This is part of The Daily Meditation Experiment, where I am practicing one school of meditation per week (well, it’s supposed to be a week. I hasn’t been, really.) to understand the overall structure & effects of each.

Meditation Method: I Am Meditation

This is a quite simple meditation type. The goal is to obtain a feeling of who you are.

How it’s done:

Sit down with your eyes closed, and ask yourself “What am I?”. If the answer comes to you in the form of a thought, discard it, and ask the question again. Focus instead on the subjective feeling of “I”. Whenever thoughts/emotions arise that distract you from the question, ask yourself “To whom does this arise?”. The answer will be “Me”. To which you ask “Who am I?”, thereby bringing yourself back into the meditation.

I did this meditation 9 times over the course of 19 days.

Adherence: 47 %

I practiced I Am meditation from September 15 to October 3rd (considerably more than a week) to August 2nd. In those 19 days, I achieved a full meditated session for 9 days.

My pathetic adherence record combined with the minimal value I found in this meditation very nearly stopped me from publishing this post. However this experiment is about successes as much as it is about failures, so here it is, published so you can know where the value is and how damn difficult it is to ahere to.

Thoughts

This seems like a strange middleman-esque meditation without much value to it.

While I did, at times, get some clarity and a powerful feeling of who I am, it was not something I am unable to get elsewhere.

To try to articulate it, I am focused, highly creative, and very aware of the value of each minute and what I spend it doing. An overall feeling of confident calmness & purpose.

However, I get this feeling almost daily, regardless of meditation. It comes from reading, working, or the simple momentum of a lifestyle where I am constantly attempting to spend my time well and increase my overall enjoyment.

Compared to the focus of The Flame & The Void, or the calm centeredness of Mindfulness Meditation, I Am Meditation just isn’t worth the time and effort.

That said, this may be very subjective. I write out my life-goals daily, and review them intensely every week. Which works to keep my quite in touch with who I am and am focused on becoming.

If someone was in a place where they are seeking ‘find themselves’ I Am meditation may help to do just that.

Results:

Increased confidence in myself and my ability to do what I most deeply desire to do.

A higher familiarity with this wordless feeling of who I am and what is important to me.

Conclusion

An interesting idea, with some value in finding a clarity with your Lifspeki and who you are, but not valuable when compared to other meditation styles. Not worth the time/effort.