As you might remember, one of my challenges for this year was to meditate 15 minutes every day for 30 days. However, I found some key benefits so I thought I should extend it and explore it further. Let’s talk about my 100 days.

First of all, Happy Easter to everyone. It’s usually a day packed full of family and chocolate treats, but it’s going to look a bit different this year. Social distancing is still key, so please stay home, stay safe.

Month 1

January was the period of trial and error. I explored many different ways of meditating such as doing it on the train, bus, bed, living room, chair, floor and even toilet. I tried with my eyes closed but also opened. I tried it in both noisy and calm environments at different times. I needed to experiment various ways. What I noticed very quickly was that I was able to fall asleep faster when meditating in the evening and I was fresher when meditating in the morning. I felt calmer and my concentration improved. I can’t really quantify in percentage but I know there was progress. I also noticed that I had a bit more control over my mind which typically is like a factory with lots of assembly lines. That is to say, I managed for some time to be completely off from my noisy mind. At this point my challenge finished and I wrote an article to share with you all the details. However, I found that meditating was actually helping me, so I thought I needed to continue and explore if it was just a lucky month or I could obtain some more benefits.

Month 2

February was a challenging month as it was our wedding month so a lot of final preparation was required. I could say I had less time but it wouldn’t be true. The true is that we all have 24 hours a day and we use those hours differently. Of course, my priority was the wedding but I tried to allocate either early in the morning or late in the evening some minutes for mindfulness. I remember there were few days where I could only meditate for 5 minutes but I compensated with others doing more minutes. The key was that I never gave up because why would I give up when something was helping me? In fact, even those tricky days allowed me to reconnect with my mind. It was a stressful month but also very emotional. I needed to remind myself about these benefits. I learnt that in the most stressful situations, using some breathing techniques made a difference. It had a direct impact on my heart rate and my voice. You know in those moments you are about to speak without thinking and regret it? Meditating helped me in these situations, just a simple breathing exercise allowed me to reduce my revolutions per minute and think slightly more what I was saying.

Month 3

March was the honeymoon month and the way back home. Luckily this was early in the month before COVID-19 started to become the pandemic we all know and changed the way we all live. During honeymoon of course I wanted to spend time with Kristina and enjoy but we had so much time that it was not difficult to meditate, in fact few days I was able to add more than the usual 15 minutes a day. Few days before coming back home I won’t lie I was anxious. It was 6 weeks abroad but also COVID-19 was becoming a real big thing for Western countries and especially in Europe where we were coming back. I didn’t know what to expect although I started to check my emails again and turned on the news. I realised I was biting off more than I could possibly chew. I felt anxious and didn’t enjoy any good sleep. Honestly, I started to feel my mindfulness preparation was for nothing. But then when thinking quietly I understood that neither the Healthcare Systems nor human beings could be ready for this. I came back to work for one day or two and then sent home as we entered lockdown. I was working from home for years so I was prepared in terms of infrastructure but you know one thing is to work once or twice a week from home and the other one every single day from home and even weekends recently. Social distancing kicked in. We all needed to make some radical adjustments in terms of how we lived. Meditating needed to be crucial in the context. I needed to be more positive. I kept meditating every day and tried to improve my breathing skills and also listening to some nature sounds. As expected, this helped. But guys, I have to say this month it was a war: meditation vs anxiety. Multiple battles. I lost many but I think I won a few. Again, I never stopped meditating. Not even in my worst days so I’m proud of it.

Month 4

April started and things became more “normal”. We got used to living differently and this what mandatory to stop the spread and helped our Healthcare systems. This was the right decision. My heart was broken with the pandemic. I was desperate to help somehow but it was wise to follow the recommendations and stay home. So, I decided to donate to the Coronavirus Emergency funds in the UK and Italy. This is something I will continue to do because I believe this is the time to show respect and support for all heroes out there and overcome it together from anywhere in the world we might be. In terms of meditation, I was approaching a 100-day-streak. Wow. I couldn’t believe it. How time flies. Remember in early January when I said to myself “let’s try at least 5 minutes for few days”. Today it’s exactly 102 days in a row meditating and what I learnt this month is that mindfulness + love is the winning formula for what’s coming.
Happy Easter.