One month commitment

LostSoul

Hello everybody. I haven't logged into this site for a while, mostly because I got too consumed in daily life (once again). Well, me and my SO just got in a huge fight this morning, and I realized most of the negativity was created from me, and well it was mostly my fault. (It usually is, actually...) Instead of backing behind my opinion (which, I still believe is somewhat correct, even though there are plenty of faults in it...) I have made the commitment to stop this foolishness. I'm done living like an animal, and letting my selfish instincts rule over me.

So, what I plan to do, is starting today (March 11th), I plan on practicing the "buddhist way" (to the best that I can, and the best that I know of) for at least 30 days. I read somewhere, you should be able to at least try anything for at least 30 days, and then after you've given it enough trial, you should know whether or not its right for you. I really have a big problem in losing patience with things, and the hardest thing for me is daily meditation practice - so I'll be sitting on that cushion every day (well I hope so at least) starting today .

Today's sitting was very nice, and I was surprised how "short" it really was (I did a 10 minute session). I think the alarm helps a lot - before I was always wondering "Has it been enough time yet?" and I'd get agitated and anxious and then end up stopping to early. So this time, I just set a 10 minute alarm and just got to focus fully on my thoughts, and after those disappeared I had some nice clear mindedness.

Anyway, thank you for reading this, and thank you for this forum because without it I doubt my life would be able to improve much. I'm looking forward to the journey. I'll try to post here every day, but if I miss a day or two of posting, I'll definitely be back and let you guys know how it went. If anybody cares, that is...

Blessed Be

EDIT: Oh, and to the site creators (if you ever read these sorts of things) - I really love your forum software, but I would really LOVE if you guys had markdown support. I know you have simple HTML (which is great), but I just love the readability and simplicity of markdown. (Sorry, just thought I should shoot that out there - I'm a programmer so things like this always come up in my silly brain .)

lamaramadingdong

Best wishes.

person

I like the idea of a set time and use it for myself as well. Otherwise when uncomfortable thoughts arise or how I'd rather be doing something else I don't quit and get up.

LostSoul

Thanks guys!

And yup @person - it definitely helps. It seems to "shut off" yet another external thing I always seem to worry about (time).

Telly03

Good luck on your month, im sure you will gain significant insight from it.

I also like to use a timer and found a nice android application, "insight timer" that blocks phone calls while your sitting and uses a calm bell to alert you

Tosh

I don't know about the '30 days' thing. I much prefer a 'day at a time'. I have a pretty good routine where I wake up and do some meditation and then write a list of things I want/have to do that day. Then in the evening, I meditate again, and then reflect on how well I did, or didn't do - I do this in written form - and try to learn from any mistakes.

I also grade myself out of ten, but this is maybe a private joke. Today I've given myself 7/10. I'm a pretty tough grader too, the highest I've ever given myself is an 8/10.

Repeat, repeat, repeat, etc.

Funnily enough, the same stuff crops up; I waste time on the internet instead of studying dharma!!!

I really need to break that habit.

Anyway, good luck, but if you're anything like me, I think we should measure progress in years, rather than days.

Jeffrey

May it be so

When the Buddha was fully enlightened the thought occured to him to share it with the world.

Thus he set out to deerpark and on the way in the countryside with his simple robes and provisions he met a man also a spiritual person. The Buddha told him that he had accomplished the task and was free from the suffering of the world.

To which this man said: 'may it be so'.

Buddha thought about that and realized that he would need to develope some material to engage his audience and on that walk he formulated how to present the four noble truths.

So please keep us posted with how your meditation and interest in buddhism 'developes'.

weighted

Best of luck to you in the next month!

I would agree that doing it one day at a time is best, though. Why set a limit when you may find this benefits you on so many levels and you want to continue with your practice past the 30 day marker?

Coming from a Kundalini background, I usually use the following for creating markers, but I haven't applied this to my Buddhist practice - personally, I'd prefer that to evolve organically on its own.

40 Days To change or break a habit.
90 Days To confirm a new habit.
120 Days The new habit is who you are.
1000 Days You have mastered the new habit.

AMH

Thank you for the habit list. I am writing it down. I don't have too many bad ones but I want to add some in. I find that almost nothing is possible for me to do daily with work and kids, however 40 days is 6 weeks and so if I set exercising 3 times a week maybe that would be a good start.

LostSoul

@Telly03 Thank you so much I'll have to look at that in the morning!


And to everybody saying to take it "a day at a time" - sure, that may work for you. But for me, I have to discipline myself to do ANYTHING lol. I tried the "day at a time" thing for half a year, and I got nothing accomplished - I kept toggling from mindful days, to un-mindful days. Kinda hard to explain I guess... I guess I just give up too fast on it.

So, what I'm doing instead is trying to force myself to try this for at least 30 days straight - I think this way, I will actually get some good from those 30 days!

Sorry if that didn't make much sense... lol. Funny how weird your thoughts sound when really thinking about them...

LostSoul

I don't know about the '30 days' thing. I much prefer a 'day at a time'. I have a pretty good routine where I wake up and do some meditation and then write a list of things I want/have to do that day. Then in the evening, I meditate again, and then reflect on how well I did, or didn't do - I do this in written form - and try to learn from any mistakes.

I also grade myself out of ten, but this is maybe a private joke. Today I've given myself 7/10. I'm a pretty tough grader too, the highest I've ever given myself is an 8/10.

Repeat, repeat, repeat, etc.

Funnily enough, the same stuff crops up; I waste time on the internet instead of studying dharma!!!

I really need to break that habit.

Anyway, good luck, but if you're anything like me, I think we should measure progress in years, rather than days.

Thanks for your insight . That sounds like a good way to go about it - maybe after I get more comfortable meditating daily, I'll start adding another "reflective" meditation at the end. As it is, I'm doing great with just once a day. I find if I jump into something too fast, I get discouraged. Just trying to take it slow.

RE: The grading - LOL that sounds like something I would do . I constantly critique myself, sometimes too much I think. But something like that, I don't think it would help very much in my mindfullness path - I tend to "make a game" of things if I treat it that way, either that or I obssess way too much. So, again, just taking things slow this round .

And yes, I have that damn internet addiction problem too. If only it wasn't soo easy and within reach - I'm on the computer all day, so its way too easy to slack off.