“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.” -Eckhart Tolle

Day 1 – Sit Still For One Minute

The short version: when getting out of bed this morning, stay on the side of the bed, put your feet firmly on the floor. Put a timer on your phone for one minute. Keep your back straight, close your eyes and breath in deeply. Stay like this in stillness and in silence until the alarm rings. Observe whatever happens in your body, your thoughts.

The long version: Do some Yoga, tai chi, walking or running, whatever form of physical exercise you like, for at least 20 minutes. End it with the one minute sitting in silence like described above.

My experience with this:

I’ve postponed meditating for years because it felt too complicated and not for me. I felt awkward when I was trying to sit in silence for more then a few minutes.

Thoughts came running on my mind, my back was hurting, and I started judging myself for not being able to do such a simple thing. I was doing all the “wrong” things! So I decided that this type of meditation is not for me.

But I still wanted to enjoy the benefits that everyone who seemed to get this were talking about.

improved health

sleeping better and dreaming more vividly

feeling less stressed

improved mental clarity

boosting creativity

Then I began doing every morning a few simple yoga exercises, like the Sun Salutations. And at the end of them I added a one minute sitting in silence.

Just one minute.

The limit of one minute took the pressure off “I have to stay like this for what feels like an eternity”. And then gradually I added another minute. And so on.

I don’t have a fixed rule about this. Now I just sit like this for as long as it feels right for me. It also depends on how long I have before I have to start attending the things I need to do that day.

Do I do this every single day? No. I do try to stick with it as much as I can. But if one day I feel like taking a break I just don’t do it. And I don’t judge myself for it 🙂

So that’s my today’s exercise for our 30 days challenge.

I would love to hear how it was for You doing this exercise in the comments section bellow.

And If you liked this article, feel free to share it with your friends. Sharing is caring because it is learning from each other and helping us grow together.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s exercise! 🙂

With all my love,

Raluca

PS: I am really excited to be going through this challenge together. Thank you!

Photo Credit: premasagar via Compfight cc