For six months straight I had a consistent meditation practice. It changed my life for the better. Even a year later, having not consistently done meditation, I feel like I can still feel the effects of those six months.
I wish I would have continued on with my meditation, but having a newborn just threw off everything and for some reason or another I haven't been able to get back to where I was. I have tried some other meditation and stillness practices since, which have been great for me, and maybe someday I will get back into a more consistent practice, whatever that looks like. But today I want to share with you what I did for those six months. I want to share my 8 minutes Evening Meditation Routine.
The first thing I did was sit down the last day of the month and think about what I wanted to work through the next month. I would begin by picking a theme of some sort. For example in February 2019 my theme was Give and Receive Love.
After choosing my theme I would find affirmations that went along with it. For the theme give and receive love one of my affirmations was I now live in limitless love, light and joy. I chose a few affirmations each month that really resonated with me, and wrote them on a 3x5 card.
Next I thought about how I could visualize this idea coming into my life. I would write one or two sentences on a card that could guide my visualization. For the give and receive love months I wrote Generously give love. Freely receive love. The healing power of love. Open. Flow. Receive.
Since I find power in scriptures the third thing I did was find two examples in scripture that would bring the truth I was wanting to more fully understand into my life with power. One scripture I chose as part of this example was 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." I would write these scriptures on a 3x5 card.
Finally I chose a mantra to repeat while I was meditating. For the duration of the six months I kept it simple and repeated "I love and accept you, Mallory."
The next evening I gathered all my cards and brought my phone so I could use Insight timer for my meditation. I told my husband I would be meditating and he would respect my space as I did so.
First I would read my affirmations aloud, trying to feel really good about what I was saying, and saying them with confidence and power.
Next I would read through my visualization card and then spend 30 seconds to 1 minutes closing my eyes and really trying to see what my life would look like if I was experiencing what I had just written.
Then I would read through my two scriptures out loud. I tried to just enjoy and relax into what they said, to believe in them as truth.
Finally I would go to my insight timer app and set a timer for 5 minutes. For those five minutes I would focus on breathing slowly and deeply (but also comfortably) as well as repeating my mantra in my head (or occasionally aloud).
After the timer went off, I took one last breath and felt gratitude for the time I was able to spend in meditation that day.
It wasn't a perfect practice, but it was really good for me, and it didn't take long for me to notice how good it was in my life.
I hope this example was helpful to you, maybe you got some good ideas about how to incorporate meditation into your life. The best thing about meditation is it is a very personal practice. You can create a meditation practice that works just perfectly for your life. You can switch things up when you need to.
Like I said this meditation practice worked really well for me for six month, but then I had a huge life change and I needed to rework what mediation looked like for me. Now I do it differently but I still love practicing stillness.
I created my mediation course to have this flexibility. To help you learn enough about meditation and the practice of meditation and then give you tools and confidence you need to be able to create a meditation practice in your life that works perfectly for you. If it feels like something you would be interested in, I invite you to head over to youtube, I'd love to see you there!
Mallory
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