Let’s go back in time a little… At the beginning of 2019, on the 2nd January to be precise, I sat in meditation. There’s nothing too strange about it though as I do it daily. During my meditation that morning, however, I had this idea arising- what if I put a day a month aside for nothing but meditation? I did it before as a part of a mindfulness course I was doing when I unplugged everything and committed a full day for meditation. I did different kinds of meditation that day: guided, silent, sitting, lying, walking, body scan etc. and it felt great! So after meditation that morning, I decided to find a day in January and mark it straightaway as my Meditation Day. I felt I wanted to have something more tangible in my calendar, so I can organise my life around the meditation and not the other way round. As I was marking a day in January, there was this voice from deep within me saying ‘why not marking one day a month for the full year NOW?’. And I did just that! Now I had 12 days in 2019 marked as my Meditation Days ? There were 11 Sundays and …my birthday, which is actually a Saturday that year: why not spending my birthday meditating? I was feeling really pleased about listening to my heart and actually ACTING on what was arising in my meditation.
So, just like in life, lots of things are easier said than done..However, if you’re expecting that I’m gonna write that I missed my Meditation Days in 2019, you’d be wrong! I didn’t, however I moved things around as they needed to move around, so, for instance, a Sunday meditation became a Tuesday meditation and so on. But I’ve kept them all up!
So how does it work?ย Basically I start meditating straight after I wake up and then I do different kinds of meditation for 12 hours (once I did 10 though).ย I do eat in between, no worries ๐ I unplug everything- I don’t check my phone, I don’t go on the Internet. If I use my laptop, I only use it for recordings of guided meditations. Sometimes I go for a walk, but avoid contact with people.ย I especially enjoy mornings- I love sitting in the garden, if it doesn’t rain, and just observe nature.
I’ve really wanted to kept my unplugged days in 2020.ย But I have to admit- first couple of months of the year things didn’t go so smoothly for me…. I caught myself not wanting to meditate… I didn’t book an unplugged day in February . I found myself a bit overwhelmed with other things, like work, new university course, work that has been being done on the house , some emotional challenges etc. Ha, yeah, I know – when we’re stressed or feeling overwhelmed, meditation and taking step back and unplugging may be the best thing to do, but sometimes it isn’t such an easy thing to do. I still meditated or at least was listening to positive affirmations, but my mind was going wild. I felt really reluctant to meditate or even to do anything that could potentially benefit me.ย
Luckily, things seem to have changed for me lately. I let go a bit more, took a step back and decided to be less harsh towards myself. I had my unplugged day in March and it was good. I don’t always feel benefits straight away and after all those years of practising mindfulness and meditation I know that they will come sooner or later, so I’m not worried about it anymore. I’m happy to see that due to this lockdown there are more organisations that offer mindfulness and meditation meetings online for free. I’ve started following Heart Based Living Initiativeย guided meditations (although I’m not doing them every day) and Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project , with the best metta (loving kindness) meditation teacher ever ! I’m pleased to notice that I’ve started to meditate on my own too and enjoying my sittings again ๐ย
It’s nice to see that during this lockdown people started connecting more and more by using technology. It’s encouraging that, perhaps, we’ve started noticing how important it is to have significant relationships in our lives. Building connections is a fundamental part of life. However, it’s also good to put devices away, switch off all notifications and just to have a nice, peaceful Unplugged Day ๐
I used to fast the first of each month in my 20s and most of my 30s, but stopped because of other priorities; have recently started that again and feel better for it. I’d like to hear your more elaborate thoughts about this inward-look many people are having to take with the stay-at-home. Do you think it will last? Will people start to re-prioritize their lives?
Hi Ricky. Thank you for your comment. I’d love to believe that people will continue to reflect on what’s really important in their lives and learn a powerful lesson during this lockdown. But let’s be realistic, there will be some, who won’t care and they’ll continue how they used to be. Personally I want to make more changes. I know I won’t change the whole world, but I’ll try to do my bit. For example, I’ve been taking about being Amazon-free and now I’ve started working on it, e.g. started ordering books off Hive, try to get my coffee from a non-chain places etc. It’s not much, but things add up. My biggest hope for people though is that they’ll re-discover how connection with other is important! I’ve been writing about it over and over again on my blog (e.g. ‘Confessions of a killer’ or ‘Fluffy like strawberries and cream’ posts- probably you’ve got a sense how obsessed I am about Brene Brown and her work ๐ This is what I wish for everyone- without connection, we’ll cease to exist.
Love to hear from you again, Ricky ๐
Thank you for sharing your meditation journey. It’s so important to carve out time for yourself and mute life’s distractions. At the moment, I don’t have regular free time slots and feel very squeezed in terms of moments to relax. However, I do try to walk every day, so am thinking about doing a walking meditation. Any tips would be warmly welcome. Also, I really like that term “Unplugged Day”.