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Establishling strong meditation habits
If you want to make meditation a habit, it’s not always easy to form new habits, and the habit of meditating regularly is no different.
However, taking the time to establish this habit of daily meditation has many benefits that will affect all aspects of your life.
You will generally feel more at peace with life and you’ll find that you are calmer more often.
You’ll notice that you can concentrate better and for longer. You’ll show more patience to your family, friends and work collegues. You’ll live in the present moment much more often than you did before..
Meditation is also great for your health and can be a big help in relieving stress.
In short, it’s a very good idea to make meditation a habit.
Here are three tips to help you succeed.
Make meditation part of your routine
You’ll find it much easier to form a new habit if you make it a part of your daily routine. That’s the reason meditating the very first thing you do in the morning works so well for some people.
Carrying out your daily meditation simply becomes a part of your morning preparations.
You could try different ways to see which works best for you. You could
meditate in bed before you even get up. Don’t let your mind drift onto things you have to do that day. Things at work or helping the kids later for example. Just have some time for yourself to meditate.
You could shower and then spend some time right after on your meditation. You could use the time in the shower to get into a relaxed dreamy state then keep yourself relaxed as you dry.
You could programme an alarm to wake you up 10 minutes earlier than usual and start your day with a short meditation session. You will find that as you probably already have a well established routine in the morning, adding a short meditation will easily become part of that routine and a new habit.
Use a timer and attempt to do it at the same time each day.
If it is not possible to incorporate your daily meditation practice into an existing routine, you may have to adopt a new routine.
Your brain will adapt to a new meditation habit if you do it at the same time each day, end, even better, if you can do it in the same place.
Your brain will start to realise that that time and place is for meditation and will get into the session much quicker.
Initially, you may find it difficult getting into the habit. To help you keep up the momentum set an alarm on your phone to remind you to meditate. Then you won’t get carried away with life going on and miss it.
Another helpful tip is to set yourself a challenge to keep up this new meditation habit for 30 days. Record these days on a calendar right after each meditation session and do everything you can not to miss a day. After the 30 days are up, you will have established the new habit and it will be much easier to keep it up.
Find a meditation program or app you like
For the next tip, you could consider using an app on your phone or tablet that has meditation music or tones to help you meditate.
You can easily find many of them with a simple search in the app store of your android or apple device and most of them at least have a free, limited option you can try out. The free ie basic version may be all you need to make meditation a habit.
Many of the apps offer new guided meditations every day and allow you to track your progress. Plus, an alarm on your phone will remind you to meditate. Try it out and see if using an app helps you develop a strong meditation habit.
The iAwake app works on your phone and allows you to carry with you any brainwave entrainment audio mp3 files you have purchased from them. I use it often and love the convenience of just listening any time I want.
Try binaural beats to help make meditation a habit.
Binaural beats are a brainwave entrainment technique where different tones played to each ear through headphones can create a ‘phantom’ tone that guides your brain into a relaxed, trance state more receptive to meditating.
Read my article What are binaural beats ? to go more deeply into it.
My favourite meditation program is Zen 12. It has 12 levels and the early levels last just 12 minutes! Most people wanting to meditate regularly can find 12 minutes, even in a busy day!
Each level has different background sounds to suit your mood, for example relaxing music, nature sounds or white noise. There is also a guided meditation for each level if being guided is to your taste.
Download them to your phone or mobile device for ultimate convenience of meditation and to have them with you all the time.
Listen to a level for a month then move on to the next level which takes you a bit deeper than the last. In no time you’ll be meditating like a Budhist Monk!
Read my very detailed Zen 12 review here or go straight to the informative Zen 12 sales page here. If you go straight to the sales page, scroll down the page to see the code VZ54YTD6 to make sure you get it for $50 off.
I also like iAwake meditation audio files and have them downloaded to the excellent app on my phone.
Summary
Habits are often difficult to install effectively and the steps to make meditation a habit can be tricky.
If you are determined to start to meditate regularly I hope these tips will help you succeed quickly and with a suitable amount of effort.
If they did, drop me a line. I’d love to think my advice had helped.
