Category: Free Inquiry

Week number 7 of meditation!

This will be my final meditation post! I have learned a lot about myself through meditation. Let me share what I am comfortable revealing.

First off meditation can be a roller coaster! Some days it caused my heart rate to increase from 72bpm to 112bpm (all measurements taken from/by my fitbit watch). and other sessions I saw a decrease in heart rate. Meditation either amplified what ever I was feeling that moment or dampen what ever I was feeling, I don’t know if that was just the amount of will power that day or my stress levels.

Meditating early in the morning was a dangerous move for me! I am happy I have alarms set for when my classes start because there was a couple mornings I fell asleep while meditating and woke up almost late for my first class!

My perception of time feels broken! I have had 5minute meditation sessions that felt eternal and 10 minute ones that felt like a blink of the eyes.

What I did concretely learn was that meditation was a good way for me transition activities. Especially when I wasn’t looking forward to my next task. Once I meditated I always felt more accepting of what was about to come!

I also learned that I have no best position to meditate in. Somedays the sitting on the couch or chair felt best and other days it was laying on the floor eyes on the ceiling.

Tomorrow I will be posting a video of my meditating!

Thank you for following my Free Inquiry Project on meditation.

I hope you all enjoyed.

Till who knows when,

IROSS

Hey there! Here we go again with some more meditation!

Week 6 is about updating my plan. Now normally I was meditating and following the schedule that was posted in week 4 but over time I found myself having quick meditation sessions outside those timeslots.

I decided I would write down and acknowledge my  random meditation sessions. I found myself having the odd meditation session laying in bed before going to sleep. Meditating before some of my physical activity sessions when I wasn’t particularly feeling amped up and really needed a moment to gather the motivation to push myself. Surprisingly enough  I even had the odd meditation session before commencing to work on some of my assignments or chores.

Some days they were just a quick 1 minute before getting out of the house or out of the car. I just attempted to acknowledge all the times I felt taking a moment to breath would be beneficial.

Till next time,

IROSS

Hello and Welcome to week 5 of my Meditation Journey!

Week 5 is about assessment.

Week is 5 is all about assessment! Assessing my meditation progress, assessing my free inquiry process! Assess, assess, and reflect! Reflections coming in a future blog post near you!

Assessing meditation sessions qualitatively! As we all know and remember qualitatively is being described with descriptors and quantitatively means being described with numbers! Now we all know meditation is about the process and not the result. Or at least that’s how I view meditation!

Now I choose to assess my meditation sessions this way because I thought it would be too time consuming and difficult to break down my meditation sessions into numbers and I am meditating to get in touch with myself not stress myself out. Just like my planning I kept meditation extremely simple as I did not want to create any reason for me to avoid meditating or make it some what of a chore.
The way I have been assessing my mediation has been assessing my mood or mental state before and after I meditate. I will be using 3 categories for describing mood, Neutral, Positive and Negative. 

Meditating with expectation can throw off the process. It is more process orientated than goal oriented.

I will honestly save I experienced every combination. Some days I was feeling blissfully ignorant and meditation brought reality crashing in and some times I was feeling irrationally negative and meditation helped me see the positive. Many days there was no change what so ever.

Till next time,

IROSS

Welcome to Week 4 of my Meditation Journey!

Week 4 is about planning! This is where I share and explain my thought process on how I have planned out my meditation schedule.

I decided to keep it very simple, as I would not want to stress or beat myself up over meditation because I feel that would be very counterproductive!
I will be aiming to meditate for 5 minutes 0-30minutes before my first class and for 5 minutes 0-30 minutes after my last class.

As you can see now I do not have class on Friday!

I think meditation should be easy! So I kept it fairly easy on my self to commit to this schedule. This schedule might be subject to future changes!

Till next time,

IROSS

Welcome to week 3 of my meditation journey!

Week 3 is about refining. Through meditation I have learned many interesting things about myself and that learning has brought me to my next question.

Why shouldn’t I meditate?
-Are there any reasons I shouldn’t meditate?
-Is there a pros and cons list to meditation?

Sometimes its hard to turn off the head. Sometimes I think it’s easier not to think about certain things while I am not feeling my best and other times I think that IS the time to think about those things. Sometimes my meditation becomes a mental bullying session and other times the exact opposite!
Still figuring this stuff out but either way I am happy to have a head of full of thoughts.

Till next time,

IROSS

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

Hello there! Welcome to the start of my Free Inquiry Project on Meditation!

Step 1: Starting

Why I chose Meditation!
I have always been curious about meditation, whether it was a person seeking enlightenment, gathering their mind and consciousness, or tolerating the extremes such as thinking under the torrent of a waterfall!
I believe meditation to be COOL! An ancient practice of diving deeper into your own mind!

What is Meditation? (My initial  viewpoint before any research!)
Meditation is….. Well…. I don’t know really know. I have always thought it to be some sort of mental training.  A work out for your brain. A tool to become in tune with yourself.

What I currently know/believe about Meditation. (Or what I believe about meditation, high possibility I believe in some misconceptions about meditation).
-Location:
I know that meditation can be practiced anywhere! In the mountains, forests, beaches, desserts, basements, bedrooms, backseat of a car, or even in the classroom, where ever you can be you can meditate!
-Time: 
I believe you can practice  meditation at any time or any age, in any mood! Whether you want to practice under the moon and stars or with the sun beating down on you, you can do it all the same.
-What are the results of Meditation are: 
This is where I think I will find out what misconceptions I have about meditation. I believe meditation can calm oneself, reach a state of bliss, relax, recharge the mind, focus, access deep thought, relive past memories, come to terms with trauma and emotional turmoil, achieve inner peace and the ability control your perception of time while in the act of meditating.
-How one meditates:
I believe meditation to be:
Eyes closed, Staying still, Breathing, Thinking
(Simple and accessible)
-How long one should meditate for:
This one I have no idea about! Until you feel something? Minutes? Hours? Months? Years? I am sure any length of time is better than not practicing at all.

Why Meditate:
Plain and simple I believe people meditate because it makes them feel good!

Where do I start with Meditation!? 
Okay! So where do I begin? Do I just close my eyes and go for it? Read a whole book? Watch a video, movie or documentary? Listen to a podcast? Download an app?

Okay! Those are some questions I have about meditation before really getting into the learning the process! I have more questions that popped up into the back of my mind while writing this post and those were:
The history of Meditation?
The origin of Meditation?
The culture of Meditation?
The future of Meditation?
I think I will tackle these questions throughout my Meditation journey.

For now I am going to start with trying to practice what I already know!
Setting a timer and seeing how long I can meditate for, and then reflecting upon the experience. Afterwards I am going to download a free app called Headspace and commence their first lesson!