Hello Friends,
In the final episode of our Mindful Routines mini-series, we share what we learned from practicing the meditation technique from Susan Piver’s book “Start Here Now” for a month. We reflect on how this daily practice shaped our routines and discuss ways to make meditation a lasting habit. If you’ve ever struggled to stick with meditation, this episode is full of relatable moments and practical tips.
Video:
Audio only:
Assignment For This Month
The assignment continues the meditation challenge introduced in the previous episode. We ask you to extend your daily meditation practice for another month, focusing on consistency and adapting it to the holidays. If you’ll be traveling or your regular meditation space isn’t accessible, we encourage you to think creatively about how to create a mobile meditation practice. This could involve finding quiet moments wherever you are or adapting the practice to fit your environment.
We also invite you to reach out and share your experiences, questions, or reflections as you continue your practice.
Show Notes & Links
- Related Episode: S2E01-Mindfulness Routines Pt 1: Meditation Every Day
- Related Episode: S2E02-Mindfulness Routines Pt 2: Seeking Wisdom
- Book: Start Here Now – Susan Piver
- Find out more about Susan Piver on her website: The Open Heart Project
Transcript
S2 E03 Mindfulness Routines Part 3: A Month of Meditation
Maria: Hello and welcome to the Becoming Mindful podcast. Today, we will review what a month of daily meditation based on Susan Piver’s book “Start Here Now” looks like. I am Maria.
Jackie: And I’m Jackie, and we are becoming mindful.
Maria: Alright. So last month, we gave ourselves and all the listeners the assignment to meditate daily and utilize Susan Piver’s instructions from the book. Today, we want to review how it was for us.
Jackie: Yeah. Do we want to take a minute beforehand to just do some breathing or just some coming into the moment?
Maria: Let’s do that.
Jackie: Alright. So wherever you find yourself today, find a comfortable seat. If you’re in a chair, bring your feet flat on the ground and just come to a comfortable position. You can close your eyes if that’s comfortable or keep them open if that’s better for you.
Just take a couple of big, deep breaths into your belly and let yourself settle. Start to give your full weight to the chair you’re sitting on.
With each exhale, let your shoulders draw down your back. And settle away from your ears. With each inhale, let the crown of your head reach toward the sky.
Bring your attention to your face. Let your face relax—the area around your eyes, your forehead, your cheeks, your jaw, your tongue.
Take a few breaths into the softness.
Just relax here and settle on your breath.
And let’s re-awaken by taking three cleansing breaths together. So, on your next inhale, breathe fully into your belly. Take a complete, total inhale. And when you reach the top of this inhale, hold it in for three, two, one. Then exhale as long as you can. So control your exhale, make it really super long.
And when you reach the bottom of that exhale, settle there and just wait for your breath to naturally initiate. And when it does repeat the technique again, taking a full big inhale, hold
at the top for three seconds. And take a long, controlled exhale,
and do this one more time. Let the breath naturally initiate, inhale fully, and hold at the top,
long, controlled exhale.
Let yourself settle at the bottom of your last exhale, and then just return to a natural breath.
When you’re ready, if your eyes are closed, you can open them back up. Welcome back. Thank you for doing that practice with us. Let’s, let’s get into it—a month of practice.
Maria: Let’s start with what worked well.
Jackie: Yeah. What worked well? How did it feel? I’ve been meditating a lot at the same time, and I haven’t even challenged myself to move out of that. And I really liked that progression of just getting a little bit longer, a little bit longer and building up to it. That was really helpful for me.
It made it really accessible.
Maria: Yeah, that’s cool. I don’t have the, doing it every day at the same time quite down yet. But, um, what worked for me was really setting up the space like she described. Making it inviting and, creating a little bit like a ritual around it. I have a candle there now, too.
And turn on the candle every time. Yes, I think that helped a lot. It’s also a good visual reminder every time you pass it in case you forgot. Yeah.
And, yeah.
And I think just like committing to it, just okay, this is just, what, something I Do. I also remind myself that 10 minutes, if you could even just do five minutes or two minutes and it’s fine,
Jackie: Yeah.
