The Calm Corner update, Saturday 20th March 2020

Good morning fellow meditators,

I'm beginning to suspect that some of you might not have found my post of this morning within the original, pinned 'The Calm Corner' from yesterday. It's probably that you are all enjoying some of today's better weather, or busy with other pursuits, and it's lovely if you are, but, just in case you've been wondering about an update, I'm going to change up the way in which I do so. I'd hate anyone to think I'd started this and then just not bothered to follow-up.

I'll leave the original post pinned, for anyone new to discover or to refer back to, but I shall post separate updates, starting with this one. So the following has been copied and pasted from my update in the original pinned post.

'I was delighted to read that just a few minutes of quiet meditation seems to have helped so many of you already. There was some great feedback.

Is there anyone who had any difficulty in focusing for ten minutes? It can happen, especially if we are feeling stressed or worried, or not very well, for example. Just try again and eventually you will have a session that you feel went really well. Don't feel that you have failed, if you are very restless. Believe it or not it is still meditation, even if you wriggle and writhe and can't quiet your mind for the whole meditation period, because you are recognising all the thoughts that come to you whenever your mind interrupts your breath observance.

Next comes what could be felt to be the quite boring bit.

It's consolidating your practice.

So your next step is to find yourself a regular spot in your day, every day, and hopefully twice a day, to commit to further periods of ten minutes of meditation.

It's best not to try to speed up the process and set impossible goals, because meditation is all about slowing down and taking your time. And like dieting, or extra exercise, it's oh so easy to feel that you can put it off until tomorrow. And sometimes we do all have to do that, for various reasons, but get right back to it as soon as you can.

But your next task is commitment.

So for the best result, just doggedly do it, whether you feel like it or not and just acknowledge to yourself that you are feeling hot, or cold, or bored, or restless; whatever it is. Keep the breath observance going as many times as you can in the ten minutes.

If you are able, by all means stretch yourself to twelve or fifteen minutes, but don't rush it. Always keep things so that you give yourself the best opportunity to practice regularly and as well as you can.

I'd like this to be the pattern for you for the next seven days if you can commit to it.

So, not much for me to be writing about, except that I'll check in regularly to offer encouragement and to see if anyone has any questions or difficulties, and by all means you can privately message me with your queries, if you prefer.

If you like, it can be helpful to keep a running diary of how your meditations went: those that were peaceful, those where you felt you were struggling, what thoughts you had and how well you managed with the breathing. But it's not essential to do that.

So good luck to you all on the next road on your Mindfulness meditation journey, and keep me posted with how it's going, even if you don't have questions.

To those of you who had already read this within the pinned post, sorry to be repeating myself!

Happy meditating.