Meditation Challenge

I have been challenged by my friend to join her on her meditation challenge, but I see it more like a quest. The Meditation Challenge as penned by my friend Saturnine is simple. Meditate everyday. Well, on second thought it's not that simple. Meditating is pretty hard. I've gotten a bit good at it but not in long or concentrated segments of time. I can 'ground and center' pretty well, and the timing on it is getting shorter, but extended meditations with actual results and goals, visualizations, etc. is a bit out of my reach right now.
I'm really excited to attempt this challenge! I have been having an issue with negativity lately myself, but mostly in regards to self-image and self-esteem (as seen in my previous post), plus with it getting down to the brass tacks of end of term exams in school, I'm getting really stressed out! So all the more reason to get on board the quest! In the post (linked above) Saturnine came up with some rules for herself for the challenge, so I'm going to do that for myself too. I'm borrowing some of her rules and making some of my own.

1. Keep it short, but do it everyday. This isn't a marathon.
2. Choose a focus. Either a sound machine, meditation CD, candle, singing bowl or mandala.
3. Meditate before bed. This will allow me to fall asleep after and as well as not feel guilty when my mind inevitably wanders.
4. To begin with I'm going to just try some simple visualizations and then progress to scenery and hopefully eventually meditation quests
   
5. Allow God/dess/es and allies to join me and help me release my problems.
6. Do until sleep or until mind wanders too far.
7. Sleep
   
8. Record my memories of it in the morning so I can compare how it affected my sleep and dreams and how well I remember them. This will also help me with the dream journal I keep meaning to keep.
   

So those are my rules. I think I will start tonight. So here's the other side of it - if you are reading this, you should try it too! Join the challenge! *smacks with gauntlet* Do you take the challenge or continue to live the way you have been? *Dun dun DUH* We shall see how this goes. I'll try to do daily or weekly updates on how it's going. Then the end of the month I'll post my challenge completion journal and compare to my friends who joined in on the challenge.