Social method option – write up 

After watching Pedro’s presentation on the social method assignment which I decided to carry out this past week.  I followed the guidelines of performing meditation each evening prior to going to sleep, which was something that I did not fully understand but was able to perform it once a day (which took about six minutes).  I had always looked at meditation as an odd activity, carried out by people much older than myself for the most part and one that would be unlikely to have an effect on an active college student.  For the first three days I grew frustrated with my attempt to meditate- unable to see or feel the effects promised by the website, from which I had garnered my information through a step-to-step meditation guide.  After the initial three day period of uncertainty and doubt that I had experienced, I began to learn how to stop allowing distractions (such as noises in the corridor or irrelevant thoughts) to detract from the process and only after doing this did I begin to achieve genuine results.  I started to notice that my level of anxiety concerning schoolwork and other aspects of college life that can be overwhelming at times began to fade and thereafter did not take up the forefront of my thoughts.

Mid-way through the past week I decided to switch to meditating at night instead of during the day, after hearing that there were additional sleep benefits to meditation prior to going to sleep, which came to fruit.  Even after the first morning of waking up I noticed that I had received a much better night’s sleep.  Meditation has undoubtably proved my initial misguided preconceptions incorrect.  I will be continuing meditating and reaping the health and mental benefits it provides and would strongly advise you to do the same- or at least try meditation!