I want to add meditation to my daily routine as I have read so many positive things about it. I have tried several times over the last 2 years but it has never really worked for me. I seem to be able to get a routine going for a few weeks but then lose interest. This time, though “it will be different, I know it!”  This is what I tell myself. So once again I will give it a shot. I truly do believe that it has many benefits, but they must be subtle and I just haven’t noticed. I have seen this with other things, such as running. I had tried several times over the years to start running. I would set up a 3-4 day a week schedule, buy the shoes and heart rate monitor and then give it a shot. I would get to the point where I could run a mile or so…without walking! Pretty good for me, but then I wouldn’t see any progress for months..or at least I didn’t think there was any progress?? You see, I ended up getting a free app from Strava that could record my runs that showed me there was improvement. I would run the same route most of the time and the app would give me the times,compare it to other runs and I could see the improvement. So simple, duh, I should have done this before! I would see very small incremental improvements on this app., that I wasn’t able to feel.  This gave me hope, I was improving, slowly but it didn’t matter, as long as I was going the right direction, I was motivated to keep going. I still run 1-3 days per week and maintain my ability to do 3-5 miles without too much trouble.
So now back to meditation, how can I measure it so I know there are some results? Or at least know I am having some slight improvements? So that will be my challenge, to look for a way to measure my results. In the meantime I am starting a meditation routine again so I can at least be in the habit of meditating. My hope is two-fold:
1. That I can create a habit by continually taking 5-10 minutes a day to silently meditate.
2. That I can find or create a way to measure my results.
I am making a post out of this as I think it may help me continue even when I get discouraged or frustrated. Look for posts in the coming months telling you about the success I am having and the way I found to measure my progress.