Maria: So that’s what helped a lot. And yeah, there’s no goal, really. You can’t do it wrong or right. Don’t have to worry about it so much.
Jackie: Yeah. Absolutely.
From re-reading the book and getting back to the history and the millennia of wisdom that’s accumulated behind the practices and how much time has allowed those, that wisdom to be simplified and to be really, yeah, precise and just the idea that it’s the practice of tranquility, of Shamada is the practice of tranquility, all meditation is really that return to peace and just remembering that was a really good motivator for me.
I’ve been meditating for a long time, but you drift away from some of those parts of it, and I’ll admit it started to become something I check off every day. It was a task that I needed to accomplish, and coming back and reviewing the teachings and everything behind it is just like a reawakening of motivation behind it – bigger than something to check off.
It’s bigger than self-improvement. It’s really a gift. That you can give yourself every day. It’s a moment of peace, and you’re building your integrity of peace and helping to bring yourself back to that baseline. It really helped me find some gratitude for the practice, and I was kind of humbled by it a bit again, as it’s gotten a little away from me.
Yeah.
Maria: Going by this, I think reminders are helpful.
Jackie: Mhm.
Maria: as you said, if it’s just become something to check off or, over time, you might forget details. So I think, reading this book I’m, sounds like it was a good reminder for you and refreshing that. And so I think it’s probably important to periodically just review what you’re doing. What are you actually doing,
Jackie: And that’s, I guess, the importance of Sanga and community, which is to remind you when your practice starts to get stagnant or you hit a plateau that it’s bigger. It’s this incredible, like a universal thing you can tap into that’s there for you, talking to you about it, and reading the book. That’s just reinvigorating that, and I’m reconnecting with that.
And you talked about creating your space, too. A big part of that is remembering that sacredness every time you sit down to meditate.
Maria: Yeah, and adding a ritual around it,
that
Jackie: Yeah.
Maria: It makes it more sacred than the mundane tasks you usually do.
Jackie: The ritual. Absolutely. I really got away from the ritual. And like the lineage part, I’m practicing like on my own little island lately, which it works for me, and it keeps me doing it every day. But I need to regularly get back to connecting with the community, Sanga, and the bigger thing around it.
It’s not just me and my breath. It’s all of us and our breath. I don’t know.
Maria: Yeah. And I mean, it’s a gradual process. Things change. That’s the most inevitable thing ever. And getting that outside perspective is sometimes very helpful.
Jackie: So, did you notice anything from having a consistent practice for a month? Did you like it, or do you think you’ll keep going?
Maria: Yeah, I think, yes, I did like it, and I feel once the environment was set up, It was a lot easier, and it felt pretty natural. I felt some progression of being able to sit longer. The sequence that Susan had given out was pretty. It’s pretty nice and then just extend from there. I did utilize her, recordings at first for the first seven days.
And then, actually, not even for the first seven days because it just got a little distracting. At first, I think it was very helpful, but then at some point, it’s okay. I think I know what to do.
So I’ll do, I can do this. I did have a little bit of music, but without talking. So that helps. Although that, it’s probably a practice as well to be able to still focus even if someone is talking.
Jackie: Yeah. Yeah.
Maria: Yeah. And I did notice also that the length of focusing on my breath got longer, too, without being distracted by thoughts, which is definitely very short at the beginning. If you haven’t done it for a while. And then, from the book, also taking that advice that no, of course, you’re going to think,
Jackie: Yeah.
Maria: I really loved her example. What did she say? So if I asked you to look around, you’re in the room. It’d be easy. But like, look around you in the room and not see anything.
Jackie: Yeah, tell your eyes not to see.
Maria: Tell your eyes not to see.
Jackie: like telling your brain not to think.
Maria: Yes. So that was very helpful, and it’s okay. ou
And yes, I still have impatience during the session, and things like that creep up, but I have to say it definitely, over time, doing it regularly, I don’t know, it makes it easier and more enjoyable and definitely feels calmer overall, I would say.
