I Tried Meditation for 30 Days, Here’s What I Learned

Over the last 18 months or so, I’ve become increasing obsessed with self-improvement and productivity. I constantly want to push myself to be the best version of me, growing 1% every day and compounding the progress over time. One thing I’ve never done however, is measure my progress or experiments. Until now.

Recently I decided to start measuring my progress and lessons learned through short-term experiments. The first of which was mediation. I had tried meditation at various points in my life before, from guided meditation to silently sitting alone in a room, but nothing ever stuck.

To control the experiment a little more, I decided on the following parameters:

1. Each meditation would be for 10 minutes.

2. I would journal after each meditation, recording how I felt.

3. I would meditate alone, without guidance.

Instead of walking you through the last 30 days from a historical viewpoint, I’ve decided to share my raw, unedited meditation log from the experiement. If you’d like to skip to the lessons I took from this journey, you can skip to the last paragraph.

Meditation Log

6/6/22

Mind was busy with thoughts. Struggled to shut them out. Had periods of quiet mind and it was very peaceful. Remember thinking “10 minutes is a long time”.

7/6/22

Today was a lot more enjoyable. I used my breathe to centre me, which I found to be useful. My mind was still busy with “shower thoughts”, and I struggled to push them out of mind

8/6/22

A great meditation. I used today as an opportunity to try love & compassion meditation. It was difficult, especially trying to feel true joy for someone I don’t get along with. Something for me to work on.

9/6/22

A very interesting session today. As I got further into it, I started to feel myself drifting into a deep state, losing feeling in my hands and feet. It felt like it was just me and my breathe, it was slightly surreal.

10/6/22

Another enjoyable meditation. I struggled to sink into a rhythm at first, but when I did, I lost track of time. There were times where I kept focus on my breathe and emptied my mind, but some thoughts I let myself explore, which I’m starting to find value in.

11/6/22

Today was harder than previous days. With it being a Saturday, I tend to not have quite the same routines as during the week. There is also a lot more atmospheric noise in the house, so by extension, more opportunity for distraction during the practice.

12/6/22

The hardest meditation to date. The day slipped away from me and I ended up doing my practice at the end of the day. As a result, I had a days worth of thoughts running through my mind that I struggled to keep quiet.

13/6/22

This mornings meditation was back into routine and it felt much better. After experiencing meditation late in the day of the weekend, morning is by far my preference.

14/6/22

After an unsettling start to the day, today’s meditation was, frankly, awful. I struggled to focus, my mind was racing and I ended the meditation 1 minute early. It’s in times of major discomfort that I need to learn to come back to what is easy to me when life is going my way.

15/6/22

Today I was able to get back to a good practice. I felt myself getting into a much deeper meditation as the practice went on. It was incredibly relaxing and mindful, if not slightly surreal. I hope to have more practices like today. I’m very grateful for it.

16/6/22

A slight blooper moment here. I totally forgot to write my meditation log this morning. I was so focused on getting start on my work early that I forgot to give myself a moment after my meditation to reflect fully. That is a lesson in itself and something I’m trying really hard to improve on — slowing down and to stop rushing.

17/6/22

I like to explore meditation in different ways. Sometimes, like today, I let my mind wonder. It’s not traditional but I find that my mind will drift to thoughts that need to be resolved, so I use my meditation as an opportunity to do so. I find that I come out of the meditation practice with a weight off my shoulders.

18/6/22

I enjoyed my meditation very much. I fell into a much deeper mental state, which was slightly surreal.

19/6/22

My mind felt very busy today. I had moments where I really sank into the practice but others where thoughts were echoing around inside my head — a tough practice.

20/6/22

The best meditation to date. My mind feels truly at peace. I still had thoughts, as we all do in quiet moments, but I felt present in the moment and calm throughout.

21/6/22

A mixed day. Plenty on my mind that I struggled to block out. Should I be trying to block it out, or should I work through it?

22/6/22

Thinking back to my first meditation, I can tell that I’m far more focused and I sink into a meditative state far easier now than I did then. An enjoyable meditation.

23/6/22

Today I struggled to take my mind off golf. That sounds silly but last night I played 9 holes, and my mind kept going over how I played, reflecting on where to improve.

