Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Damon Mitchell's avatar

We don't sit to become better meditators. We sit to become better whatever we already ares.

My first year was merely the commitment to carve a habit, five minutes a day at the same time, coffee afterward. No increases allowed for that year, even if I felt like it. A year later, I doubled it. Sometime after that, I doubled it again.

Eleven-plus years on, I've sat two ten-day silent retreats and logged uncountable time in silence of some kind. I am no greater meditator today than I was in the beginning, but I can sit totally still a lot longer.

These days, I don't wonder why I'm still doing it. I did a lot of this wondering the first few years. I also don't feel the need to sit for two hours a day, as was prescribed during retreats. The more valuable piece of sitting is what I take into the standing and walking experience.

Expand full comment
Marjan Venema's avatar

It's a pity then that consistency, habit, is so hard when you have an ADHD brain. Any habit I pick up, any consistency I manage to build, I'm likely to drop them with the speed of life when life intervenes and I (have to) skip more than once. James Clear advocates never skipping more than once. I don't use that rule, because building habits is hard for an ADHDer and it would just kead to being okay with doing it on alternate days. <sigh>

Expand full comment
48 more comments...

No posts