S2 E7: I Broke my Record! - The 1 Hour Meditation Challenge Enter My Shoes Podcast

5 Myths of meditation debunked:
Debunking the 5 Most Common Meditation Myths | Light Watkins | TEDxVeniceBeach

- I finally did it, I meditated for 1 hour.
- Okay, I have to take an honest look at that statement and say. It doesn't matter how long you meditate for because what really matters more than the length of time is that you are tapping into an energy that makes you feel renewed and you experience true love/peace. I'm sure there are people that can get into that deep state of calm and detach from their thoughts within seconds if that wanted to from doing this practice for long and determining their base level. I'll get into that in a moment.
- Now let's talk about meditation, something that I haven't been doing for an extremely long time. But it has been very helpful for balancing out my mood for a day and also teaching me how to be more focused. It's one of those things that I can't fully explain and I'm sure there's some science to back it up, but I am just going to talk from my experience. For me, it's acts like a base-line. I know what zero feel like, of what a calmness of the mind feels like. I'm going to put a link to this video in the description, but this guy named Light Watkins dispels a couple of misconceptions about meditation and cover some of the things I am about to say. 

- Can make you feel younger, 

- Meditation gives me that focus to find the beauty in the world, like a child almost.
- focus on the breath - people believe this can heal a lot of ailments
- No wrong way, beauty of it is what is meaningful to you. That goes with tapping into your own self. So if it's having candles and incense and being at the top of a mountain, etc. then that might be what you need. I'm more of a minimalist and want to be able to learn how to do this anywhere - life should be a meditation. This helps prevent you from cutting your finger when chopping food, burning your hand on the curling iron or the kitchen oven, accidentally running a red light or stop sign. Ultimately, decluttering your mind, providing focus and appreciating/tapping into the world around us.

Now the big question how did I meditate for 1 hour and what did I learn?

HOW:
- Started with 2 mins, worked to 5, then 10, then 15, then 20, then 30, then 40. And then today, it's a Saturday I wanted to push for 1 hour.
- Like to sit in a chair so don't fall asleep

LEARNED:
- Like with any meditation once you get past the chatter of your mind where you think from one idea to the next and say to my brain sucks that you thought about this idea now mind because there is nothing we can do about it. Don't want to break the meditation for one idea that might be holding me back from another. It usually takes me about 5-7 minutes to get through this clatter and get into this agreement with my mind that I made a commitment to this time and I am sticking to it. And then that relaxes me- Feel different sensations: body can feel warm, might feel heaviness in stomach so have to like breath it away,
- Listening to the world around you, birds, cars driving by

- Come back to breath and looking at the light behind your eye lids - sometimes like to imagine it all around my body
- Ultimately, meditation is a gift to yourself, able to quiet the body and the mind and be at peace