24/6/22

My mind is torn. I’m having an internal battle with myself over something that’s going on at work, and it’s all that I had in my mind. Though meditation is a useful tool in this situation. It allowed me to start working through the different aspects of how I was feeling and why.

25/6/22

That was a great practice. I was getting into a really good rhythm and then my cat came in for attention, rubbing around my feet. For me, part of meditation is grounding yourself in the present and moments like that, which being a smile to your face, are crucial.

26/6/22

I really sunk into a deep meditation this evening. I felt like I was physically in my house but mentally I was in a totally different place. The only downside was that it ended too soon.

27/6/22

Whether I was drifting off to sleep, day dreaming or in a deep meditation, I’m not quite sure. Again, I slumped into a deep state and was felt like I was mentally in another place. It felt amazing.

28/6/22

I’ve started reading “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek and it’s really got me thinking about my “why”. So today, I used my meditation as an opportunity to start exploring my why. It was far more insightful than I had initially expected.

29/6/22

By no means my best meditation. Yesterday evening we played 9 holes of golf and it was possibly my worst yet. My mind kept going back to what I did wrong, how I can work to improve, etc. but whether it was a good practice or bad, meditating every day will help me improve with time.

30/6/22

The part of meditation that I love most is losing all concept of time. When I’m in that moment, I’m nowhere but the present. No clock, no concept of how quickly or slowly time is passing. It’s incredible.

1/7/22

Today I started to learn more about my own why, exploring the different paths it was taking me down. I came out of my meditation with a new understand of my why.

2/7/22

I’m finding that a mediative state comes to me a lot easier than when I first started this challenge. Today was interesting, I almost felt like I was in a daydream rather than meditating, switching between different states of mind.

3/7/22

Today was the first time I gave up on a meditation. I couldn’t get into it, which is my mistake for leaving it until just before going to bed. Knowing I have to be up early to travel, yet leaving my meditation so late, was a mistake on my part. It just wasn’t to be today.

4/7/22

A different meditation today. I’m travelling to and from London for work, which means very little opportunity for me to meditate at home. I decided to meditate on the train, which compared to my quiet house, had many atmospheric noises that I’m not used to.

5/7/22

A meditation filled with distraction. Half way through, the dog and cat had a big of an argument, which I reacted to and got myself out of my flow.

What I Learned from Meditation

The point of any experiment is to learn something — this one was no different. Having previously struggled to meditate, how did I find it? Well, here are my key takeaways:

1. Timed meditation doesn't work for me. Some days, 10 minutes was too long, such as days where I was travelling and working from dusk until dawn. Others, it wasn’t long enough. The timer would ring just as I got into a flow state and it disrupted my thoughts completely.

2. I’ve never felt so self-aware. During and since this experiment, I’ve noticed that I have heightened self-awareness. Whether that’s a genuine change or a placebo effect, it’s hard to say, however, I feel more in-tune with my emotions (positive and negative) than ever before.

3. Progress isn’t linear. With most things in my life, I’ve always looked for linear progress and assumed that only positive results mean that we’re growing in the right direction. Meditation taught me the opposite. I constantly had good days and bad days, days where I instantly fell into flow and others where I never came close. Regardless, I came out the other side with the knowledge that I had made progress towards learning a new skill. It’s okay to take a backwards step sometimes, in fact, I learned more from the bad days than the good.

So will I continue? Absolutely. I’ve seen the value of meditation throughout this 30 day journey, especially when it comes to my emotions and working through thoughts and anxieties, both surface level and deep, underlying ones. I’m not going to guarantee that I’ll do it every day, but I’ll certainly endeavour to do so.

What about you? Should you try meditation? Yes. I’d strongly advise anyone reading this to give it a go, even if it’s just for a week. In these uncertain times we live in, where stress and anxiety are ready to greet you at every corner, having meditation or another tool to help you deal with it is essential. It’s certainly helped me.

As I said at the start of this blog, these 30 day experiments are a new approach to measuring my progress and trying new things. If you’re interested in more of these in the future, please leave a comment and consider following me. Oh, and if there’s an experiment you think I should try, let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you.