I meditated 1 hour every day for 30 days

all right so I guess I'm just supposed to sit down here legs crossed palms up and clear my mind no thoughts stop thinking just focus on the breath [Music] all right it's actually pretty easy I honestly don't understand why people find meditation so difficult wait am I thinking okay that's right focus on the breath in and now and you can use to this kind of peaceful kind of calm focus on my I'm thinking again [ __ ] this is hard meditation has gone mainstream it's no longer just reserved for mystics and hipsters who wash their beard only once a year it's made its way into every corner of our society from the military to the classroom to the boardroom simply doing nothing studies have shown that meditation can improve focus sleep heart health reduce your blood pressure decrease stress anxiety and even make you nicer my wife is a very community right the 2012 study found just 8% of Americans have tried meditation at least once compare that to 52% who have tried smoking weed and while the latter is mind-altering in its own way for most Americans finding weed can be much more difficult than sitting still for 10 minutes so the big question we have to ask knowing what most of us do about meditation why aren't more people not only trying it but keeping it up consistently to answer that question we could look at my own life if there's anyone that fits the description of someone who would meditate it's me I'm a self-help nerd I've done it in the past I know it's good for me but I simply haven't kept up to have it the reason why is a little bit complicated but if I'm being honest with myself I simply haven't made it a priority but I'd wonder what would happen if I focused on meditating for 30 days not only that how about an hour every single day for 30 days with the benefits be strong enough for me to want to stick through with it for the long run let's find out oh and by the way I'm not doing this challenge alone natalie is joining me in committing to doing 10 minutes of meditation a day why did you decide to join me on this 30 day challenged because I like sharing things with you and I thought it would be a beneficial way to bring more well-being practices into my everyday life and I just try something new instead of doing it all in one big chunk I've decided to split up my meditations at least for the beginning into one 30-minute meditation in the morning and a 30-minute one at night even that was tough so I just finished my first meditation and it was brutal I was fidgeting a lot I was adjusting myself I was stuck in thought I was trying to solve all these problems of things that I have to do later today I was thinking about recording this video afterwards some of the things that I might say in the video just overthinking everything and not just sitting still in the present moment so it felt a lot like a failure although the fact that I sat down is a good is a good first step things didn't start out so well for NAT either this is a reoccurring character in my videos called life and has been known to punch people in the face on day one nak came down with a really bad migraine and was unable to get out of bed and unable to meditate but now did get back on her feet or at least the cushion for day two the methods of meditation we'll be using over the next thirty days will vary but they all have their route in a practice called mindfulness will be using Sam Harris's waking up app as our guide mindfulness isn't so much a technique of meditation as it is a quality of the mind itself it is simply undistracted attention it's the ability to notice the sights and sounds and sensations and even thoughts that are arising in consciousness in each moment in a way that isn't cluttered or even mediated by concepts this isn't just about relaxing it's not even about stopping yourself from thinking that might be impossible unless you're Natalie hey it's observing everything that arises seeing the inner workings of your mind and noticing the patterns we fall into you're seeing how crazy you are and that actually has a real value a systematic collision with the [ __ ] in your head has a real value because when the [ __ ] offers you up a shitty suggestion in the rest of your life which is basically its job like oh yeah you should eat the 17th cookie or say the thing that's gonna ruin the next 48 hours your marriage or whatever you're better able to resist it day for Frenette I like the course because it's actually like stretching I feel like this sounds douchey but it feels like it's stretching my mind that's five hours of meditating so far just wasting my day imagine all the videos you could have done five hours it was apparent from the very beginning that having a course and app something to follow along with it's helpful for even understanding why you're doing this to begin with and having something to guide you along the way as you think you're doing it completely wrong there are tons of popular apps for meditation I'm using Sam Harris's you might find similar success with headspace 10% happier or another app of your choice after a few days I started to get more comfortable more settled into meditation I also started to realize how truly difficult it is to stay in the present moment how often I get swept up in my own thoughts and how difficult it is to not judge myself for it when I catch myself I also realized that doing - 30 minutes dents in and of itself was also pretty ambitious and it would be much more productive if I split it out and spread it across my day from 5 to 10 to 15 minute meditations it wasn't until day 11 that I started to see some of the benefits slip into the rest of my day I wrote in my journal one night I can feel more productive more locked into conversation with Natalie more aware of every word she says and she says a lot my focus has grown even when it comes to listening to audiobooks I can feel my mind start to drift and I will be able to catch myself much quicker and bring myself back to the I'm realizing that my attention has always been scattered and it has less to do with the messages around me and more to do with