Welcome to the Real
Happiness Challenge 2014!
The 28-day meditation challenge starts tomorrow, Feb. 1. You
are welcome to sign up and begin commenting. The blogs and comments are an
opportunity for the MMC community to become a community of meditators, sharing
our experiences and supporting each other’s efforts.
The basic structure of the challenge comes from Sharon
Salzberg’s book, “Real Happiness” a user-friendly, day-by-day guide to
developing a mindfulness practice. If you choose to purchase the book, it’s
easy to find and contains a CD of guided meditations. But you can participate
in the Challenge by simply following along here.
The more you practice and contribute to the discussion, the
more you’ll get out of the program. A core principle of mindfulness meditation
is non-judgment. So don’t judge yourself, just do what you can!
What is Meditation?
As Salzberg puts it, meditation is training out attention so
we can be more aware of both our own inner workings and what’s happening around
us in the here and now. Once we are able to see clearly what is going on in
each moment, we are freer to choose our actions and responses.
During the Real Happiness Challenge, we will strengthen our moment-to-moment
awareness by honing three skills: concentration, mindfulness and compassion or
lovingkindness.
Why Meditate?
Meditation helps with developing a greater sense of calm,
improving concentration and a greater sense of connection to others.
It also helps you gain greater awareness of some automatic
assumptions you make about yourself and the way the world works that may
interfere with your own happiness.
Check back here tomorrow for brief meditation instructions
and to begin to hone your skill of concentration.
No comments:
Post a Comment