Will You Join Us For The Meditation Challenge?

Anyone who already meditates on a regular basis can testify to the powerful and wide range of effects and benefits that they get from it. These days meditation is starting to gain traction in mainstream media, and we are seeing meditation being taught in schools, even in Europe and USA. Many of us make important decisions every day whilst leading stressful lives. It is often when we are feeling fearful or under stress that we make bad decisions, and are unproductive and inefficient.

What better challenge could we have here on Steemit than a meditation challenge!? This challenge is for everyone, whether you have never meditated before, or you used to meditate but haven't in a while, or even if you do meditate regularly. I hope you will join us in this opporunity to make your day and the world even better!

The @ecoTrain will also be participating in this challenge, and we will be kicking things off starting on Sunday 21st Jan. Therefore we will start posting our experiences starting on Sunday 28th Jan. Are you ready for the details! !?

The Meditation / Chant Challenge. Meditate for at least 15 minutes every day for one week and write about your experience...

The challenge is very simple. Set aside 15 minutes each day to meditate as described below or using any method you like, and then carry on with your day! At the end of the day or whenever you feel, write a little bit about your experiences. Then 7 days after you start please post your experiences along with anything else you would like to say or add around the subject of meditation. You can start whenever you like, so we can have a continuous feed of people who do try it, and we can all be inspired by each other!

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!