31. Meditate

Find a nice quiet, comfortable place to sit, and meditate for 10, 20, or 30 minutes.

Having a hard time Meditating? Some tips...

• Find a quiet place free from distraction
  
• Sit with your limbs uncrossed and with a straight back, hands in your lap
  
• Simply breathe at regular speed but breathe deeply and relax
  
• Take a simple phrase and repeat it continuously in time with your breathing
  
• Close your eyes and think of a beautiful scene from the natural world

8. Listening Meditation

Be still. Be silent. Listen to every sound around you for 5 minutes. Try to write down each of the sounds, describing exactly what you heard.

You can do this in your living room, a meadow, a park, in the middle of a mall, a bookstore, coffee shop - wherever you feel drawn. Take your journal or sketchbook, find a comfortable, out of the way, place to sit and begin listening. If it helps, close your eyes. Do not focus on one particular conversation or sound, but allow your attention to float to all of the sounds around you.

After several (or 5) minutes, begin to write about the experience. Try to recall how certain sounds made you feel. Did anything strike your funny bone? Did you hear different conversations juxtaposing? were any of the sounds jarring? soothing? etc.

5. Eating Meditation

Treat yourself to a bag of really good trail mix or granola, find a quiet, comfortable place to sit and relax. Close your eyes, put your hand in the bag of trail mix (or granola) and pull out one piece. Study it with your fingers (eyes still closed). Put it in your mouth, but don’t chew. Instead, roll the piece of food around your tongue, feel the texture, allow it to roll from the tip of your tongue to the middle and sides before you bite into it. Once you bite, chew slowly making note of every texture and taste. Try this several times with different pieces of trail mix. When you’re done, write about the experience.