For the first month of the new year, I want to complete a long overdue challenge. The last meditation-related challenge I completed was way back in 2015. I have meditated pretty much every day for the last few years, am regularly involved in a weekly heartfulness meditation group, and have completed 2 daylong retreats within the past year. However, the possibilities in meditation are endless. The challenge this month is to intentionally explore some of those possibilities and expand the horizons of my practice.

Here are the requirements for this challenge:

• Meditate for at least 20 minutes each day – This won’t be much of a challenge, as I am already doing 15 minutes currently (5 first thing; 10 later in day). Sometimes, I do feel like my meditations are cut short, so the extra few minutes on some days might be more than welcome. Today is a great example – the weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
• Meditate during my lunch break one day per week – A couple of years ago, I completed a month of purposeful spiritual connections, during which I chanted outside for a couple of minutes during lunch time at work each day. I really enjoyed the practice. My meditation will be longer than a couple of minutes, so I am only requiring it on one day each week. I will probably utilize the yoga mat I store in my classroom for this purpose.
• Meditate somewhere new once per week – The inferior function of my Myers-Briggs personality type (extroverted sensing) always groans when I think about driving somewhere to meditate. However, novel environments can provide both blessings and challenges that are useful in building a robust meditation practice. There are several parks I’ve wanted to check out anyway, and this will be the perfect motivation to do so.

• Use a new guided meditation 3x per week – Most of my meditation practice is self-directed, which in many cases is most effective. With that being said, there are so many great meditation apps and resources that I would love to experiment with both for my own benefit and so I can provide specific recommendations for others. I will start by exploring the Plum Village app I already have downloaded on my phone.
• Choose a general theme for each week – This can really be anything from a character quality to an area of life to a group of people. I’m not planning on having all of my practices that week be focused on that theme, though I can if desired. My main goal is to simply take a moment before the practice and dedicate it to that quality, topic, or person.
• Participate in 2 group writing meditations – The Secular Buddhism community I am involved with online hosts weekly writing meditations on Monday afternoons for 10-15 minutes. I have been interested in trying this out for a while now, but just never made the effort. This month will change that.

I am incredibly excited and optimistic about this challenge. I think it will tie in nicely with my 2025 New Years intention. However, I will reserve my thoughts on this for my next post. May the new year bring you many peaceful moments and exciting adventures!

Namaste.