Badge 52: Get an Inner Life

So... Roughly eight months and seventeen days ago, I implied that I would post about You Can Do It! The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-up Girls sometime in the near future. Now, 260 days later, I'm making good on that half-hearted promise. (I just scored an unopened copy, complete with workbook, on BookMooch. Yay!)

The first badge I plan to earn is Badge 52: Get an Inner Life. Every day in the month of April, I will practice at least one form of meditation. The guidelines are as follows:

1. Schedule some quality time -- with yourself.
Choose a sacred space and time.
With a one-bedroom apartment and a fiance who is nearly always home at the same time as me, finding my own space can be difficult sometimes. We've been talking about it... and I think a little de-cluttering and rearranging of the bedroom is in order.

Of course, this should have been step one, but I am making it an ongoing process throughout the month.

2. To start your day off right, write.
Write morning pages daily for a month.
Stream-of-consciousness writing can be fun, but I've never considered it a form of meditation. Perhaps doing it daily will change my opinion.

Day One was sort of awkward, and the entry was much shorter than the book suggests, but Day Two was a bit better... if not completely illegible.

3. Take a deep breath.
Meditate daily for a month.
Breathing meditation is really hard for me. I've been dabbling on and off since I was fourteen or so... and I can never last for more than a few minutes at a time. At this point, I think it's safe to say that it's just not for me.

Regardless, I'll give it a shot.

4. Read up on the subject.
Read and reflect.
Finding inspirational literature can be a little tricky as an atheist. Sure, I loved Gandhi's The Way To God the first (and second, and third) time I read it. I would absolutely consider it a form of meditation, and have used it as such numerous times. However, at this particular moment, it's just not something I care to delve into.

5. Make it a way of life.
Keep your spirit strong.
At the end of the month, I should choose the form of meditation that suits me best, and try to keep it up for another three months.

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You Can Do It! The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls, was created by Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas and published (with the help of her sisters) after her death aboard United Flight 93, September 11th, 2001.

A portion of the proceeds from You Can Do It! will go to the Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas Foundation, which supports charitable causes and scholarships for women.