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100 Consecutive Days
Insight Timer - Meditation
Brandon McGill
March 25, 2024
The Wheel of Habits is only valuable when built on a strong foundation, and for me, that foundation is meditation.
Observing Ramadan this year has pushed my practice to the highest level it has ever been because I am sitting with myself in stillness for 14 minutes at a time, 5 times per day.
Of course, having a 2.5-year-old and a 1-year-old means I do not always meditate at the predetermined times; however, I always make sure to hit 70 minutes per day.
If I do 28 minutes or 42 minutes at once, I can go much deeper in the meditation, and it feels like Yoga Nidra without the guide.
Yoga Nidra, often referred to as "yogic sleep," is a form of meditation and a mind-body therapy. It involves a guided meditation that leads the practitioner through a state of deep relaxation while remaining fully conscious. The practice typically takes place lying down, with the goal of reaching a state between sleep and wakefulness, where deep healing and relaxation can occur.
Yoga Nidra has several components that work together to induce relaxation and inner peace:
1. Intention Setting (Sankalpa): At the beginning of a Yoga Nidra session, practitioners often set a personal intention or sankalpa, which can be a deeply held value or a goal they wish to achieve.
2. Body Scan: The practice usually involves a systematic body scan, where attention is moved through different parts of the body, encouraging physical relaxation.
3. Breath Awareness: Focusing on the breath is another key component, helping to calm the mind and reduce stress.
4. Visualization: Guided imagery or visualization can be used to deepen the meditative state and engage the mind in a positive and restful experience.
5. Layers of Self (Pancha Maya Kosha): Yoga Nidra also explores the five layers of self, from the physical body to the bliss body, helping practitioners gain a deeper understanding of their inner selves.
Yoga Nidra is beneficial for reducing stress and anxiety, improving sleep, and enhancing overall well-being. It is accessible to people of all ages and physical abilities, making it a versatile practice for promoting mental and physical health.
This new habit has led to the perfectly complimentary habit of journaling, which I do every night before bed using this app - https://dayoneapp.com.
I love this app because you can add images and search all your journal entries to recall ideas or thoughts, unlike a physical journal. I have 4 physical journals as well, and I use them for different purposes, but in my current phase of life with building companies, the digital version is more convenient and efficient, making it extremely easy to keep up the daily habit.
My main observation so far when it comes to habits is removing as much friction as possible so that the difficulty of keeping up the habit is completely removed.
A good hack I discovered is adding the widgets (image below) of my most important habits directly on my home screen so that it's top of mind all day, every day.
To teach is to learn twice over.
Knowing that I wanted to instill meditation as a daily practice I decided to upload a meditation onto Insight Timer in 2020 with no prior experience. It currently has almost 9,000 plays with a 4.8 rating and 372 reviews.
Our mission in life is to fulfill our potential, which adds value to the world, no matter what it is. Once you put yourself out there, you rewire your brain to seek that satisfaction as your dopamine source, as opposed to artificial dopamine from social media. Moreover, the more you sit with yourself, the more understanding you gain of yourself. This understanding increases your confidence to continue putting yourself out there, allowing your light to shine fully.