It was 2005. I chose to practice meditation in a more serious way. I started to sit in silence and stillness for ten minutes. This seemed unbearably long so I used a timer to keep track of time. It was incredible how long one minute really was.

The irritation increased and a sense of guilt would come over me. I would think, ‘Marise, how dare you do nothing when your house is a mess. You should be doing the dishes. When was the last time you vacuumed?‘. The first week, I could not make it to ten minutes without looking at the timer at least 20 times. The irritation was so unbearable that on two occasions I got up to do something.

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