Suggested reading from Bliss More:
Chapter 1: Get Comfortable (Chapter 5 in the audio) (3 mins)
Chapter 1: It's Not About the Ommmm (5 mins)
Debunking the Myths
Most people assume that in order to be good at meditation, you have to act and live like a monk. In other words, they assume that all successful meditators are soft spoken, never curse or eat meat, that they are calm, and able to sit like a pretzel for long stretches of time. But this is not the case at all...
What a successful daily meditator looks like
The great thing about meditation is you can be you and still be successful. You don't have to give up your lifestyle or job in order to benefit from meditation. Here are a list of famous regular people who happen to be daily meditators:
Jerry Seinfeld
David Lynch
Oprah
Howard Stern
Jim Carrey
Did you recognize any monks on that list? Nope, because there weren't any.
Normal-people situations that are often mistaken as obstacles to meditation
Smoking
Eating meat
Being a parent
Living in a noisy environment
Having a demanding job or two
Being unable to sit still for very long
Being unable to cross your legs
Being unable to sit with your back straight
Today's Challenge:
Embrace being a normal person
You have a busy mind. So what? You live in a noisy environment. What else is new? You probably sit at a desk or in a car for a good amount of time each week, which means sitting on the floor is not comfortable for you. Perfect, because the good news is none of these are obstacles to your meditation!
In your practice today, you're going to meditate for 10-minutes, eyes closed, and relish in your normalness. Here are your instructions:
Get comfortable (but no lying down)
Set a soft alarm for 10 minutes
Close your eyes
And let your busy mind rip! Let it go wherever it goes—normal thoughts and all—with no judgement (kids, work, conversations, etc). Let the noise be like music to your ears. No resistance whatsoever...
Stay as relaxed as possible
When the alarm goes off, you're done
Assessment
You still don't have a lot of structure in the practice, so at this point you're successful simply by making the time for your meditation. This is two days in a row that you've been meditating. One more day, and you can officially call yourself a "meditator." Many of the difficulties we experience in meditation arise from the mentality that we're not fit to meditate because of our normal busy lifestyle. When we reframe that misguided belief, our experiences will become easier and easier. How did you do?
Accountability Exercise
Post a photo of something that represents your real life—something that's ideally unique to you—and post it on your social media, with a caption about how it can exist in tandem with your meditation. Make sure to tag #blissmore and #blissmorechallenge so we can follow your progress.
Sample accountability post
Day two of the Bliss More meditation challenge! This is a photo of where I write music/poetry, which is a huge part of my life. Being creative can be challenging when I sit down to meditate because my mind starts running with ideas that I want to write down. Excited to learn how I can work on this through this challenge. #blissmore #blissmorechallenge
Wanna get a head start on tomorrow's reading?
Read the rest of chapter 1 (10 mins)
(Follow #blissmore to see everyone’s progress)