8 Week Meditation Challenge: Week 2

This Week’s Meditation Breakdown:

This week I spiced things up by adding in some meditations I found on YouTube! I’ll include links to the meditations I used outside of the calm app.

Day 1: Open to Receive 15 Minute Meditation
Before: I’m feeling pretty good today! 
After: This was a nice meditation to try. I’ve always enjoyed this YouTube channel so I’m excited to work some of their meditations in to my routine again.

Day 2: Calm Light – 15 minutes
Before: I’ve had some anxiety sparking up again
After: I had a very difficult time focusing on this one. I’ll try a meditation with more guidance tomorrow

Day 3: Loving-Kindness 15 minute meditation
Before: 
Still dealing with some anxiety
After: The added guidance was really helpful! Still had some trouble with focusing but I feel a little bit better today.

Day 4: Deep Sleep Release, 15 minutes
Before: I almost forgot to meditate again, so I’m grateful I remembered this time
After: I’m so glad to have this as an option, but I fall asleep pretty quickly when I use these

Day 5: Deep Sleep Release, 15 minutes
Before: 
I was having trouble falling asleep
After: I passed out again too early to be able to tell

Day 6: Calm Light – 15 minutes
Before: I’m dealing with some light anxiety due to some lawsuit stuff. 
After: Glad I did this, hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Day 7: 15 Minute Energy Cleanse
Before: 
Anxiety is worse today. 
After: This helped calm me down quite a bit

How the Second Week Went

First of all – happy Thanksgiving! I’ve already done the first meditation for week 3 as I write this, so I’m pretty happy to have the day started on a promising note. I am unfortunately dealing with a bit of a pain flare, so I was able to explore some different options with how I position my body while meditating. More on this next week!

The last 7 days started out strong, but admittedly I’ve let external factors affect the quality of my meditation. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing, however. 

The fact that I’m sticking to my meditation goal is the most important thing here. It’s a practice for a reason – and I’m certainly practicing! It’s going to take some time to build the anxiety-reducing coping skills meditation is known for.

At the moment, I’m taking the fact that I remembered to meditate every single day as a HUGE win! 

My goal for next week? Well, I’m starting 20 minute meditations! So I’ll focus on dedicating that extra 5 minutes of time. I’m optimistic I’ll also remember every day without having to rely on a sleep meditation, but if it happens, that’s ok too! 

Here’s to another week dedicated to mental wellness!

With Love,