Many people struggle to stay consistent when initially working on building healthy and self improving habits. Just like how most people often have hard time to keep up with eating healthy and working out consistently, mediation can also become hard for new starters practice on daily basis in a consistent manner to attain maximum benefit. When i initially started meditating, it was definitely a learning process. I had to figure out what worked best for me and how to stay consistent. Listed below are some tips and tricks i have came up with.
5 PRACTICAL TIPS ON HOW TO PRACTICE MEDITATION DAILY:
1. SET REALISTIC TIME GOAL
If you are finding yourself putting off your meditation time due to time constraints then you need to understand that there is no absolute set amount of time you must meditate for. It doesn't have to be solid 30 minutes or even 20. Infact you should set yourself up with a realistic time goal for meditation if you want to be able to practice and attain the benefit of meditation. Adjust your meditation time according to your schedule. On a very busy hectic day maybe practice for only 5 minutes. Any other day if you have extra time in your hand maybe push it to 15-20 minutes. The important thing is to realise don't set yourself back from meditating by thinking you don't have enough time or that mediation will be very time consuming.
2. PINPOINT YOUR IDEAL SCHEDULE
Figure out when is the ideal time where you know you can sneak in a good session of mediation in your day. Whether it's right in the morning, during commute, lunch break or even before bed. Figure out the ideal time you know you would be able to mediate or when you enjoy it the most. This will allow you to create a consistent habit. So for example maybe you find that meditating during lunch time gives you the best result and easier for you to practice frequently.
3. EXPLORE DIFFERENT LOCATIONS
Meditating doesn't always mean you have to sit in complete isolation in absolute quiet location in order to practice. Just changing up your locations and figure out what works along with different techniques. For example try meditating during your commuting hours to take advantage of the time. Next time you are outdoor for a run or walk, practice some meditation techniques to calm your mind down. Just explore different locations so that you won't find yourself bounded by certain locations and environment in order to meditate effectively.
4. MAINTAIN YOUR STREAK
Maintaining streak can be motivating for many people. You can physically create a chart with your meditation goals for the week and tick it off straight away after practicing to not only keep track of your progress but to also motivate yourself to continue to maintain the streak. Meditation apps such headspace and calm (With calm you can your their meditation series right from their website linked) has a streak feature that keeps track of how frequent you meditate along with encourage you to maintain streak to motivate you.
5. DON'T FOCUS ON PERFECTION
Most important tip to remember. Especially when you start meditating the first time. Remember to not focus on perfection. You will find yourself often distracted, drifting off to to random thoughts, struggling to finish the entire meditation session. Don't feel discouraged and lose motivation by aiming to achieve perfection and immediate result from your mediation practice. Don't focus on doing the right or wrong thing or judging yourself for not being able to focus. This is all part of meditation journey. As you start to practice meditation daily, you will find yourself learning more and more about what works and how to effectively calm your mind down. Focus on your meditation just don't focus on perfection.
