Hello! Welcome to the second week of my meditation journey!

First off!
I am going to share my meditation experiences from last week!
My first attempt at meditation without instruction or prior research went as follows.  I set a silent timer, closed my eyes, thought, breathed and attempted to sit still! Sitting still is something I struggle with immensely! All in all I lasted about 1 minute and 38 seconds before I opened my eyes and moved on.
It was familiar and foreign at all the same time as thoughts bombarded my brain, I got distracted quiet easily and before I knew it I had opened my eyes and stopped meditating.

After that experience I switched to the app Headspace. This app offers a free basic training course that contains 10 lessons, providing both male and female voices and 3, 5, or 10 minute meditation options. I completed the first 5 lessons with the male voice on the 5 minute setting.
I had mixed results and didn’t quite know what I was hoping to achieve from this practice. Some times it made me feel incredibly anxious after being alone with my stressed out thoughts after a long day of classes. I tried it first thing in the morning and I honestly felt more prepared for the day in a mental way. I did a lesson before bed and it was effective  at slowing my mind and convincing my self I had accomplished enough to deserve a good night’s rest.
All in all these experiences practicing meditation have made me rethink some of the things I thought I knew about meditation and made me redefine some of my initial questions and their answers, as well as turn to further research!

Research question in no particular order:
-The history of Meditation?
-The origin of Meditation?
-The culture of Meditation?
-The future of Meditation?
-How one meditates?
-How long should meditate for?
-Why meditate?
-What should one expect when meditating?
-Where to meditate?
-When to meditate?
-The benefits of meditation?
What’s the optimal position for meditation?
-Common misconceptions around meditation

I have not done enough to research yet to answer all these questions, or to warrant answering some of the questions for a second time.

 Step 2: Initial research! Deepening the inquiry! 

The initial research I have I done:
-Simple google searches of the questions I have
-Continuing my process with the app Headspace
-Watching meditation videos
-Watching a meditation documentary
-Listening to meditation music

Research I am planning on doing:
-Listen to meditation podcasts
-Read a meditation book
-Read articles about meditation
-Research different about forms of meditation
-Consult friends, family and strangers

Well that’s about it for step 2. In the mean time I am going to continue my process with the app Headspace and schedule in more time for meditation and journal/reflect about my experiences.

Here is the first video I watched on mediation!

Here is Russell Brand’s guide to beginner meditation!

So far I am enjoying how unique and diverse meditation can be. There is no correct or incorrect method only different forms of meditation!

Till next week!

IROSS