5, 6 Pick Up Sticks

Days 5 an 6 of the Big Sit were certainly challenging....but for very different reasons. Day 5's sit was Friday night after dinner and day 6 was late morning after Yoga.

Day 5 was strangely the better of the two. I've been sitting in the evening, mainly because my body isn't quite flexible enough early in the morning to comfortably sit. My evening sits are after work, dinner and dinner clean up so it's really a change of pace to sit. Mentally it usually takes a few minutes to settle in from being active and engaged to sitting and being mindful. Physically though it is much easier, my body is quite relaxed and ready to just settle in.

On Friday, I actually was surprised to wind up cooking (I hadn't expected it), but after the initial jolt of changing pace to cooking mode, I did loose my edge and settle nicely. Dinner actually came out very well, best batch of potato pancakes I think I've made. Clean up was pretty easy and then a quick shower, shave and ready to sit. But was sitting ready for me?

I generally sit in our closet, is that a bit strange? Maybe, but the closet provides an escape from the menagerie that is normally home life (wife, teenage daughter, 2 dogs, 2 cats). So I go up to the closet and my daughter is in the shower and the boom box is blaring. OK, now this is going to be a challenge. We'll if Noah Levine can meditate in chaos, well hey, then so can I.

What a surprise, the noise was actually easy to tune out, I didn't pay any attention to it, just my breath. My breath concentration was the best it has been yet, and my body was very relaxed. twenty minutes felt like 10 and it just flew by.

Day 6, in contrast was so difficult to settle. That was surprising also, because I had been to yoga in the morning, I was very relaxed and stretched out and my mind was really very still. When I went to sit however, I settled right in for about the first 7 or 8 minutes, then it was a fight. Total fidgeting, couldn't sit still.

Maybe it was the unrealistic expectation of having been to yoga and being calm, just couldn't live up to it. So Days 5 & 6 were certainly a Yin / Yang experience, that the more I think about, seems clear to be the result of differing expectations.

Day 5, low expectations, high distraction level but good sit.
Day 6, high expectations, low distraction level, poor sit.

Maybe the sits were actually the same, I just perceived them differently. A lesson to ponder perhaps........