Day 14

Today has been crazy! I have a ton of homework and I won't get home until 9:30 tonight! So, I have had to meditate in small sections throughout the day. I meditated for about 5 minutes this morning, 10 at lunch and I just finished meditating for 10 minutes in the car on the way to Subway for a quick dinner.


Even though it is not ideal, meditating in small segments still has the same effect that a long meditation has on me. I still feel calmer after each session and my productivity is still excellent. It is a relief to know that on crazy days I can still meditate and attain benefits while maintaining a hectic schedule.

Day 13

Today I had three tests to study for so I meditated right before I began to study in hopes that it would increase my awareness. Instead of focusing on my breathing like I normally do, I focused on an image in my mind of myself studying in a focused and productive manner. I did this because I wanted to make myself believe that I could remain focused for a long period of time without taking any breaks. 

Guess what? It worked! after meditating I opened my books and began to study. I remained focused for about 3 hours and the only reason that I stopped was because my brain was feeling numb. Usually it takes me 2 hours or longer to study for one test. Today, with a focus that I have never had before, I  got through 3 subjects in 3 hours! This was due, not only to the focus that meditation gave me, but also to the fact that meditation stimulates the brain which helped me learn the concepts faster.  

Day 12

Today I got stuck in rush hour traffic on the way to see my Grandparents in Novi. I had had a good day in school and nothing too stressful had happened so I was in a good mood when I started out. However, when I encountered all the horrible traffic my mood immediately changed. I could feel the stress enter my body and I began to tense up. After a few minutes of stress and aggravation I realized that instead of getting angry I should meditate. So, keeping my eyes open, I focused on my breathing and I began to calm down. Even though the traffic continued to get worse and I was running late I remained calm and refused to get stressed.  

Day 11

Since I finished all my homework on Saturday I felt very relaxed today. Therefore a long meditation session wasn't necessary. I simply put on my ocean music, sat on my bed and meditated. It was very soothing and I felt so calm after my meditation that I fell asleep. Falling asleep is probably not the point of meditation but it is a nice side benefit to the sleep deprived. 

Speaking of sleep, I have noticed that since meditating I have been sleeping better. Before, I would lay in bed for a long time before my overactive mind would stop thinking about everything that had happened that day. Now, I lay down on my bed and I am asleep almost instantly even if I don't meditate at night- obviously this is due to the calming effects of meditation. 

Day 10

Today I decided to meditate to the sounds of the ocean. I found a recording of the waves crashing onto the shore and every time I heard the waves crashing I imagined that they were crashing against my stress and taking them away out into the ocean. I think that most of my stress comes from the perpetual motion of our society. Everyone is going somewhere or doing something every second, unless they are sleeping, including myself. 

The problem is that we can't stop. We're all running a race and if we stop we will be trampled by everyone else. When we finally can get up we will be so far behind that we'll never get the medal that we worked so hard for. When you're running a race you can't look around at the beauty of nature; you have to keep your eyes straight ahead and concentrate on the people that are ahead of you. And, when your coach yells at you to pass someone, you better pass that person.  

For me, the race is IB and the medal is the IB diploma and acceptance letters from my dream schools. The coach is my family. They tell me that they will be proud of me no matter what but I know that they will be so disappointed if I don't reach my "potential".What is my potential? I have no idea. I am the youngest in my family and the last person to make everyone's dreams come true. All of my cousins and my brother have disappointed my family in someway or another; I am the only one left to make my family proud.

So with these depressing thoughts in my head I closed my eyes and meditated to the sounds of the ocean. As I listened to the waves I could feel my stress melting away and peace left in its place. At the end of the meditation I felt renewed and ready to face my crazy, hectic life.  

Day 9

I decided to meditate this morning before I went to school. I wanted to see if meditating before school would relieve my stress during the day. I know that I'm not supposed to time my meditations but since I had to be at school for a 6:30 Student Council meeting it was necessary to only meditate for about 15 minutes at the most. So I meditated sitting on the cold floor with my eyes open and focused on my breathing. I was on the floor so I wouldn't fall asleep.

I went to school in a happy, content mood.  But, despite my best efforts,  I have continually been stressed out by the pressures of life. However, instead of going into panic mode, I have tried to "go to calm" every time I get stressed. For me calm is the beach as the sun is rising over the waves. This method has been successful almost every time I have tried it today.

Day 8

Today we finally went back to school. When I was at home because of the snow days I was very relaxed and was able to focus on my meditation. However, being back in school and all the homework that I have to do has caused my stress level to increase. I tried to meditate but I wasn't able to focus properly. This was obviously a result of the stress I felt and the fact that I didn't want to meditate today. 

I find that when I am really stressed and anxious a good 30 minutes of hard exercise seems to work better than sitting calmly on my bed and focusing on my breathing.So that is what I did- I pounded all my frustration out on the treadmill. When I got done I cleaned up and then I attempted meditation again- lying on my bed and focusing on breathing. This time it worked because I was able to get rid of my anxiety long enough to convince myself that I needed to meditate. Once I got into the right mind- set I was able to focus and discover what was bothering me and get rid of it.