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Who do I nominate to take part in a 7-Day Meditation Challenge?

@breshepard - I nominate you because I assume that as a new mother you could really use some quiet time to honour yourself every day! You can choose your own start date... guidelines and recommended meditations are at the end of the post!

I heard about this challenge through @eco-alex and @ecoTrain, you can find the original post here!

What can YOU expect from your first 7 days of meditation?

If you've heard of meditation before but still haven't given it a try, maybe now's a great time to incorporate the practice into your life... at least for 7 days. I've been meditating on and off for years now and this challenge was a great kick-off to some major life changes I've made and although I had already started earlier in the month, this was a great way to solidify my intentions and make it more of a practice.

If this is brand new to you, it might drive your mind a little crazy at first. You might have a hard time silencing all the thoughts that are racing around in your head. This is probably the way your mind always is. That's okay, the next thing you'll probably do is judge yourself for not being able to silence all those thoughts. Notice how quick you are to judge yourself, or maybe you'll notice that you don't judge yourself so quickly? I recommend that at first you just notice the thoughts come in, and then gently release them back out. If you go down the rabbit hole with a thought, that's okay... but once you notice it's taken your attention, let it go and re-focus on your breath or on any other physical sensations in your body.

Eventually your 15 minutes will be up... and as you progress and practice this more and more, you'll start noticing that your mind is a lot quieter when you reward it with these 15 silent minutes each day. You might even find some other rewards in making this a practice!

What did I get out of this challenge?

I think the best thing that came out of this challenge was the creation of a new morning routine. I'm not a morning person and recently I've started working from home, but I'm having a hard time waking up any earlier than 9am.

I tend to have lazy, slow starts to my morning, lengthy conversations with my roommate, and many online distractions that postpone my work for the day. I end up working late into my evening in order to get all my work done. Typically I'm more creative and energetic at night, so I really want to be using the night for my own personal projects and creative endeavours, which has let me to creating this morning routine.

I now wake up at 6am, and have a 2-hour morning routine planned out so that by 8am I'll have done some of my most important personal tasks of the day, and I can start my workday. Here's a glimpse of my morning routine checklist that I created in Evernote:

This morning routine has been absolutely the best thing that ever could have happened to me! Although I may need to make minor adjustments each day, the main takeaway is that I make a conscious effort each day to honour myself first, before most of the world around me has woken up. I include 30 minutes for meditation each morning and it's such a peaceful time for me; coincidentally, my 30 meditation starts when it's still dark outside, and by the end of the 30 minutes the sun is up and the jungle songbirds have started singing - it's such a magical way to start the day!

And yes... I'm continuing on with meditating daily!

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How to join...

Challenge Guidelines

• You may choose any style of kind of meditation
• You should meditate for at least 15 minutes each day
• Post once at the end of your challenge, or every day, and tell us all how it went!
• In your post, let us know if you will continue the challenge for another week ;-)
• Your first tag should be 'meditation-challenge' so we can all find your post. You can use any other tags you like.
• Copy These Guidelines and the Recommended Meditation in your post.
• Nominate one person to do the challenge
• Please Re-Steem this post to encourage others!
• You may start this at anytime. This challenge continue indefinitely!

Recommended Meditation For Beginners

How To Start Meditating

It is best to meditate in the morning, when there are least distractions. You can meditate anywhere you like, so just choose a place that you have some privacy and quiet. If that has to be the toilet, so be it! You could even meditate in the car before you drive off to work or wherever you are going. Wherever you choose, try to mediate in the same place each day. This builds up familiarity, and also builds up the energy so that you can more easily slip into it as you practice. It's usually a good idea to use a timer to count the minutes for you, and that way you have a clear goal and will likely meditate for more than 2 minutes.

Now simply close your eyes slowly, and breath in and out as you normally do. You don't need to try to change your breath or do anything differently, but instead just observe it and notice that you are indeed breathing. Notice the weight of your body, and if you are sitting straight or not. Try to sit as straight as you can and cross your legs if possible. You can also sit on a chair if you are not comfortable on the floor, that works just fine too! Whilst you are noticing your body and posture you will no doubt have thoughts coming to your mind. Let them come. Then let them go and remind yourself that for the next 15 minutes you are going to let these thoughts go. This is your time, so tell yourself that these thoughts can wait a few minutes. Come straight back to your awareness of your breathing, and continue. New thoughts may come VERY quickly, and that is normal and totally OK. Just do the same thing each time. There is NO need to get frustrated or angry when they come, because you are not trying to stop them. You are NOT doing it wrong! What you may notice is that the time between thoughts gets longer quite naturally, or the effect of them on your feelings reduces. You MAY find quite the opposite too, and feel even more tense because you are not distracting yourself from them.

After 15 minutes are up, you can open your eyes and get on with your day. I OFTEN have some brilliant ideas pop into my head either during or just after meditating, and I don't even have to try! Even if I don't have a brainwave, I feel SO much more relaxed and able to take on the challenges of the day in a positive and productive manner.

If you want to HODL, meditate!
Have an Amazing Day!