The thing that is so helpful to me about these challenges is the format of it all. There is a clear goal: practice meditation for 21 days, 3 weeks. I can do that. This time the 3 weeks really sped by. Last year, when I did my first challenge, I got really antsy somewhere in the middle of it. For some reason, that didn't happen at all during this challenge. Also, there were less days where I felt antsy during the actual meditation itself. I appreciate the format of each day's meditation: I get an email each morning with a message about the day's focus and a link to the pre-recorded meditation. I follow the link, login, press play, and the recording begins. Oprah says hello, Deepak says hello and talks about the day's centering thought, and provides a Sanskrit mantra to repeat silently when my mind starts to stray. And continues to stray. The routine of it is lovely. The first week I sat silently, stretched during the introduction and usually followed the meditation with a home yoga practice. During the last two weeks, I multi-tasked: brushing my teeth or making my bed during the intro, sitting down for the meditation, and not taking any time for yoga afterwards. I don't feel great about this. There were also several days when I'd take a shower, then put my little Monk in the bubble bath, and settle in on a cushion in the bathroom doorway where I could listen to my recording and keep enough awareness with him so that he'd be safe in the tub. Every time, EVERY time, the Bear would be perfectly content in his bath during the intro. and as soon as the actual meditation time would start he'd climb out of the tub and want to join me. So, there were several days where I "meditated" with a naked toddler chattering in my face, climbing on my lap, and playing around and on me. But, I'm still "counting" these as meditations. This is my life. This is the reality of my life. And I am falling deeper and deeper in Love with my life as it is each day.
