My newest habit, which I think will help me in every aspect of my life, is to meditate each day for ten minutes. Ten minutes where I’m not thinking about work or my dogs or money or the wedding I’m planning or anything at all. I want to think about nothing.
I’m starting with meditating two minutes each morning, and I’ll add a minute onto that for every week I go on. It will take me two months to get up to the full ten minutes. I’ll be focusing my mind on the present moment and trying to ignore any thought that comes my way. I’ll focus on my breath at first, then try to move to thinking about nothing and clearing my mind.
My trigger for this habit will be waking up in the morning. When I first open my eyes, I’ll stretch in bed and then sit on the floor to meditate, with a two minute timer set by my side. When I wake up, my initial impulse is to check my email to make sure nothing is on fire. I want to push away this impulse so I can enjoy each morning, without immediately thinking of all the things I have to do today.
I’m a couple days into this, and I am terrible at it. The two minutes fly by quickly and my mind is racing the whole time. Trying not to think about something is difficult for me, and I like to think I’m very in control of my mind. My dogs licking my face doesn’t help, but I know once I can successfully ignore that, I’ll have passed the mindfulness test.
Here’s a challenge for you: don’t think about an elephant. What are you thinking about right now?
See, it’s hard! Now excuse me while I go sit on the floor for two minutes and think about elephants.