Goals

Before starting the meditation experience, I had a number of goals that I wanted to achieve. I was unsure if meditation would help me reach those goals, but given the number of accounts of the benefits of meditation, I was not too worried. My goals were(are) as follows:

• Enhance self-awareness. Being aware of myself physically, mentally and emotionally can have a number of great benefits. To me, understanding myself is one of the most important abilities that I can have. I believe that true understanding of myself will allow me to make better decisions and even be a better person. 
• Enhanced self-control.  In my life, one of the abilities that I value the most in myself is my ability to control myself. Self-control has many benefits and, in my opinion, shows a great amount of maturity. Any 5-year-old can react to events in his life; it takes a mature person to take a step back and decide what is the best way to act. Therefore, I decided that I want my meditation to be an exercise for my self-control.
• Relax. In the IB program, I am constantly looking at my schedule and wondering how I'm going to meet deadlines and maintain grades that meet my standard. I am often stressed because there is so much to do, and so little time. I plan on using meditation to take a step back from my surroundings and organize my thoughts. As I progress through each week, my thoughts become a tangled mess; meditation will be the means by which I untangle my thoughts and restore a sense of control and understanding to my life.
• Improve focus. Given the demands of school and extracurricular activities, it is important to be efficient while doing work. With an enhanced focus, I can be more efficient while doing work and thus get more done with my time. This is an ability that I can see having great effects on me in the future.
• Improve overall mood. Through meditation, I want to improve my overall mood. At times, life can be dull or upsetting; through meditation, I want to improve my dictation over my mind in order to maximize the time I spend in a good mood. Enhanced control over my mind and focus will allow me to rationalize life and minimize the impact of negative occurrences. 

I recognize that these goals are not necessarily measurable, but I believe that I will be able to tell if I am achieving them. Will I achieve these goals in two weeks of meditation?I have no idea. But I believe that through regular practice of meditation, I will be able to achieve these goals to some capacity. In addition, while I list those as my goals for meditation, I also must include one last goal: Enhanced understanding of MBSR. The other goals are what I plan on achieving through meditation AT SOME POINT. I have no idea when, but I believe that I will achieve them at some undisclosed time. For the two week assignment itself, I primarily want to improve my understanding of MBSR. Like Mr. Russell said, it's a widely researched topic with millennia of practice; when a practice has had such a large following throughout history, there must be something interesting to consider.