so i wanted to challenge myself to do an
hour of meditation a day for a whole
week
and there's a couple of reasons why i
want to do that first of all i just
wanted to test myself to challenge
myself
to see what i'm capable of doing i have
never meditated anywhere near this
amount
or this consistently ever before i do
meditate usually like 10 to 20 minutes
using the headspace app
i'm not sponsored by them but i really
like i
really love actually the application and
what they're all about
it has helped me be more consistent even
though i don't quite meditate every day
but i've i had never meditated
consistently on my own
for so long you know for even close to
an hour
and the other reason is to kind of see
if
meditation on this kind of scale
this sort of regularity can have an
impact on my
mental health on my happiness
seems like there's a ton of articles a
ton of information about it out there
but i don't see a lot of people
i don't know anybody in my life that
meditates that amount that consistently
i've been dealing with huge waves of
anxiety
recently that uh i don't i don't really
know where it's coming from
it's alarmingly consistent it happens to
me like every day now
it'll come out of nowhere and it'll kind
of grab me by the chest and
hold incredibly tight for hours on end
and to me that speaks volumes to the
fact that
i'm clearly not dealing with something
from my past or in my present
emotionally or spiritually there's
something i'm avoiding or running from
and i'm always looking for creative and
positive solutions to
address stuff like this that's one of
the remarkable things about meditation
it's that
i've noticed it's the only time i spend
in a day necessarily where i'm
truly like in my body and not
doing something for somebody or or for
to make money or to you know any sort of
express gain it's
it's for it's just to be within myself
and to be in this body in this lifetime
on this planet and
you know when i say it that way it's
it's like how am i not
putting more importance into something
so valuable
right our time is so incredibly finite
and when we're so busy running around
it feels like it slips away so much
faster
so i just want to be course correcting a
little bit
and trying to bring more of that back
into my life
so with all that being said we'll see
how things go
okay it's like 6 30 in the morning i'll
be honest with you
an hour of meditation seems like a long
time that's what i'm trying to do like
i'm making tv
i'm in a light incense i'm trying to
like kind of
make the whole experience as inviting as
possible
i'm going to fall asleep while i'm
meditating you know i don't want to like
go down a rabbit hole with my thoughts
so
i don't know we'll see what happens
[Music]
so that was a lot more difficult than i
thought definitely felt like forever
i feel a little bit more like just calm
and grounded
and sort of in my body just more present
than usual especially in the morning
so that's really cool that's really
positive but
very challenging like i couldn't stop
sort of following the trail of my
thoughts throughout the entire hour
so something i hope i can kind of like
make progress on throughout this week
uh also i don't know if you could tell
in the time lapse but i was
freezing i had the window open so that i
could listen to nature
which was cool i could listen to there
was a one point where there were some
birds
and there was some rain but
it was freezing and so i had to put
socks on at one point and then towards
the end i just closed the window
so yeah i think it was a positive
experience i will say
um my lack of discipline
is pretty obvious like i could i could
tell i was struggling
there was a lot of internal noise going
on so it's a decent first day
uh there's a part of me that's like oh
my god how am i gonna do this six more
times but
i'm just gonna do it one day at a time
and
hopefully there's improvement as i go
through
[Music]
the incense is lit now uh it wasn't
during the time lapse i tried
today once again felt very very long
longer in fact than yesterday
um was really challenged with lots of
thoughts
i'm a doer so i'm always thinking about
what i could be doing or what i want to
accomplish
but i'm just accepting those thoughts
and and sitting in the quiet
uh following my breath i am noticing
that in the like
two to five minutes after meditation so
far
um there's this almost like natural high
where i feel very light and very
positive and very
energized from the whole experience
i mean i've only done two days and two
hours of meditation so
that's where i'm going to leave it right
now i'm curious to see what happens
i'm definitely in it for the whole week
though i'm not giving up on this
yeah i feel uh more grounded and more
busy yeah after an hour of doing that it
definitely takes
a lot of the natural jitters that
sometimes i have
out all right
it's nice to meditate with the rain i
will tell you that
i have started to notice that in the
last couple days i was
quite focused and productive more so
than usual i don't think it's all down
to meditation but it definitely feels
like a factor
today was the most enjoyable it's been
so far and
i think part of that is because i'm
setting my phone on airplane mode
