There’s a lot of advice out there on how to build a meditation practice.
Some of it is good, much of it is bad, and much of it is just plain wrong.
I’ve spent the last year researching the science of how to build a daily meditation habit, and I’ve learned a lot about what really works.
In this post, I’ll share the science-backed strategies I’ve discovered, and I’ll also share the lessons I’ve learned from my own failed attempts.
Getting into a daily meditation practice can feel almost impossible at first.
You have to find the time.
You have to find space. You have to find a way to make it feel less like a chore and more like a reward.
Faced with the realities of a busy day, it’s easy to let our daily meditation habit get sidelined.
But when we choose to build a meditation habit, we’re choosing to support our mental and physical health — and our productivity levels will thank us.
It is always recommended to have a personal habit tracker.
By 2022, it’s likely that you’ll be able to “take a break” from your meditation and continue right where you left off thanks to automatic, on-demand meditation programs.
The same can’t be said for other forms of “self-improvement” — like reading a book, going for a run, or even just spending time in nature.
My advice is this: If you want to build a daily meditation habit, you have to be willing to make the same sacrifices over and over again.
There will always be one more task, one more social engagement, one more workout, and one more book to read.
But this will be true whether you’re trying to build a daily meditation habit or something else.
If you want to keep making yourself better every day, it’s unlikely that anyone’s habit will do the trick.
So what is it that will actually keep you from getting sidetracked?
The thing that I’ve discovered is that to keep yourself focused, you need to create a specific ritual that you can do before starting your meditation.
You can take a minute to think about how you’re going to do it, and then go straight into it.