March Plan: Meditate Three Times Per Week

The goal for March is to meditate three times per week. 

On top of this goal, I will be continuing the habits from January (yoga three times per week) and February (eliminate added sugar).  

Why Meditation?

There seems to be a movement happening, where families are attempting to reduce the amount of things they own. All levels of minimalists can be found on YouTube, organizing and throwing stuff out. There is also a movement toward homesteading, where young couples are moving out of the city, into rural communities, where they purchase farms and chickens and goats, and learn how to live off the land. Both of these trends, I believe, can be traced back to our need to slow down, to decompress. And to destress. 

Our lives are busy. Or, they used to be, before the COVID-19 pandemic. We have jobs and friends and family to visit. The kids have sports, dance and music lessons and Taekwondo. We have to make cookies for the bake sale, gifts for teachers and friends, food for three meals a day and also take care of the house and the yard and pay bills and run errands and DO ALL THE THINGS.

Even in our downtime, a lot of us spend time scrolling through social media, which sometimes makes us feel like we should also be traveling more and eating at more food trucks and DOING MORE THINGS.

Even the minimalist and homesteading movements can cause us stress because then we feel like we need to clean out our closets and throw out everything we own and then get a bunch of chickens. So we’re in a loop. We’re constantly overwhelmed by doing alllllll the things that make up our lives, all the while thinking about all the things we SHOULD be doing.

It’s exhausting.

What I like about this plan I’m on is that I’m trying to solve a BIG problem, but I’m breaking it down and incorporating ONE SMALL GOAL each month. So it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Toward the end of February, I knew I was going to be doing Meditation in March. Because. Alliteration. But also. Because of all the positive data that has become available in recent years about the benefits of meditation into our daily lives. And I found myself ITCHING for meditation. I told myself to hold off until March, to hold onto the data integrity. But it was like my body craved it.

I’ve been trying to work meditation into my life for years. Because I read an article about Buddhist monks whose brain chemistry literally changed because of their daily meditations. And because all the “how to destress” lists on the internet seem to indicate mediation is necessary.

I downloaded a meditation app a few years ago and, after using it for a while, bought a lifetime subscription. But I only use it when I’m feeling stressed and need to chill out. Or if I can’t get to sleep because things are running through my mind. And it helps. Every time I use it for stress, I’m able to process my emotions and get through the day. Every time I use it at night, it calms my mind and body and puts me to sleep.

But what I want to do now is incorporate it into my regular routine, so that I can use it to lower my blood pressure.

I want to use it as a preventative measure, not just a reactionary one.

The Science

One of the many studies conducted in recent years indicates that meditation can help reduce cardiovascular disease, according to the American Journal of Cardiology. Researchers found that participants in the study who meditated were 86% as likely to have high blood pressure as those who did not meditate. The rates got even better when looking at the rates of stroke (76%), diabetes (70%) and high cholesterol (65%). Mediation seemed to especially counter coronary artery disease, as only 51% of participants who meditated were as likely to have that affliction.

Perhaps these results were promising because mindful meditation combats anxiety, according to a 2017 study by Georgetown University Medical Center. In the study, patients with anxiety had a sharp decrease in stress hormones and inflammatory responses to stressful situations after taking a mindful meditation course.

The Experiment

The plan is to stick to the three-days-a-week schedule, which worked out great for the January plan to incorporate more yoga. Three days a week feels doable. If it were everyday, it might get overwhelming, since there’s no leeway. I like some leeway, to appease my rebel heart. This way, LIFE can happen, mistakes can be made. And I can still successfully work in some mediation. 

Remember, the goals we’re going for here are supposed to be simple and sustainable.

If you remember from The Plan post, there are measured ways to form habits, according to the British Journal of General Practice.:

1. Decide on a goal that you would like to achieve for your health.
2. Choose a simple action that will get you towards your goal which you can do on a daily basis.
3. Plan when and where you will do your chosen action. Be consistent: choose a time and place that you encounter every day of the week.
4. Every time you encounter that time and place, do the action.

So the plan for February is to:

1. Decide on a goal: Meditate three times per week
2. Choose a simple daily action that moves you toward the goal: Set an alarm for 12 pm every weekday
3. Plan a consistent when and where you will perform the action: At lunch, on my office sofa
4. Do the action. This is the hard part, isn’t it?

Check out the March results – including a BIG milestone – here.