Better Me In 30 Day #10 – A Fail In Meditation

Anyone that knows me will tell you my mind is running constantly.  Worrying about the "what ifs" and the "what nexts."  Trying to have an "empty mind" was extremely difficult for me.

When Keke told us to meditate for 60 minutes, I didn't know where to start...so I started where everyone else that's clueless about something starts - the internet.

Most of the how-to sites I came across said that it would be extremely difficult for beginners to meditate for more than a minute or two at a time so I chose a technique that I thought would work best for me.  It was called "Concentration Meditation."  It's a type of meditation where you're supposed control your breath and focus on a single word or mantra.  This keeps lets all your other wandering thoughts melt off.

I do a lot of silly mantras like "Billy goat. Up you go.  Billy goat.  On your toes.  Billy goat. Billy goat, go go go" or "long, lean, forward" while I'm running.  They really make no sense when you see those words outside my head but they keep me focused on making it over a hill or kicking it in and the end of a long run.  I thought my success with mantra running would translate into meditation.

Not so much...I fell asleep in the middle of my living room for the next 55 minutes. Meditation in theory?  Awesome.  In practice when you're usually exhausted? Not so practical.