Jackie: That’s great. That’s what comes up when you meditate a lot, though. You learn so much about yourself and, wow, every day, I’m, you know, getting distracted by this thing in the beginning, I know, at least for me, and I know a lot of people like getting upset when I get distracted from my breath and realizing be like, oh dang I got distracted again, and I’m not thinking about my breathing and that in and of itself is Something that you can work through and heal like why am I judging myself for getting distracted when that’s totally normal? It’s a totally normal thing that’s gonna happen, and you know, every day, we just work on Not judging that distraction, not judging ourselves for things.
And it’s in those little tiny lessons that all that magic blossoms from meditation and those little moments.
Maria: It’s a very accumulative.
Jackie: Yeah, it’s very. The metaphor I was thinking about when reflecting on this was that every time we sit on the mat, it is like a drop in the ocean of our whole meditation practice or our whole mindfulness practice.
Each drop doesn’t seem significant, but you wouldn’t have the ocean without each drop. They’re all significant and important, even though They’re small and incremental.
Maria:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that sometimes something that I noticed with mindfulness exercises and any of these things is that it’s really the impatience that gets in the way.
Yeah. We’re seeking some sort of goal. Ah, I’m still not this perfect meditator.
Jackie: It’s so hard to let go of that goal-oriented thinking and the pace at which we’re used to seeing results for most things. You said you’ve noticed that you’re calmer after just a month of meditating. And there’ll be other things, that pop up after longer. I don’t think you can set any expectations and expect to meet them.
Yeah.
Maria: yeah. That’s really one of the points that Susan makes, too, that there is no goal to this. Can’t expect anything.
Jackie: And sometimes when I’m meditating I don’t typically use videos anymore either. I just do it on my own, but sometimes it’s good. Susan sends out weekly emails. But sometimes I’ll just go back and grab some of her old videos just to refresh it because sometimes I just need someone telling me that again, it’s okay you get distracted. Come back to your breath, just remember you’re here in this practice. And sometimes, I need someone else to remind me of that.
Maria: Yes. Yes. Agreed.
Because we’ve gone all our lives building this internal voice that tells us the other way, right? So, if you’re alone with yourself all the time then that voice might just come back through. Unless you are far enough that you’ve built up the other voice as well, that knows better.
Jackie: So, do you have a little area set up now where you meditate typically? Yeah.
Maria: Yeah, it’s essentially behind my door.
Yeah, And I’ve used the door itself as my decorative space. So that when the door is closed, I have space to go there. When the door is open, it’s a walkway. And then I have a little candle as well.
Jackie: Nice. I love, again, that in the book, Susan Piper talks about how you find your style and you find where you gravitate to. Do you think you’ll be shopping around a bit? Or settle here?
Maria: I think I’ll continue doing this meditation for my daily meditation.I will, however, look around a little bit. I’ve been digging into a kind of heritage based on a DNA test I did a billion years ago. And I just wanted to explore the cultures or the philosophies of those people.
I mean, a lot of it, I know, is not as solid as what’s been done in Buddhism, just because there’s also a lot of writing about it. So, they’re not gonna be as accessible, or, the knowledge is not accessible. Because all they could do was look at some of the archaeological finds sometimes or whatever the Romans have written down on that topic.
It’s not from the real lens of the people, holding the philosophy or living that.
Jackie: Yeah, that’s so disappointing. I’m recently researching Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, which is one of the oldest yoga texts, and looking at its history. It’s postulated that even the earliest history that we have of yoga is probably of some of the authority figures who interpreted what the people were doing.
And they were the ones who knew how to write and write it down. And they did it through their lens, which means it was already washed right there.
Maria: Filtered, Yeah.
Jackie: Yeah. And I think that’s what you’re referring to, right? A lot of these things just weren’t done properly.
Written down in the original voices.
Maria: Yeah, and a lot of times, you have active eradication even of that knowledge. I was looking at Welsh Celtic traditions and like the Welsh spirituality pre-Christian, and it’s just…first of all a lot of it was. At first, only orally transmitted, right? So you don’t have any records there.
So, there are stories that were told. But they had a big culture around telling stories in song. Like bards, and that’s a big thing. The storyteller is like a spiritual figure in that way. And, so yes, they had a culture that was very focused on that.
