I’ve cracked the code!

Well, I’ve cracked my own personal code to making meditation a daily practice. It’s something I’ve wanted to do consistently for years now, but could never make it a habit.

I just couldn’t get into it. And do you know why?

I was approaching it all the wrong way.

Last month I shared a story after I had meditated for 10 days in a row. But I knew I wanted to write about it more after I had done it consistently for a longer period of time, and share some thoughts on it.

These are things that have helped me, and just a disclaimer — they may help you, but they may not.

+ Don’t waste the time setting up the perfect “meditation” setting. I would spend fifteen minutes, setting up candles, incense, finding the perfect music playlist, cushions, blankets, etc. And as you can imagine, this became such the production that I didn’t want to take the time to do it. Meditation seemed like such a big task because I thought that was what it had to be.

+ You don’t have to meditate for an hour. I’ve been doing ten minutes, you could choose only to do it for five. Then if you want to do twenty minutes, thirty minutes — go for it. But don’t think you have to do it for a big chunk of time.

+ I thought I needed to sit in perfect silence, not a thought in my mind for the entire time, and that if I started thinking about stuff that I had failed. But what I’ve learned is to let the thoughts come in when they do, don’t judge them, just acknowledge that they came to the surface, and then let them float away.

+ Meditating in the morning works better for me. If I try to do it before bed (I’ve done multiple times) I will fall asleep. I mean, it works really nicely to apply those techniques of breathing and such to your bedtime routine, but to actually get from meditation what I want (setting myself up for the day) I have to do it in the morning.

+ I never thought I would like a guided meditation. I thought it would be too distracting. But I discovered the app Headspace, and it has completely changed how I meditate. In fact it’s the only reason I’ve been able to do it consistently every day. This isn’t a sponsored post (I wish), but you can get the first 10 day pack for free. But after that I paid for the yearly subscription because I could see the benefits even after a few days.

It has been an amazing addition to my morning routine. I love allowing myself enough time in the morning to write my morning pages, meditate, do a quick tidy, and make breakfast before starting in on my work for the day.

I encourage you to give meditation a go if, like me, it’s something you’ve been wanting to try for awhile.