Approx Read time: 3 minutes
A quick guide to completing a 7 day meditation challenge, written by a true beginner.
Those of you who read the first article in this series (Will meditation Shrink your brain?) know that practicing meditation has a lot of benefits. Meditation has been continuously shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and increase mental focus. New research even demonstrates positive structural changes in the brain following daily meditation practice. After spending so much time learning the benefits, I decided to give it a try and commit to a 7 day meditation challenge.
So what the heck is meditation?
Well for the purpose of this blog, I think meditation is some quiet “me time”. It’s turning the brain off and rejecting thoughts so you can shed away any nervous energy or stress you may be holding onto. I do think meditation can take on different meanings, but I think it’s important to note that the type of meditation we’re talking about does not have a religious affiliation. I’m not saying meditation can’t be a more “spiritual” practice. I am just saying that I’m stressed and a little bit of quiet time has done me some good 😜
If you are like me, you are wondering who on earth can sit still and do nothing for any length of time. I’ll admit to falling victim to the Type-A personality type (as so many of us do). I know I’m not alone when I admit to being slightly obsessed with staying “productive” and spending a lot of time thinking about that never ending to-do list. But I think that this is all the more reason that it is worth it to slow down and take some time to let our brains just chill. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t make it all 7 days in a row (it took me 11 days to get 7 sessions in). Fitting anything new into your schedule seems challenging at first and sometimes you have to settle for “good enough” (one of Scott’s favourite one liners), forgive yourself, and simply keep trying.
Considering giving it a try? Here are a couple tips I picked up along the way:
- Don’t write it off! There are so many benefits to meditating. Taking some quiet time is so underrated in this fast-paced society, and it can be infinitely beneficial to your health.
- Start small. Meditation is training for your mind, and you do get better at it the more that you do it. So don’t worry about starting big right away. You can start as small as 2 or 3 minutes and still reap some of te benefits.
- Don’t worry too much about how to do it and if you’re doing it right. Your mind WILL start to wander. I just always like to return to the speed and count of my inhales/ exhales.
- Use an app to help guide your practice and to help you keep track of your progress. (Scott’s favourite is the Headspace App, and I had a lot of success with the two listed below!)
I had the luxury of using a Muse headband to help guide some of my practices and get feedback while I was meditating. The idea is that the headband can track your brain waves and let you know when you are really relaxing, and when you are getting off track. Along with giving you real-time feedback during your practice, the headband connects to an app on your smart phone and gives you a report as to how much of your time was “calm”. I don’t know if the headband is completely necessary for beginners. 
There are plenty of FREE apps available to download on your smart phone that will do the trick. The two that I found the most helpful were:
- Calm: Provides you with 7 days of guided meditation for beginners. All the while tracking your session history so you can keep track of your progress.
- Insight Timer: Provides you with a list of different guided meditations. Ranging from intros with silence, to mindfulness podcasts, to relaxing music. If you aren’t feeling a guided meditation this app also gives you the option of using a timer that will stop and start to the sound of your choice, and choose a sound to meditate to (think streams, deep chanting, or rain against your window). Again, it tracks your session history so you can see your progress.
