The nice thing about having to release a public (if anyone actually reads this anyway) thought every day is that I can use it as an accountability tool. The benefit for you, the reader, is that you can observe my process and results before opting in to a potential practice, in this case, like meditation. You'll hear what worked for me, what struggles I had, and hopefully be better prepared to take on your own journey. My issue with meditation is that it's hard to stick with it and the benefits are somewhat intangible (and maybe placebo? We'll find out). I've probably meditated about 50 times over the last two years, and never really with any impactful cadence, so I want to give it my due diligence. I also came across more than a few articles citing research that meditators' brains had altered the structure of gray matter in beneficial ways as opposed to no change for non-meditators.
My biggest question for this new practice is "what is the minimum effective dose?" Because I know I can't add an hour every day to my schedule, as much as I'd like to. So what is the minimum effective dose that I can start with for a month of daily work to see some results? After some additional, and admittedly hap-hazard, research, I found that many studies cite 9 minutes a day as a minimum amount to actually create benefits in the brain from the point of view of neuroscience. So begins the new practice for at least 30 days. I'll likely set a timer for at least 12 minis, and ideally 15, each day knowing there will be some onramp and offramp time around the 9 mins. I'll report back in here a few times, and I also just put a note on my calendar for August 9th, which is 30 days away. Time will tell. Maybe it will stick.