Perfect Stillness
I began meditating in earnest in January. I committed myself to half an hour per day for 40 days, and I did that thing. Even on days when I had no time. Even when I didn’t want to. Even when I really, really didn’t want to, I still did it.
Here’s how I meditate: I just sit there. I begin by saying “Quiet the body, quiet the mind,” but that’s it. Then I just sit there and breathe and come back to breathing instead of everything else and then do that 1,000 more times, then the timer goes off.
I keep hearing about fancy meditation things – bells and candles and prayer beads and guided meditations and such.
One day, an ad for a free meditation app popped up in my Facebook feed, so I downloaded it. There were a handful of free guided meditations and videos about meditating on it, then everything else you had to pay for. Typical.
I listened to a 5-minute guided meditation, which was actually kind of nice. Then I started my regular practice of just sitting there.
BOING went my phone. BOING. BOING. I had forgotten to silence the thing.
I looked at it. There were a series of texts.
“Hi, Suebob!”
“This is Chad from The Annoying Meditation App!”
(Why all the exclamation points, Chad? I thought we were supposed to be calming down here!!!)
“I just wanted to know if you need any help getting started with meditation!”
(Yes, Chad, the help I need is for you to quit texting me.)
I deleted the app and went back to just sitting there.
Ah, much better.
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Suebob's Red Stapler 
Love this! I need to remember this when I’m teaching my son to meditate. I’ve been known to spend a good 15 minutes stressing about and troubleshooting meditation apps on his tablet just to get the right one to work. Ridiculous! More recently I spent about 2 minutes reciting my own guided meditation words to him (Came easily to me after past years of regular yoga practice) and it worked perfectly.
I’ve also spent countless other times researching and contemplating signing up for a monthly subscription to a medication app for myself. I like your way soooo much better! 🙂
My friend Chris recommends the Insight app. Apparently no annoying texts, and lots of meditations to choose from, along with the ability to sort by topic, teacher, and length. I may try it just for fun.
Oh, and last night because my neighbor was practicing the bass, I put on headphones with Binaural Beats and had quite a relaxing experience. I will try that again, too.