When I read about mediation, the practice ends up sounding like the be-all and end-all for decreasing stress and adding happiness into people’s lives. To test this statement I decided to meditate every day for a week.
I was a perfect candidate for this experiment because I’m not only a huge worrywart, but I have very little experience in the field of mediation.
The experience
My first few sessions were at 9 p.m. On the first try, I sat in the traditional cross-legged position and experienced discomfort, so I switched to lying down on the couch for the rest of the week.
I found it very hard to lay to still for 30 minutes, so I decided my sessions would only be 15 minutes.
I also tried using guided tutorials. Each tutorial was 10 minutes long and helped me focus on my breathing.
The tutorials were helpful to me, and so was discovering that 10 minutes was really a better length for my sessions.
My last two mediation sessions were the best. After both of them, I felt like actually doing homework and reading a novel for fun.
Also, on both of those days I fell asleep before 11, something that doesn’t happen very often.
Did it work?
During the first few sessions I was feeling very anxious about school the next day.
The 30-minute meditations made this feeling worse. I was constantly thinking about something, no matter how hard I tried to relax. The shorter the mediation sessions, the better I felt.
What did I learn?
People meditate for a variety of reasons, whether it be to reduce stress, relax and unwind from a busy day or both.
I started my mediation sessions because I had to, but I will continue them because I want to.
Meditation is actually not BS, like I thought before. The first few sessions were hard for me, but by the end of my experiment I definitely felt better and less stressed.