30 Day Challenge: Succeed Through Stillness (Meditate for 20 Minutes a Day)

The Challenge
To meditate for 20 minutes each day for 30 consecutive days.

For the past 5 years, I’ve attempted to make meditation a daily practice. The few people in my life who practice meditation on a daily basis seem to be the most calm, thoughtful and purely present people I know. Somehow they achieve their goals without any frustration as the good they desire seems to be attracted to them.

“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”
~ Lao-Tsu

In 2010, while traveling in Singapore, I was on a quest to find some type of spiritual connection; I desired to learn how to meditate. After what seemed like hours of sweat and frustration, I gave up on the idea while trying to willingly force a spiritual epiphany into my life. After letting go of these forceful thoughts and forgetting about the whole idea of spirituality, I ended up meeting someone in the hotel elevator who’s first words to me were: “What do you know about meditation?”

I feel that I owe it to my spiritual friend and myself to honestly make meditation a daily practice so I may advance to new stages of spirituality, and increase my ability to share this knowledge with others who are searching for it.

All the great creators, thinkers, artists, athletes and innovators have found their own way to connect with being purely present and focused on an idea. Meditation allows you to experience sharper moments of focused attention.

To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

My objectives for the next 30 days are to:

• Live more consciously
• Increase my ability to access stillness: a quiet, peaceful mental state that allows you to be completely present in life
• Clear the clutter from my mind
• Become more aware of my thoughts
• Find stillness in an increasingly fast-paced world
• Provide the “mental soil” that will allow my ideas and imagination to grow
• Become more connected with the inspiration inside of me

How can meditating for at least 20 minutes a day positively impact your life?