Habit I Am Specifically Choosing to Meditate

¶ … Habit

I am specifically choosing to meditate every day, for twenty minutes, for a month. During this meditation I will say positive things to myself, in order to reprogram my brain to always being mindful, focused and always thinking positively. I feel that by combining the affirmations with meditation, I will create a stronger habit, and one that is known to produce the sort of change that I am looking for with respect to the reprogramming of the brain.

This behavior is expected to have a positive impact on my overall wellness. The two elements, the affirmations and the meditations will have slightly different effects. The affirmations create positive vibes and allow me to have a high level of self-confidence. The meditation is something that creates peace and mindfulness. As a beginner, it has been challenging, but that is the point of creating the habit. Meditation does not come easily to beginners and you just have to keep at it. So that is what I am doing, because over time people who meditate have sharper minds when they get older, and more peace of mind all of the time.

2. A. Meditation has been proven to change our bodies down to the genetic level. This is powerful, because we create stronger minds through meditation every day, and when this happens and you have oriented meditation towards happiness, the practice will eventually pay off with a change brain that can handle challenges more easily and maintain more of its sharpness as we age (SMH, 2009). Affirmations have also been demonstrated to be good for you, in terms of creating positive thoughts, behavioral changes and an overall health transformation (Gucciardi, 2012).

B. There have been studies that show many forms of meditation and affirmation are beneficial to you. Harris and Epton (2009) showed that any self-reflection on cherished values or attributes is beneficial for health. It seems that any form of affirmation, when repeated daily, is beneficial.

3. A. There are a few steps that I am taking to support this commitment. I am trying to get my partner to do this as well, because that will help me to have a regular schedule. But I am also setting a specific time, and then setting an alarm so I know that meditation time is coming. I am researching things like recorded meditations that will help me to get focused, and maintain that focus. I am also going online and finding out what the different things that beginners can expect. That way, when I am having problems, I am in a position to learn from other people who have gone through the same thing.

B. My progress has been interesting in this past month. There are definitely things that worked and things that didn't. My journal notes that some meditations were deeper than others, and some days I really struggled to get any kind of focus. But it looks like I improved over the course of the month. The first week was a real struggle in particular, but I seemed to get into a meditative state for at least a little while each time by the end of the month, which I will take to be an improvement.