Winning Stillness: An Invitation to Join our May Meditation Challenge

We’d like to invite the extended Gaian community to participate in our first ever, and perhaps the first annual May Meditation Challenge.

Yes, a challenge might seem like the very antithesis of meditation—but that’s exactly the point. We’re hoping to reach folks who don’t yet have a dedicated meditation practice. We’re hoping they (you?) can shed their preconceived notions of what meditation is “supposed” to be like. We’re hoping to get you to establish a personal practice of your own, especially if you’ve never practiced before. Or maybe your established practice could use a booster? All are welcome to participate.

To participate, all you have to do is meditate. The idea is just to take five minutes each day to step outside for a simple mindful breathing exercise. You can do this. It’s only for one month! If you already get outside and meditate each day, perhaps in the morning, we challenge you to go out a second time—either at solar noon or in the evening¹—and if you already do twice, then for the boldest contenders, we challenge you to challenge yourself to hit the most difficult mark of Gaian meditation: meditating three times outside each day (as explored here).² Again, each of these can be a brief moment to clear your mind, attune to the larger living Earth and local ecological community you’re part of, to breathe, reconnect with Gaia’s cycles, and reset your intentions and focus. Below are some details on a simple meditation you can follow.³

If you want to participate in the community aspect of this—to benefit from the cultivation of shared commitment and stories—we’ll make an email thread to include all participants (easiest is to join the Gaians community email group and we’ll make a thread but if you’d rather only receive these emails, please email erik@gaianway.org and he’ll loop you in).

The Gaian Way’s Communications Director Nikki Woods will also be posting about the challenge on social media, so you can share your experiences and spread the challenge that way as well. We’ll also schedule a very brief check-in half way through—May 15th at 1pm ET, which can serve as a time to draw in new energy if your energy is waning (or share your enthusiasm with those whose energy might be waning). We’ll also hold an online celebration for all those who participated, adding even just a few extra times to their meditation routine, on Saturday May 31st (we’ll set the time through a doodle poll). And of course, attendance to either of those is an optional part of the challenge.

Mindful Breathing with Gaia

Prep

• Take five minutes to sit still, by yourself, outside somewhere. It doesn’t have to be a pristine wilderness. Your porch, yard or even a weedy alley will do. If you cannot go outside, find nature through an open window.⁴ The idea isn’t to romanticize nature as some sort of ideal; rather, it’s to remind yourself of the undeniable reality of this living planet.
• Perhaps you have a mental or physical list if things you need to be doing. Set that aside. It will be there for you later. It’s only a five minutes, after all.
• Mute your phone.
• Actually, you might use your phone as a timer (but keep the notifications and ringer muted). Or use an old-fashioned kitchen timer, or whatever works for you. Set it for five minutes.⁵
• Observe good posture. Don’t slouch back into the past or lean forward into the future. Sit up straight, in the present.
• Mornings are recommended, the closer to sunrise the better—particularly for those not meditating at all. Then at solar noon and at dusk. Try all of these, and reflect on the question, “What’s the best time(s) for you?”

Practice

• Breathe normally. You can pay attention to the breath if you like—what it feels like, how it is, where it’s emerging from (throat, chest, or abdomen).
• Notice any sights, sounds, or other sensations that you are experiencing. You don’t have to judge them or sort them into good or bad. Just notice them.
• Thoughts and feelings will inevitably arise. Not a problem. You don’t have to judge them either. Just notice them.
• When you find yourself following a train of thought—when you catch yourself “going down the rabbit hole”—simply let those thoughts go, and return to a state of open awareness, attuning yourself once again to the larger world around you—to the rustling of trees, to the birds, to the squirrels, or even the busy-ness of the human animals around you, when those crowd out other sounds.
• It sounds simple. It is simple. But don’t worry if your mind (or the larger world) seems noisy. The point is not so much to avoid the noise as to notice it and then let it go.
• When your morning meditation time is over, take a moment to reflect on your aspirations for the day. What kind of person will you be today? How will you serve Gaia today?

One Month Experiment

• Take five minutes every morning in May. If you already have an irregular meditation practice, try to make it more regular. If you already meditate regularly every morning, try adding an additional meditation at solar noon or sunset — or both.
• Try to extend your practice of open awareness throughout the day.
• At month’s end, take stock. Did this practice change your life in any way, and if so, how? Will you continue? That’s totally up to you. Just know that there’s a community here that’s rooting for you.
• If want to participate, engage with others deepening their meditation practice, share your successes and your struggles, join our May Meditation Challenge!

Endnotes

1) As meditation quiets the sympathetic nervous system, meditating before meals can help with digestion but it’s best to time one’s meditation in a way where it’s easiest to stick to—whether that’s easier with certain day marks or embedded in one’s daily routine.

2) Not sure there are any already meditating outdoors three times a day, but if so, your challenge is this: don’t miss a single time this month of May. That’s 93 times. Can you do it?

3) This approach is adapted in part from Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness by Deborah Schoeberlein. Billed as a “guide for anyone who teaches anything,” it’s a wonderful book and highly recommended.

4) If you cannot see nature from a window and are home-bound, meditating with an indoor plant is a third option.

5) Or longer if you want to extend the time you meditate as part of this challenge.

Collectively written by Bart Everson, Erik Assadourian, and Nikki Woods