it's a book on divorce, inspired from one of my friends (also the author of this book) whose parents are divorced and aimed to help young children who are in the same situation as her (my friend) to live strongly.

~Amanda

Aww.....That is such a wonderful idea for the book!

You're really sweet! :hug:

-Monisha

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