Sitting and Doing Nothing: A 30-Day Meditation Experiment

Published: 26.12.2025

I’ve been trying to build a meditation practice for a long time, but my relationship with it was a cycle of short-lived streaks and inevitable guilt. Usually, I’d rationalise my way out of it: telling myself it wasn’t really making a difference, or that I was too busy to prioritise it as something truly important in my day.

I also struggled with structured meditation programs. I’d feel overwhelmed trying to follow the instructions and second-guessing whether I was doing it “right.” Ironically, this made meditation feel harder than expected. I had always heard it was supposed to feel blissful, yet apps like Headspace and Calm made it feel like work - more like a technique to master than a practice to ease into. While I’m sure these approaches have value, I always sensed they weren’t the only way to build the skill. At some point, I came across a podcast featuring Naval Ravikant. He mentioned that his only meditation practice was simply sitting alone for an hour. No technique. No guidance. Nothing else. Later, I heard Sam Altman describe a similar journey - being on and off meditation for years, but seeing the biggest change when he decided to just sit and do nothing for an hour. Something about this approach felt very natural to me. It didn’t prescribe a posture, a technique, or even a specific time of day. The only constraints were:

Duration (longer sessions)
Doing nothing

I decided to try this myself as an experiment. An hour felt too ambitious to begin with, but I still wanted to introduce longer duration, since all my previous attempts had been limited to 10–15 minutes. So I started with 30 minutes a day. I didn’t fix a specific time. I’d sit whenever I found space in the day. Doing it once a day mattered more than when I did it. Over time, I naturally discovered which times worked best for my schedule and my mood.

The practice itself was almost comically simple: I would sit in a room and do nothing. No breath counting. No visualisation. No effort to observe my thoughts floating by.

To make this more engaging, I decided to document the journey. After each session, I spent about five minutes journaling my thoughts and experience. I also thought it might be interesting to share this publicly. At best, it might help someone else; at worst, no one would read it—and that felt fine.

This series documents the first 30 days of that practice. To my surprise, this was the longest I’ve ever been able to stick with meditation. Reflecting on it, I think a few factors made the difference:

Duration

When you sit for longer, you give your mind - the “monkey brain” / default mode network - enough time to slow down. The more it slows down, the more likely you’re to feel states of bliss. Most sessions didn’t lead to such states. But the few that did, felt deeply nourishing. They create a quiet reward loop - one that slowly replaces discipline with desire. Over time, even the desire fades, and the practice becomes something you do simply for the mental break it offers during the day.

No technique

Removing technique removed pressure. Starting from a place of zero expectations made the practice feel light and repeatable. This isn’t to say techniques don’t have value - but they aren’t the only way in. Over time, I naturally discovered my own anchors (like noticing the breath or bodily sensations), but they emerged organically, grounded in lived experience rather than instruction.

Post-session writing

Writing about each session turned this into a small creative project. The idea of looking back after 30 days to see what had shifted - subtly or otherwise - kept me curious and engaged. This series is a daily log of that 30-day experiment.

Each post captures one day’s observations. If nothing else, this is a record of what happens when you sit still and do nothing for long enough.

I’ll be sharing one post a day.