Category: Wellness

Challenges and experiments in wellness and furthering the mind-body-spirit connection.

That Witch Meditates Every Day: Challenge Thoughts

That Witch Meditates Every Day: Challenge Thoughts

Posted on by Wednesday Rose Moon

Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash

I have successfully completed my first challenge – meditating every day – and here is what I have learned.

First, 30 minutes is too long for me, personally, to meditate during one sitting. After 25 minutes, I began to get physically uncomfortable and extremely restless. However, I need at least 10 minutes, more often 15 minutes, for my brain to settle down. It seems that as soon as I sit down to meditate, random thoughts and to-do lists immediately start zinging around my brain. Those first 10-15 minutes are necessary for the random thoughts to wear themselves out and for my brain to relax. After that I am able to meditate at a high level for about 10 minutes before I literally begin to squirm.

Second, I have learned that I cannot meditate late at night or when I am tired. I have no focus and tend to end up dozing off … or just wishing it were over. The best times for me to meditate seem to be right after lunch or at the end of the work day. However, I also like to exercise at the end of the work day, and if I don’t go right after work, I will lose motivation or be out running in the dark. But by the time I complete my run, cool down, and shower, I tend to be starving and don’t want to meditate. So the conundrum is: when is the best time for me to mediate so that I can make it a regular part of my day?

Well, I may have tentatively found an answer to that. I noticed that meditating after my run seems to require less time for my brain to settle down – in fact it cuts the time in half. So I think I will try habit-stacking meditation onto my exercise. Over the next two weeks, I will meditate afterward every time I go for a run or exercise. On the days that I don’t run, I will try to meditate right after lunch. I will cut my meditation time down to 20 minutes on exercise days, and 25 minutes on non-exercise days.

I’ll provide an update on this when I post my thoughts on my next 10-day challenge in two weeks. Don’t forget: the next challenge will be posted tomorrow! I hope you will join me!

That Witch Meditates Every Day: Mid-Challenge Update

That Witch Meditates Every Day: Mid-Challenge Update

Posted on by Wednesday Rose Moon

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

I am halfway through my first challenge of meditating 30 minutes per day each day.  Already I have drawn some interesting conclusions about this challenge which I will reveal in my wrap-up next week!  Most importantly, I enjoy meditating daily and find that it really improves my mindset and my mood.  Here is my progress so far:

Day 1:  Mediated using my Moonly app.  I focused on my breath and was able to center myself and release anxiety and stress from the day.

Day 2:  Again I used my Moonly app.  This time however I could not get comfortable, could not sit still, and could not focus.  Total opposite experience from Day 1!

Day 3:  I planned to meditate after dinner, then completely forgot until bedtime.  By then I was too tired to even think about it.

Day 4:  Lovely guided heart-opening meditation using the Calm app.  I felt refreshed afterward.

Day 5:  Very moving guided forgiveness mediation using the Calm app.  I actually got a little misty at the end of this one.  This meditation helped me release a lot of stuck feelings.

I am finding that I look forward to mediation every day.  But I need to think about my daily schedule so that meditation is part of my routine, and not something that I am trying to “fit in”.

That Witch Meditates Every Day

That Witch Meditates Every Day

Posted on by Wednesday Rose Moon

The first step on my journey to become “That Witch” is to seek out what “That Witch” is for me, personally.  What values are important to me?  In what areas do I wish to grow?  What knowledge or skills do I wish to acquire?  What ideas do I need to let go of?

So for my first challenge, I decided to start simply – with meditation.  One of the first goals of the witch is “Know Thyself”.  Meditation is an excellent way to quiet the conscious mind, temporarily silence the ego, and let what lies within rise to the surface.  I already meditate fairly regularly but not daily.  I have long wished to establish a daily meditation practice.

This challenge will begin on Samhain – October 31 – 2022.  I will meditate for at least 30 minutes every day, for nine days.  I currently don’t meditate longer than 20 minutes per session, so this will be an expansion of my current practice as well as a push to solidify its consistency.