Mindful Monday: Meditation Recheck

by Carrie Jurney DVM DACVIM (Neuro)

Last week we SOAPed by problems meditating and made a plan to try breath focused meditation while running.
Time for a recheck exam.

Well, my first attempt at moving meditation was on the treadmill on Tuesday. Unfortunately instead of my breath, I tended to focus on the clock on the treadmill. Which made my run seem a million years long.  So I did a grand total of three minutes of very scatter brained meditation and then felt mad at myself. But- honestly I think that's a problem of the goal, and not the behavior. Rome wasn't built in a day, and I will not become a meditation master in a day either. 

So then I had a really hard week of travel, and did nothing healthy Wed-Fri. Saturday I got a massage with a friend, which was a great recharge and Sunday I was ready to get back to life. I drove myself out to my favorite running trail and took off. This time I set a more realistic goal for myself. 3 minutes. 3 minutes seemed doable. So I let myself run for a bit first, and about half way through my run when I felt like I was in the groove, and took out my headphones and just focused on my breath. I did much better this time. Not perfect. Still focusing on other things on occasion- the smell of the wild garlic, the sound of the gravel under my shoes- but better. 

So practice makes perfect. I'm going to keep going on a three minute meditation until I feel like I can achieve that, and there we'll go for longer. 

Anyone else have a story of beginning in meditation?