And I must have looked like an escapee from a psych ward (not that there is anything wrong with psychiatric wards!) but I didn’t even care!
So I have been doing this 40 day yoga and meditation program for about 4 weeks now and as the weeks go on both the yoga practice and meditation get longer. The meditation practice is at 20 minutes twice a day right now. And I am definitely having issues fitting in the two meditation practices into my work day. I do the yoga practice in the morning before my work shift and for the first three weeks I would do the morning meditation right after the yoga practice. And when the yoga practice was under an hour it was definitely easy to do yoga, then the meditation, grab a cup of coffee and head to my home office.
But this week, the yoga practice is up to 60 minutes and the two meditations are 20 minutes a piece, one in the morning, one in the evening. I can get the 60 minute yoga practice in, but then I really should be heading into the “office”, not meditating on my yoga mat for 20 minutes. I try to get it done during my lunch break, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. And then I find myself doing the morning meditation at 5 p.m. and that’s not really how the program is set up.
And then today happened. Our house cleaners were scheduled to come around 12 p.m. today (yes, I have house cleaners, it’s the best thing I have ever spent money on, they do so much better cleaning my house than I do, don’t judge me!), so I needed to make sure I exited my home office at some point while they were here so I wasn’t in their way. So I went outside, sat in a chair on our back patio with my iPad, stuck my headphones in, closed my eyes and did my 20 minute morning meditation! Sure it was 12:30 p.m., but at least I was doing it.
And typically when I do a meditation, my mind travels all over the place. I hardly pay attention to the voice guiding the meditation. I’m thinking about what I need to do later, reminding myself to pick up eggs at the grocery store and trying not to itch my left big toe. I’m paying attention to anything but the meditation. And I’m guessing that means that it’s not working. But today, sitting outside in my backyard, sunglasses on, headphones in, I paid attention to almost all of the 20 minute meditation. And I actually enjoyed it! And I felt relaxed while doing it and that feeling lasted afterwards too. Which obviously is the whole point of the meditation…
So why did it make me feel so much better doing the meditation outside? Was it the sun, the fresh air or the birds chirping? Was it just freeing to sit outside with my eyes closed, meditating on a summer day? Or did I finally enjoy it because I was relaxing while I paid someone else to clean my bathroom…
Notes from a Self Quarantine 