Meditation is an amazing practice that can make us healthier, happier, and more compassionate. However, even if you’re aware of these benefits, it can still be challenging to meditate regularly.
If you’ve struggled to establish a daily meditation habit, it might have affected how you see yourself. You might think you’re not the type of person who can meditate every day, and this belief can discourage you further, creating a vicious cycle.
Let’s break that cycle.
I want to share a simple tool that finally helped me stick to a daily meditation routine. I knew all the science-backed benefits of meditation, like how it keeps you healthier, reduces stress, promotes happiness, slows brain aging, and reduces pain. From my own experience, I also knew that life felt easier when I meditated regularly. Despite all this, I often found it hard to sit down and meditate every day. Missing a day or two would only make it harder to get back into the habit.
Then, I found a technique that worked for me and seems to help others as well. It’s straightforward: just keep repeating to yourself the following mantra: “I meditate every day; it’s just what I do; it’s part of who I am.”
Repeating this mantra can help reprogram your self-perception. You begin to replace the belief that you’re not someone who can meditate daily. Gradually, the new belief that you do meditate every day starts to take hold.
Now, you might think, “This isn’t true; I don’t meditate every day.” You might be hesitant to repeat something you don’t believe. But think of this mantra as a statement of intention. It’s about your life from now on, not about the past.
So, it can be true starting today. Think of it as a factual statement about today or however many consecutive days you’ve meditated. When those “Yes, but…” thoughts arise, acknowledge them but choose not to believe them.
You need to repeat the mantra often. Say it to yourself first thing in the morning, in the shower, while driving or on public transport, while washing dishes, at the gym, walking, or before falling asleep. You can even say it while meditating!
Repeating the mantra alone isn’t enough; you still need to put in the effort to meditate daily. Aim for at least five minutes each day, from the time you wake up until you go to bed.
Eventually, you’ll realize that the mantra has become true for you. You do meditate every day. It’s just what you do. Your daily practice becomes a part of who you are, as natural as brushing your teeth. You don’t need to decide to do it; you simply do it.
This technique really works. Give it a try.