Today is the first day of Sharon Salzberg’s 28-day meditation challenge based on her book Real Happiness. You can get an e-book to begin reading instantly if you join the Tricycle Community now and take advantage of our special offer with Workman Press, the publisher of Real Happiness. Then stop by the Tricycle Book Club to discuss the book with Sharon and others, from now through March 4th. The discussion is already lively there, and the Book Club—rather than here—is the best place to share your own thoughts about this challenge.

Sharon Salzberg is also blogging the 28-day challenge at her website. (Her Day 1 Welcome message is here.) Many others have begun blogging there too, so there will be many voices from participants in this challenge! We’re about to begin our Day 1 sit here at the office. We’ll keep you posted on how the Tricycle Staff does too—we’ll all be sharing blogging duties throughout the challenge.

From Real Happiness:

Once I learned how to look deep within, I found the bright vein of goodness that exists in everyone, including me—the goodness that maybe hidden and hard to trust but is never entirely destroyed. I came to believe wholeheartedly that I deserve to be happy, and so does everyone else. Now when I meet a stranger, I feel more connected, knowing how much we share. And when I meet myself in meditation, I no longer feel I’m encountering a stranger.

Visit the Tricycle Book Club here to download your copy of Real Happiness today.

UPDATE: We just sat for 20 minutes here in the Tricycle office, seven of us. Today, since I’m struggling with some pain in my thumb, which I hurt this weekend, and difficulty breathing regularly because of the lingering after-effects of a cold, I began sitting in a state of mild discomfort. After feeling the pain and interference in these areas, I moved on to areas where I was feeling very restful and comfortable: my legs, my back (despite a gentle touch of soreness from all the shoveling I did for my grandmother this weekend), my arms, my neck. Outside the rain was drumming steadily and my mind kept circling back to the difficult winter it’s been so far and how the coming storm was filling people with apprehension and fear and would lead to more difficulties for the sick and the elderly and the wory-prone, and parents who have difficulty getting time off work while the snow days keep piling for their children’s schools. My main activity was working to keep my breathing natural and regular.

UPDATE 2: We all took the pledge to sit for 28 days. Will you take the pledge?

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