It is pretty much mania at work just now. Particularly today, now that my boss has gone on maternity leave, one of the guys is on leave to go skiing for a week, and the last member of my team is, well, not here. That makes me the whole academic team (I work for a university). It's been really fun. Really.
So I have taken up the first of my challenges today. According to Jacob, I am required to "meditate for a minimum of 10 minutes a day", so I decided to take a dedicated 'time out' out of working day to try and do that.
Yeah, that worked out well.
Lesson 1: Meditation is hard. What's up with that? Isn't it just sitting with your legs crossed and thinking of nothing? Climbing into the void? Swimming in the colours?
I went up to the rooftop level, empty of students, and sat on a table in the sun, eyes closed, back straight, breathing slow. The sun's warmth on my skin was a welcome visitor. I heard the vents humming. I heard the crane beeping. Then I remembered there was a camera on the roof and thought of the guys in security watching me. A siren wailed from down on the street. I wondered if my timer was working. I fiddled with my phone for a bit to check.
So. I did ok for what I figured to be around 8 minutes, but ultimately I tried and failed on Day 1. That's ok. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I like that this is something I have to unexpectedly learn, and not just immediately be able to do.
I expect this will also come in handy when trying to switch off the notion of how I'm going to complete everything else on my list... which I will post as a separate page shortly.
The trick with meditation, so far as I can tell, is to not try to think of NOTHING, as that's pretty damn hard. It's trying to think of just one thing. Focus in on one thought or idea - it could be the sound of those vents, or the warmth of the sun, or whatever - and let all the other thoughts slip around that. If you can manage that, you might suddenly find those ten minutes turned into half an hour.
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