I made it. I made it through the first 30 days of sitting still in a corner doing nothing. Well, not quite. Before Christmas, I noticed a special offer on Headspace which I decided to take advantage of. I had completed a few of the Take 10 series before, and I knew I quite liked it, but I was being a little tight with money. I ventured around into using lots of different meditation apps on Android. In the end, it was Headspace that drew me back.
The Take 10 series is an introduction to mindfulness and meditation. It is a guided meditation, which I think is one of the best ways to get introduced to the skill for beginners. The first 10 sessions are 10 mins each, going up to 20 min for the last 10. Intertwined with the meditations, are lovely animated videos such as the one below.
There are also snippets of the man himself, Andy Puddicombe giving a min or so of advice.
I wouldn’t say the ride for me was smooth sailing. I added Headspace into my morning routine as I sat on my meditation cushion. When we went up to 20 mins, I realised that this was throwing my routine and I hadn’t accounted for this. It took a little trial and error to rectify it. Even though this meant experimenting with taking 20 mins on the London tube! Eventually, I managed to cut down the time making my breakfast!
Below are my personal top 5 learnings from completing the first month of finding Headspace:
1. Let it go.
It’s not easy. Initially, my mind felt like I had popped a mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke. I was trying to stop the explosion. After a few days, however, Andy kept re-iterating the fact that it is ok. Just watch the thoughts and the blue sky above the clouds is always there. As soon as it clicked that it was ok, it made the whole process easier.
2. Animations are amazing.
The way that Headspace uses animations is brilliant. As the characters and scenes are all animated, there is little likelihood you are going to make any judgement or interpretation of the message. In fact, I can still picture some of them and it brings back the message the animation was trying to portray.
3. Awareness during the day is difficult.
This is one thing I think is going to take a lot of time. I am happy to go down this path, however. Being aware and mindful during the day, so it’s not a ritual but part of your everyday life. Like a skill. The times at the office, when I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and I’ve remembered to become connected with the present, I feel rested and more productive.
4. Skillset.
I felt that the whole Take 10 programme is designed to train how to meditate without the repetitive habit. I feel comfortable now. If I don’t have my phone (I don’t think it will be too long before I book myself on a Vipassana!) I can run through the process on my own.
5. Excitement.
The last few days of the programme, I was excited about finding out what is next. I didn’t look at the other packs, but I did want a shiny new toy. I’ve now queued up the pack on anxiety which I’m looking forward to.
To conclude, I would recommend Headspace. (Add me as a buddy — username is mehtadone) If you are thinking of building a mindfulness practice but don’t know where to start, download the app and do the free take 10 sessions. We will also be recommending it to our DotCoach programme participants who want to follow on a similar journey.
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