Today was a little more difficult for me. Back to work/school after a long weekend and so many things on my “to do” list had my mind racing. I am talking about serious “monkey mind” or as Jundo says: “blender mind”. Just the normal everyday stuff that all mamas face that make it so hard to calm the mind; swim meet tonight, need to be sure suits are clean, need to drop off Sean’s shirts, have to go to the library, how is school going to go… you know…stuff! It took me time to quiet down and settle in. My aim every morning is 20 minutes. This morning I knew I would be lucky to be able to sit for 10, but I set my timer on 15 anyhow. And I am happy to say I made it without looking at the timer once. Although in all honesty, it took me about 10 minutes to settle in to my breath.

I am trying to focus on Zazen meditation, just sitting. I have been experimenting with my postures and trying to find the one that works best for me. I continue to name my breaths; in, out, in, out… And today I also picked a focal point on my body. I started with the tip of my nose. Feeling the breaths move in and out. But after a few minutes, I noticed that I was holding so much tension between my shoulder blades that I switched my focus to that spot. Reminding myself to relax my shoulders. Feeling how my breath was affecting that spot, the rise and fall of my shoulders. I am happy to say that, while it is not completely at ease, it is most certainly feeling much better.

Sean and I are starting something new for our education and meditation in the evenings. I will post more about that at a later date, but I am very excited about it and think it is a step in the right direction as far as our personal path goes.

Hope you all are doing well with your meditation! Until tomorrow!

PS. Don’t forget to stop by and see how Jan did on her day 2. She talks about how she centers herself and begins her meditation before getting out of bed in the morning!