CULTIVATING THE HABIT OF MEDITATION

The importance of meditation is known to all. We all know the positive effects of meditation on our mental health and overall quality of life. We often make resolutions,goals and plans to practise meditation and silence. But how many of us are able to stick to it? We often fall prey to thoughts like - I don't feel like doing it today. I'll start from tomorrow. I'll start from the next month. And thus we are never able to achieve it. I, too, struggled for years to build this habit. So, here I am listing some tips that I have learnt from my experience which would be helpful in building this habit.

Try meditation apps

Various apps like Calm, Headspace, Lets Meditate are available on playstore to make your meditation sessions simple and easy. You can listen to guided meditations or meditation music. There are free and paid sessions in the apps. You can choose whatever suits you. If apps don't work for you, try videos available on YouTube.

Use a tracker

Tracking is the best tool which can be used to make any habit and stick to it.

You can track your habit of meditation by two ways.

Online method - You can simply download an app like Loop , Repeat habit tracker etc. The apps also have the reminder feature so that even if you forget you are easily reminded of your habits.

Offline method - This is the usual pen and paper method. Use a blank page and draw 30/31 boxes on it corresponding to each day of a particular month. Colour the box if you did meditation that day otherwise leave it empty. Coloured boxes will motivate you to continue your habit and uncoloured boxes will encourage you to not miss it the next day. 

Both methods are helpful, but I prefer the pen-paper method.

Don't think of it as a task

As soon as you put meditation on your to-do list, you start procrastinating it like your other tasks. Try to imagine it as something you do daily. We don't need any reminders or efforts for brushing our teeth, eating food or bathing. Thats our routine. Try to fit meditation in your routine and it will be a lot more easier to stick to it. For instance, when you get up in the morning, meditation must be the first thing you do so that you begin your day with a calm mind.

Practise in a group

If you are a beginner and you find it difficult or boring to do it alone, you can start doing it in a group, with a friend or your family members. You will also help other people in this process.

Studies proved that a ripple effect of peace exists in the surroundings when meditation is performed in a group!

Consistency is the key

I had a neighbour last year who was a spiritual teacher. I, along with my room mates, went to her to learn meditation. We did a 20-30 minutes session with her. She insisted that being consistent is the most important thing in meditation. A lot of people start with great enthusiam but later lose interest because of not being able to maintain consistency.

Consistency is more important than duration.

Start small and enjoy the journey

You can start with a 5 minute session in the beginning. Get comfortable with the process and with time, you can increase the duration gradually. If you start with unrealistic goals like practising for 45 minutes or an hour for the very first time, your mind will be mostly focussed on the time and the whole idea of relaxing your mind and focussing within yourself will fail. 

Try enjoying the process.Don't expect to be peaceful at the end of the session if you were only thinking about the results during meditation. You will definitely feel calm, peaceful and relaxed if you do it properly.

Be blessed and stay healthy.

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