and so i'm unreachable for an entire
hour and that's like
quite nice that is a very nice feeling
to have such privacy and such
mental and and personal space i was a
little bit more experimental than i was
in the last couple of days in the sense
that
i did breathing exercises and you know
the stuff that i know to quiet the mind
but i also
tried for example asking myself
why i am afraid where are my fears
coming from
and i did get some answers uh i
am realizing that there's a lot of
change coming in my life
in the next few months a huge amount as
in like
total life changes and
there is fear associated with that
because i don't want to lose all the
stuff that i've got
you know it's not just i am afraid of
losing my comfortable
life but also i'm afraid of bad things
happening to me or bad things happening
to my family
and just shining a spotlight on it
sort of helps to dispel it like you know
i'm inventing these things
i'm also trying this kind of a weird uh
i don't know if this is an actual thing
but visualizing
light shining and flowing through my
body and sort of
uh replenishing myself and
revitalizing and that
is kind of contributing i think to a
sense of lightness
in my body and a feeling of positivity
and optimism
so i don't know maybe i just made this
up but it is
something that i kind of want to explore
a little bit more over the rest of the
week this week
and the other thing that was different
today is that um it's lunch time
so i'm meditating a lot later in the day
that was kind of nice too
to sort of break up the day i had a
little bit of a crazy morning and this
has helped to bring down some of my
crazy impulsiveness and you know
sporadic behavior
yeah lots of reflection it's only day
three obviously but
um i am really liking how this is going
for sure
i guess as a final thought for today uh
i i want to reiterate how surface level
i still feel like i am
meditating for an hour a day has made me
realize that there is
so so much to explore it's like having
the entire
uh earth in my mind
and um i've only been living in one city
or one town so far
and so i'm just like just starting to
step outside of it so i
definitely do not want to make it sound
like i'm having incredible revelations
or
personality changes or anything like
that
this is just dipping my toes into
what could be something that is a lot
larger than i originally realized
yeah all right
so day like today was kind of the reason
why i was
trepidatious going into something like
this i don't think it shows at all in
the time lapse but
i just spent the whole hour in turmoil
and kind of struggling through just
thought after thought and getting pulled
this way and that so
just really frustrating
i want to keep things real yesterday
sucked super frustrating
not a great session and i didn't want to
skip over that because i think it's a
really important part of this whole
process
but at the same time i didn't want to
spiral in the negativity so i kept
things short but today was
way way more positive went by more
quickly
felt better in general i think a huge
part of that a huge reason why
things went better today was because i
slept better and more last night
i decided to leave the the window open
to let some of the outside noise in
because it was really nice
listening to the wind and and the rain
while i was meditating
i think the contrast between yesterday
and today really helped me remember how
hard i
am on myself which i am coming to
see as a really big negative borderline
abusive
you know i was really frustrated with
how things went and blaming myself for
all of it yesterday it's so silly you
know this is
meant to be a positive sort of challenge
that i'm placing on myself for this week
exploring something new it not going
well should not result in me
criticizing myself and being down on
myself and
i think that's something that's really
awesome about meditation it's
it's really just a mirror on yourself
you know i'm seeing
all these things about myself coming out
and
having to just face them and accept them
and reflect with them and think about
them
it's kind of weird to describe it
because i don't know if everybody is
like this
uh i i know that for me i've always got
a lot going on in my mind
and i'm just sort of an intense person
so these
hour sessions of meditation are actually
like really intense there's a lot going
on internally
i'm also trying this thing where i am
just asking myself to feel
some of the things that scare me or
put me in a bad place in a negative
place stuff that even
i'm realizing happened two three four
years ago
and just feeling it i'm just letting it
wash over me
because i notice that the feeling never
lasts you know it's almost like i have a
reaction
to the potential of that sensation
of negativity or whatever you know more
so even
than that actual trigger you know it's
almost like i'm anticipating
so it's funny i think i mentioned this
one of the last few days but just
shining a spotlight on stuff
which is something that i don't do
because i'm often just
running around doing stuff all the time
really diminishes
how large some of these like internal
things are
okay
so before starting this whole challenge
