I’ve been wanting to try meditation for ages and ages and a couple of years ago signed up for a free trial at headspace.com … and did precisely nothing with it.

After settling on learn to meditate as a replacement for #20 on the 50 list, earlier this week I signed up again with a different account (I know not quite in the spirit of free trials) … and did precisely nothing with it – until I was sent a reminder to get started and I decided today was the day.

This time for sure

This morning I woke up with a quite horrible headache again after sleeping badly again. This has been going on for a week now. The thing is, I’m not particularly stressed or anxious, I’ve mentioned it has been quite mad at SML, but that’s been really fun. So I have no idea where the headache is coming from. Okay, let’s be honest I’m actually I’m fairly sure the headache is coming from reading late at night on the kindle without wearing my glasses – clearly having the typeface bumped up to old lady size is no longer working.

But I digress. I decided I was going to start this by sitting on the bed, up against the bedhead with the fan pointed at me (it’s quite warm today), and would use my phone.

I settled myself and clicked through the link from the reminder email and … blank screen.

I decided that maybe the ipad would be better, so resettled myself, clicked through the link on the reminder email and yay – the website opened in safari.

Now to enter my email address and password. Password incorrect.

Try again. Password still incorrect.

Reset password. Back to email and click on create new password link.

Create new password, re-enter new password. Log in. YAY!

Click on play on first lesson. Nothing.

Click again on play on first lesson. Nothing.

Repeatedly mash play button on first lesson. Still nothing.

Maybe there’s a problem with safari and open in firefox.

Enter email address and password – I’m in! YAY!

Click on play on first lesson. Nothing.

Click again on play on first lesson. Nothing.

Repeatedly mash play button on first lesson. Still nothing.

Decided maybe there is a problem with the web browser on mobile devices. Google same.

Find there is indeed a problem with website on mobile devices.

Try downloading app. Go to app store app. Search for headspace. Do not find headspace in search results.

Return to headspace website in browser, search for link to app.

Click on link to app, which takes me to the correct entry on the app store app.

Download app.

Open app and enter email address and password.

And we’re in.

THIS WAS NOT AT ALL RELAXING! If I didn’t need mediation before, I definitely needed it now.

Anyway, after finally downloading the app, I was good to go with the first lesson

After all that it went not too badly. Matt’s Andy’s** voice is quite soothing, but not in a DFH* rainforests-crystals-whales-and-dolphins way. My thoughts drifted, but not too much. I credit that to the headache and not my superior mindfulness powers – my head was too hurty to drift much. I already know that if I concentrate on my breath for any length of time I tend to panic and veer toward hyperventilation – my long-time cure for that is to just focus on something else for a little bit, that worked. I felt slightly relaxed afterward.

I’m planning to do this every morning until the trial expires, so I’ve got a couple more days whether I’ll take up the not-inexpensive subscription, or move onto another form of guided (or not guided!) mediation.

xxx

*Dirty Hippy

<edited> **yeah, so much for that great memory!