the messages I'm creating in my own mind I'm sitting here writing this after a short six minute meditation I'm staring out of the palm trees the cool breeze is hitting me a car whose muffler seems to be broken rattles past I can taste my whiskey in a way that I rarely do I can hold on to these things longer and yet still let them go so there are two things that I really liked about Sam Harris's guided meditation one is that oftentimes throughout the meditation he'll give pause and say the moment you find yourself lost in thought bring yourself either back to your breath catch that thought that you were having listened to the sounds that are appearing and it was a great reminder to be present to be aware because every time he did mention that I happened to be lost in thought and the other thing that he does is for the final 60 seconds he'll often say in the final minute of this meditation just begin again if you found yourself lost in thought throughout this session for the final 60 seconds start again focus on the breath and it made me feel is even if the past nine fifteen minutes were a complete wash or it felt like a waste if I ended the meditation with sixty Seconds where I was really mindful where I was aware of my surroundings and I was present I felt as if it wasn't a complete waste and I felt better about meditating in general living in Los Angeles there are no shortage of distractions so I wondered if getting away for a few days on a miniature retreat would help expedite the process so it's halfway through the month and I'm packing my bags for the desert for quiet and solitude my friends that's how you pack as a minimalist [ __ ] I forgot about my film gear [Music] [Music] [Music] it's really quiet here like eerily quiet I feel like I'm making a lot of progress but I wanted to come up here to experience solitude experience quiet and meditate in an environment that was almost free of distractions I have a fly flying around here so there are some distractions this fly was definitely testing me on this meditation I almost say that kind of broke my process quite a bit I felt like it was the Karate Kid or Kill Bill or something that it will catch fright with jeopardy I feel like no matter what no matter where you are there are going to be potential distractions there's always something that will potentially come into your awareness and really I guess the whole idea of meditation is just to be aware of those things and to observe justice I didn't get it so judging me all right man this is great I'm like day 18 right now I'm already starting to think about ways that I can implement this into my life past the 30 days I don't think it's gonna be an hour but I do want to find a way to bring meditation into my life benefits to me are pretty clear at this point you know what the one thing I'll say is that during the day the quietness the solitude is really peaceful but at night look quiet turns to terror it's really creepy out here like we're truly in the middle of nowhere oh my god somebody's here I don't know who that is what is this who is this oh hey it was Natalie and my sister they wanted to join me for a couple days I always thought as meditation as like just a really pure way to relax it's kind of hard work I'm not sure I love it decision made I don't like it after a couple more days at the cabin and just as many hours of meditation I felt recharged and ready to get back to reality but before we left I had one job to finish [Music] you know I'm not gonna lie I think I reach enlightenment on this trip and as we got back in the final days of the month went by we wrapped up our meditation challenge the big question you might have is did Natalie eventually come around to and experience the same benefits that I did I liked it once in a while so I like this time to get like it's a way to get time out and to relax when I think and as for myself I feel pretty good I feel yeah I think you know I feel I feel more mindful I feel more president I feel like it's something that I definitely want to bring into my life on a daily basis definitely not for one hour there were some negative effects of going this hard in the beginning it's kind of like running a marathon before you've ever done a 5k my time wasn't that productive although I didn't injure myself physically I did find myself mentally fatigued and I do believe that the difference between zero and ten minutes of meditating every day is a far greater difference than 10 minutes to 60 so I'm gonna lower this down I'm gonna go 10 minutes every morning for the next 30 days and see how that feels the process of letting go of stuff physically in our life the things in our life can be relatively easy letting go of things that happened in our past negative relationships negative thoughts is something that takes a lot more work and a lot more practice and I found that meditation is really one of the greatest ways to do that thanks for watching if you like my videos you might also enjoy my newsletter every Tuesday I send out a short email on minimalism habits and productivity if you sign up right now you'll get access to my 20-minute documentary called unstuck the five steps to change this is a newsletter exclusive that you can't get anywhere else no spam unsubscribe whenever you want get it at Matt develop calm there's a link down in the description thanks for watching I'm really hungry oh me too wait did you hear what I'm saying wait do you hear what I'm saying what the [ __ ] wait huh oh my god [Music] [Laughter]

Channel: Matt D'Avella

Views: 2,348,603

Rating: 4.9397697 out of 5

Keywords: meditation, sam harris, meditate, meditation 1 hour a day, i meditated 1 hour every day for 30 days, i meditated everyday for 30 days, how to meditate, how to meditate for beginners, i meditated for 1 hour every day for 30 days, meditation for beginners, 30 day challenge, i meditated every day for 30 days (challenge), meditating for 30 days, 30 days, how to meditate every day, i meditated for 30 days, matt davella, Matt D'Avella

Id: BZqIya_7NQU

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/elAntonio]

They used Sam’s app!