30 Days of Meditation: Anatomy of a Yoga Challenge. Day 2

Spacious. That is the word that keeps coming up for me. I feel more spacious. In my body, in my breath, in my mind. "I feel present, at ease, and stronger somehow. My body more spacious and prepared". These are the words I scrawled in my journal today. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

For day 2 of guided meditation I decided to sit for practice (if you read yesterday's post you might remember I laid down - baby steps). The theme remains Anamaya Kosha. In fact, the meditation is the same all week long. This gave me a sense of familiarity that I was not expecting. I immediately felt more alert, yet still soft and relaxed. I used plenty of cushions to support my sitting bones, low back and knees. While I found I did not need the support of the wall today, I sat in close proximity, just in case.

As is usually the case for me, I dropped into breath and body pretty easily. I felt very connected in my mind, yet I kept being drawn into thought. More accurately I was drawn toward ideas. I often find that when my mind is supposed to be blank, that my most creative thoughts show up. In an effort to be good at meditation, I push the thoughts away and come back to my anchor, only to feel frustration later when I cannot remember all of my brilliant ideas! :) So after today's practice I added free thought journaling. This is when I set a timer for 5 minutes (you can use any amount of time), and let the word flow from my mind to the paper. The words do not need to make sense, and it shouldn't hurt your brain to get them out.

I began, as usual, by writing down one or two words. Today I chose the words meditation reflections. Not terribly creative I know, but as I mentioned I had already forgotten all of my good ideas. Anyway, it got the job done. I began writing words that described how I was feeling. Those words began to form sentences, and before long the ideas that my brain was straining to remember came flowing from my consciousness onto the pages of my journal. After my timer chimed, I finished with a round of gratitude journaling. This too can be short and sweet, or maybe today you feel the call to fill many lines of the paper. Let your gratitude flow! Once complete, I read through and identified any words and ideas that stood out. Then I took a moment to contemplate the words (mini meditation?). The ideas will get written down into a separate notebook that I have labeled Ideas, Inspirations & Collaborations. This allows me the freedom not to act on the ideas right away, but to let them marinate and develop into something, or nothing. It really doesn't matter. The ideas are out released, and there is no pressure to act on them immediately. As for the words for contemplation, they land as an imprint on my consciousness, perhaps to guide me through my day. And I am left feeling spacious.

Additional words from my journaling: stability. awareness. restlessness. frustration. clear. habit. enlightened. journey. grateful.