What I Experienced During My 30-Day Meditation Challenge

Last Updated on June 11, 2024 by The Unbounded Thinker

N/B – I define meditation as focusing the mind on deep breaths or paying attention to the breath as it goes in and out.

Last year I meditated for 10 minutes every day for 100 days. This year, I’ve decided to meditate regularly for 25 to 45 minutes. I stopped meditating 10 minutes daily because I didn’t experience the popular benefits of meditation (inner peace, bliss, and experiencing a sense of oneness with everything).

I have, therefore, decided to meditate for 25 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. Sometimes I miss my evening meditation session. However, I ensure that I meditate for at least 20 minutes daily.

Here is a timeline of my experiences

Week 1 – 26 Jan to 1^st Feb

• I felt happy for no reason and intensely desired to watch comedy.
• I felt a little bit high again. The high I felt from semen retention returned.
• Increased mental clarity. I discovered the mistakes I make with my money.
• My concentration levels increased. I noticed this while watching a self-improvement video.

Week 2 – 2^nd Feb to 8^th Feb

• I felt very happy after a meditation session. However, the feeling subsided after an hour.
• I had an increased desire to work hard. Although I had intended to work hard this year. I found it easier to actualize this intention after the 15^th day of meditating.

Week 3 – 9th Feb to 15th Feb

• I felt that there was a space between me and my thoughts even while not meditating.
• I noticed how my mind is always noisy and how I focus on negative thoughts.
• I stopped judging negative emotions. I embraced them, knowing that they were normal human emotions.
• I noticed an increased awareness of my breathing even when not meditating.
• While meditating, I suddenly realized that it will be easier to get what we want if we only focus on it. I used to wonder why I was not progressing faster. The third week of meditation helped me realize that I mainly focus on things that don’t relate to my career. If I could have obsessively focused on my career progress, only thoughts related to my career progress could be arising in my mind. Noticing that thoughts unrelated to my career appeared during my meditation sessions showed me that I don’t think about my career – ways to boost my writing skills or reach a broad audience for my blog – most of the time.

Week 4 – 16^th Feb to 24^th Feb

• My sleep quality improved. I fell asleep quickly, and I didn’t hear church noises anymore while asleep.
• Although I still worried about the future, I became more positive as I trusted that, eventually, everything would be alright.
• I felt a sense of inner peace
• I started seeing the value of the little things I have and I noticed that the pursuit of happiness is a chase after wind.
• I had an increased desire to live in the present moment.

Conclusion

After meditating consistently for 25 to 45 minutes, I now agree that meditation is a beneficial practice we must incorporate into our daily lives. I now know that the popularized benefits of meditation are real, and I have decided to make meditation a part of my daily life.

Anyway, meditation is not fun/easy. In fact, it sometimes becomes boring and requires discipline. I meditate not because it’s fun but because I want to continue experiencing its spiritual and mental effects. I just realized that most of the things that appear boring and require discipline – exercise, celibacy, fasting, daily prayer, reading – usually have amazing benefits. They make you a better person daily and allow you to explore your human nature.

Embrace meditation. Force yourself to meditate for at least 25 minutes a day even when you don’t feel like meditating, and you will experience the mentioned benefits and many more.

Give it a shot; I promise you’ll thank me for it later.

Shalom

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