I think that at the time, it was still flourishing. You had this knowledge being transmitted, but then, you had all this stuff going on with the Romans and the British.
Jackie: Yeah.
Maria: and a lot of the time it wasn’t even allowed. During Roman times, I was still allowed to live, but at some point, living in that culture wasn’t even allowed.
Jackie: Yep.
Maria: And then, of course, all of the records and all of the stories are gone, and not all of them, but a lot of things are lost that way.
And that even happens to Buddhism, even too, to Buddhists documents as well. There are lots that were lost there, too.
Jackie: Yeah. Unfortunately, it’s very prevalent. It’s obviously very reminiscent of the whitewashing of Native American culture as well. We’ve lost so much knowledge and so much story, just to oppression. And that’s too bad. That’s just that’s tragic. But,
Maria: It is. It is. So yeah, I think that’s my path for now. I’ll stick with that and then add other things as they appear to me.
Jackie: Following the path of your heredity that’s a really beautiful direction to take. So many of us are so disconnected from that, so, like, redrawing that, that line, that connection.
Maria: yeah. I can. That’s not always a given, either.
Yeah, it’s a privilege, for sure.
Jackie: I’m excited to see where that goes.
Maria: What about you?
Jackie: Yeah, I did some shopping in the beginning. At the beginning of my practice, I really gravitated toward Zen Buddhism. But I’ve settled more on the Tibetan lineages. The way it approaches it and the way the Tibetan lineages talk about it, like the autonomy of individual people and compassion. It’s funny because I didn’t try to do this, but I ended up following Tibetan lineages in yoga as well. And so it’s just where I gravitate. I really enjoy the tantric philosophies. And that’s actually where my yoga teacher taught me. That’s her lineage as well.
And I guess somehow I just not consciously, but I ended up gravitating toward that region. I’ve found my groove, but I need to remember that as we evolve as people and as we grow, that can change. And there might be something out there for me that better suits a different season of life I may come into.
So, that’s hard to remain open to, especially when you’re in a comfort zone, as I am. I don’t know. I’ll just have to stay sharp. But. I think I’ll continue down this path for now.
Maria: Yeah, and I think even looking at Anything that can be found locally from the tribes that lived here on the land where we live now.
Their land and probably nice if we could find anything that’s,
Jackie: More, yeah, more of our local history. I just bought a book about the stories of the Native tribes of Wisconsin. Which is where I’m speaking from right now. It’s Wisconsin, and so I’m Really excited to get into that and learn the traditions that, stewarded the land that we are occupying right now.
Hopefully, we will continue those since they obviously took such good care of the land before we got here if we could return to that somehow.
Maria: Yeah.
Agreed.
We’ve talked about it when we reviewed Braiding Sweetgrass and she talks about that a lot in the book as well, like the care for the land and the reciprocity with the land.
Jackie: Just those practices that were sustainable for so long. that way of living, that way of being, that had that reciprocity and had that resilience and that sustainability.
Maria: that’s right.
Thank you all for listening. We’re always happy to have you here. And, we won’t be releasing an episode on January 1st because we’re taking December off from podcast for the holidays. The next release will then be in February and we’ll start a whole new three-episode sequence. So we’ll give you some more information once it gets closer to that. And yeah, and for the assignment, I think with the holidays coming up, being with family, meditation is a very important thing. So, I would ask everyone to continue the daily meditation from our last assignment. And if you haven’t started that, maybe you want to start now. You can use the resources mentioned in Susan Piver’s book. As I said, with the holidays and maybe visiting family, we were thinking of seeing what a good mobile version of your meditation space could be if you can’t access it because you’re traveling. So, that is the assignment’s second part.
Jackie: And we’ll be back on February 1st with a new series. But in the meantime, as you’re extending this challenge and working through that daily medication practice, as you need support, reach out and let us know how it’s going. If you have any questions or just want to share your experience, find us at becomingmindfulpodcast.com or at any of our socials @BecomingMindfulPodcast. We’d love to see you there. But otherwise, enjoy your holidays mindfully, hopefully, and until next time, be well.
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