if you will i mentioned
anxiety as a major reason for wanting to
explore this and try this out
and i'm so thankful that i've taken this
on because
emotional stability is something that
i'm just really motivated
right now to seek out it's a huge
reason why i'm creating content again
surrounding productivity
and mental well-being and balance
because i feel like i really lack that
in my life you know like
i have really high highs and really low
lows and i'm trying to mitigate that
and approach that in a productive and
constructive way
meditation so far has been by far the
most effective
and efficient thing that i've tried of
all the things that i've tried
to bring that back to my life now make
no mistakes about it meditation has been
kicking my ass these last six days
but it has also had a measurable impact
on studying the ship i definitely feel
like
it is at the very least giving me
perspective
and awareness on
how to approach some of the emotional
lows that i feel like i often
dive into i think it's really important
to say
and i'm afraid of sounding redundant
here but meditating
hasn't been fun in the typical sense of
the word
um but it has had
this impact that has permeated
throughout the rest of my week
you know it's been a really good
investment of my time and energy
this whole idea of mental and emotional
stability is what ultimately led me to
stoicism which i first heard about
through tim ferriss
it's this school of thought this
philosophy if you will that flourished
with the ancient greeks and romans
it basically centers around this idea
that um
you know self-discipline is extremely
important
and you should put all of your energy
and focus on what you can control which
is essentially just your mind and your
reactions to things
and not put any energy or attention to
the things that you cannot control um
external forces or what other people do
i might make a video or two um about
this because it's had a really big
impact on my life
but that's basically what i decided to
meditate on today
i read a few passages this morning from
the daily stoic
which is a book i highly recommend i'll
link it down below and that was kind of
nice to sort of frame my mind
going into the meditation wow
the last day not crazy
[Music]
okay final day let's do this thing
[Music]
all right that was a week of one hour of
meditation a day
proud to have done it honestly we did it
you guys we did it
yeah today was awesome today was like
you know sort of thinking about how
difficult it was at the beginning of the
week and obviously it remains difficult
but it was
less so you know you get kind of used to
it and an hour doesn't seem
so interminable anymore still feels very
long but it doesn't feel
like so painful honestly i'm realizing
the power of habits
and and and repeating actions positive
actions
in your daily life every day and uh if
anything i realize that i need
this hour every day in fact i probably
need more than this one
hour a day i'm the kind of person that
really needs
a sort of grounding and centering
practice and meditation is exactly that
i talked about this a little bit
yesterday but the the time that i put
into this this week
really did feel like some of the best
use of my time
it's funny i'm not really like
accomplishing anything or
you know getting anything done if you
will but
but in a way i am so it's a difficult
thing to sort of
explain especially to somebody who
doesn't meditate but um
to anybody who's you know maybe curious
about doing this sort of thing
or trying this out i say go for it i
mean what do you have to lose
now is it realistic for me to be doing
an hour of meditation every day
no not really i probably won't be able
to do it
every single day but i'm gonna
definitely try i mean as often as i can
and if i can't do an hour i'll do half
an hour
i mean i truly do believe that there has
been sort of a shift
this week however subtle i definitely do
feel a little bit different
and a little bit more kind of in control
of things and a little bit
more solid if you will
i hope this video served to kind of show
that meditation isn't you know
home for four hours a day in a robe
it can be built into your daily life and
it can be in the morning or at night
sometimes i'll meditate at night
to sort of try to end the day calm the
mind and get ready for bed
yeah so again i hope that this
potentially inspired some of you out
there to kind of give this a shot
and i'm going to try and keep building
on this myself you know keep this streak
going
if you like this video and would like to
see more of this kind of content on this
channel
definitely let me know i read all the
comments and that
seriously helps me know what kinds of
videos are having an impact and what
kinds of videos
are sought after by you guys i also want
to briefly mention there's loads of
different ways you could potentially
support me
which also goes a really long way
towards me
uploading more often to this channel
i've got a patreon you can sign up to my
newsletter
i've got a store online too where i sell
prints that i work really hard on and
some presets too whole bunch of cool
stuff
so i'll have links down below i'll have
links everywhere
and uh yeah stick around
[Music]
bye