Meditating regularly offers incredible benefits. It makes you happier and healthier, protects your brain from aging, boosts intelligence, and helps reduce pain, stress, and depression. Meditation can improve your relationships, boost effectiveness, and give your life more meaning and purpose.
You might think, “Sure, but I don’t have time to meditate.” Or maybe you learned how to meditate years ago, but keeping up with it has been tough.
I struggled for years to make meditation a daily habit, even though I knew both from research and personal experience how beneficial it was. When I meditated, I felt calmer and happier. After meditation retreats, I’d return feeling peaceful and blissful. Despite this, I found it hard to meditate every day. I’d manage for a while, then miss a day, and soon a week would pass without meditating. Seeing others meditate daily made me feel like a failure for not being able to do the same.
Now, I meditate almost every day, and even if I miss a day occasionally, I don’t feel guilty. I just get back into my routine the next day.
I’ve learned some valuable lessons about establishing a daily meditation practice, which I’ll share in my upcoming online course, Get Your Sit Together, starting January 1. The goal is to help you become a consistent daily meditator. Plan A is to meditate every day for the 28-day course. But if you miss a day or two, it’s okay. It’s not a failure—it’s part of learning what gets in the way of developing a good habit. Ideally, by the end of the 28 days, you’ll be meditating daily.
In Get Your Sit Together, you’ll learn several things. For one, short meditations count. In my early meditation classes, sessions lasted 20 to 50 minutes, leading me to believe only long meditations were worthwhile. This mindset made it hard to fit meditation into my day, so I’d skip short meditations. You’ll find that short sessions, even just a few minutes, make meditation possible to fit into your busy schedule.
It’s also crucial to change how you view yourself. I used to think I lacked the willpower to meditate daily, but that’s not true. It was about altering my self-perception. I’ll help you see yourself as someone who meditates every day, making it a natural part of your routine.
Accountability is key in developing a new habit. Even something as simple as marking an X on a calendar each day can help. Sharing your progress online with others facing the same challenges creates a supportive, judgment-free zone — a community of encouragement and celebration.
You also need a practical plan for meditating each day. Without planning, you might forget about meditating until it’s too late. Setting specific times to meditate makes it easier to stay consistent, even on busy or unexpectedly free days.
Overcoming resistance is another hurdle. When you think, “I’m too busy or tired to meditate,” learn to recognize it as resistance rather than a valid excuse. Address this resistance gently, suggesting shorter sessions if needed.
One common mistake is forgetting to reward yourself for meditating. Instead of punishing yourself for not meditating long enough, celebrate each time you sit down to meditate. Positive reinforcement encourages you to maintain the habit.
Get Your Sit Together is about more than learning to meditate daily. The principles you’ll learn, based on modern psychology and Buddhist traditions, can help you develop other good habits too. Following the daily emails, guided meditations, and participating in the online community will help you meditate daily, bringing physical, psychological, and social benefits, and ultimately making you a happier, more thriving person.
So join me! Don’t wait until January 1. Sign up and take the first step in a journey that can change your life.