Today is a day for integration. This is an opportunity to catch up with anything you've misssed, and repeat and consolidate any of the meditation practices offered this week.

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Byron Katie yesterday - what was your biggest takeaway?

Please take five minutes to reflect on these questions:

1. How would you rate your effort this week? Are you satisfied or do you feel you’d like to do better next week?
2. What got in the way of your practice (if anything)?
3. What could you do differently next week to support your practice?

Revisit and reset your intention for signing up. If you haven’t already completed your intention guide, you can do that now. 

The month is going to pass quickly. I invite you to truly commit to practising so you can experience the benefits that come from regular practice. If you don’t feel you’ve committed yourself fully so far, that’s totally okay. Without judging yourself for this past week, just set a new intention now to give it your all in the coming weeks. 

In many ways mindfulness is really simple, but just like any skill, it takes practice to master.

You’ll hear from our guest Bhante on day 10 (it’s a great interview so don’t miss it!) He explains:

“There is a very common saying in mindfulness circles that mindfulness is not difficult to practise, but what is difficult is to remember to be mindful so please put signs all over your place.”  

Why not place post-it notes around your home or in your work space to remind you to pause and pay attention to the breath, how the body feels, or what your mind is doing in that moment? 

Remember: 

“Motivation gets you going but habit gets you there.” 

~ Zig Ziglar  

Today, visit the meditations page and choose whichever meditation you've enjoyed or benefitted from the most during this week, and practise it again today. 

I know I repeat this regularly, but it’s an important message: just like any skill you’re trying to master, you need to practise (and even hear) the same thing many times in order to really integrate the learning.

If you want to become an expert musician, you need to practise the same scales over and over so your fingers get better at managing increasingly complex music. 

Meditation is similar! Don’t expect to be an expert in your first week.

As you practise the same thing over, the brain starts to develop new neural pathways.

If you notice yourself wondering “is this meditation actually doing anything?”, just recognise this as a thought and put your doubts and judgements to the side. 

Think about it: you’ve spent a lifetime using your mind in its default setting and inadvertently practising the habits of being distracted and not present. It takes time for new mental habits to develop, so remember to bring radical patience to this process.  

To develop better focus and greater self awareness through mindfulness, you need to get very familiar with the guided meditations so that they become second nature.

So today, you’re invited to choose any practice you received this week and try it again. Notice how each time you sit to meditate, the inner landscape will be different, even though the guidance may be the same. Some days the mind is calm, and some days it’s so busy you can barely stay focused on one breath.

Mindfulness meditation isn’t about creating any particular state of being, but rather becoming more aware of what is happening internally and externally from moment to moment.

As Pema Chodron, world renowned meditation teacher, shares:  

“Meditation sows the seeds that enable us to be more awake in the midst of everyday chaos. It’s a gradual awakening, and it’s cumulative, but that’s actually what happens. We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.”

Don’t forget, this campaign is all about doing something good for yourself while also helping transform the lives of others. If it's within your capacity right now (and you haven't already!), you can still make a donation here to bring safe, clean drinking water to people who need it the most.

So far this year, our community has already fundraised AU$130,000! I'm so proud of what we've been able to achieve together 👏

To help keep you motivated for the coming week, we’ve put together a little book for you featuring quotes from our guests.