Meditation: my progress and my thoughts

Hi guys! How are you getting along with the 21-day meditation challenge? I hope you have seen my link to the interview of Oprah Winfrey with Deepak Chopra. I linked it in my comment to my first post announcing the 21-day meditation challenge. It's a lovely interview and Deepak is explaining and motivating meditation. Try to watch it as soon as possible because I think it won't be available for a long time. 

I started the meditation challenge on the 6th of November in the morning. I am using this challenge to also get ahead with my Qi Gong routine with which I really have struggled a lot. My mornings were completely stuffed with biking and showering and meditation didn't fit in anymore. Hence, I tried hard to do it in the evening but it just didn't work. I have to admit that I wanted to do it every evening but did it only for 3 times in the last 2 months. 

So, when I discovered the 21-day meditation challenge, I had to take the chance and change my routine. I moved biking to the early evening and have put meditation into the morning. This is a major change and I was worried to loose my biking habit. But as biking is already a pretty ingrained habit (I'm doing it now for months on a daily basis), I am doing it in the evening, too. I admit that I lost a day in transition but the following day I was able to catch up. And the new habit of meditation which I try to create, is tough but as I usually biked at that time in the morning anyway, I am keeping up with it. Furthermore, the meditation podcasts of Deepak Chopra are pure fun and it's such a joy to follow them. But I am doing it the tough way like I've learned it in my Qi Gong class. And I also try to do a couple of Qi Gong moving exercises before meditating in a Qi Gong pose while listening to Deepak Chopra's meditation podcasts. However, as they are so much fun and as I am no native speaker, I like to listen to each of the podcasts for several times. E.g. I listened to the first podcast for 3 mornings now and will listen to the second podcast starting from tomorrow morning. 

This is my meditation setup for each morning: 

My meditation setup consists of 

1. my media player which I use for listening to the meditation podcasts by Deepak Chopra, 
2. a scented candle which makes the whole meditation experience even nicer and
3. warm socks (I am doing the standing Qi Gong meditation pose with bended knees like sitting on a chair (without a chair) and for this I like to wear socks with sock stop)

I am also trying to read a bit in my Qi Gong book on a daily basis in order to also get ahead with the theory. But I am a really slow reader and if I continue to read in that pace (which is quite probable because unfortunately I don't much time for reading at the moment), it'll take me forever. Below is the picture of my Qi Gong book and my beloved meditation socks shown above as well.

So, I'm indeed trying to make the most of this meditation challenge. :-) And it pays off. I feel incredibly great the whole day after my morning meditation. I am happy and focused the whole day and I sleep a lot better in the evening, too. It's really a great thing and I am considering to keep meditation as a morning habit as I seem to benefit more of it being part of my morning routine than including it to an evening routine. I currently also like biking in the evening more than in the morning and as I seem to not have any problems with the time shift, I will keep it as it is for now. In summer, it might be better to move it to the morning again. I'll have to see. During winter, however, I'll keep it in the evening and do meditation in the morning.

At which time of the day are you meditating?