1000 Days of Meditation
Today, January 27, 2023 was my 1000th consecutive day of meditation.
If you ‘re new to this blog, Welcome!
I have been tracking my meditation journey over the last few years. Here are the previous posts in this series to catch you up.
When I finished my meditation yesterday, on day 999, I was struck by the number. Often 999 indicates or signifies the ending of a cycle. Today the number 1000, or 000, essentially represents the start of a new cycle. I find this interesting especially as we start to approach some big astrological multi decade shifts. I am always intrigued when things synchronistically start to track each other like this in my life. They give me a moment of pause, an encouragement to reflect and ask questions, which I will surely be doing over the next months.
As I reread my previous posts before writing this one, I was struck by how nothing has seemed to change while everything has changed during these 1000 days. I am a different person, without a doubt than I was when I started this journey in May of 2020. You could also say that I started this journey in 2002 when I entered my first yoga class. (Which let’s just pause and notice the dance of two’s happening here.) If you consider 2002 as the initial starting point, then I am pretty much unrecognizable as a person from that point to this point. All of my cells have turned over many times since then. I have shed selves, I have gained selves, I have been around the world and back, I have loved, I have lost, I have created, I have destroyed, I have been initiated, I have contracted, I have expanded. I suppose though, the core of curiosity remains the same. Curiosity is what started this journey and what brought me to today.
If you have read the previous posts in this series, you know a little bit about the initial intention of this experiment, which was to try to sit for 40 days, the traditional length of a sadhana in yoga. One experiment rolled into the next and here we are. I reflected in previous posts about the particulars, some of my findings, and what helped me create this new habit. I’ll do a little bit about that here too, but what I really want to talk about is the companion that meditation has become.
I think the biggest mind shift that occurred was also an identity one. It was a belief shift. I came to think of myself as a person who meditates. “I am a person who meditates.” I would later find out that this is just another part of the habit creation process. James Clear addresses this in the book Atomic Habits as an integral part of the habit formula. While this happened naturally for me over the course of this 1000 day journey, it can be a helpful tool to start using at the outset. I essentially “acted as if” I already had this belief until it became my belief unconsciously. I also didn’t realize this until today when I was reflecting on this experience. It happened rather organically.
My morning meditation, specifically, has become something I look forward to. I look forward to spending that time with myself, noticing, breathing, reflecting, sometimes doing formal practice/sometimes not, and befriending myself. It’s not always roses, but I am not attached to it being roses. I know that each day when I sit, it will be different, all the way down to the very breath that flows in and out of my nose. And that’s really part of the beauty of it for me. It reflects my experience in life. It is like an infinity mirror. My meditation reflects my life and my life reflects my meditation in an endless energy loop.
In this way, meditation has become a daily companion to me, not unlike a friend. If I want to continue the relationship, I have to make time for it. I have to devote energy to it. I have to show up for it. I have to be willing to receive it. I have to listen to it. I have to share of myself. I have to be willing to go through a repair if there is a rupture. I have to show it I care, that I love it. I have to be devoted. Though, none of these are “have tos” for me. They are all things I want to do, openly, willingly, and lovingly. I am in relationship to my meditation and I am in a relationship with it, just as I am with all the things, beings, and nature around me.
So as this cycle ends and a new one begins, I am in devotion to continuing until it no longer feels supportive. Until then, I will continue to sit, explore, and stay curious on this inner journey with my companion, seeing what unfolds.
Author’s Note:
This will be the final post in this series for now. If you’d like to follow more of my meditation journey, you can visit my meditationmoments Instagram. I’m not there as much these days, but there is a lot of great historical reflections and meditation pictures from around the world there.
Curious about meditation? Join me this spring for a 7 Week Chakra Writing & Meditation Series. Registration coming soon! Hear about it first by subscribing to the newsletter HERE