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If you don’t make time for the things that matter to you, you’ll spend your full life chasing your tail and going around in circles.

Aren’t you going to take a moment to yourself and find some of life’s deeper meaning and fulfilment?

I hope you answer yes because you deserve it as much as the next person.

If you want to give yourself a break, you must commit to some form of daily practice. In this case, we’re specifically talking about mindfulness meditation.

Some people run or make art, which is amazing, but you probably wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think there was more to the picture.

I know making a commitment takes more time out of your day, but sometimes, you have to take a small step backwards in order to take two or three steps forward.

It sounds crazy, but I feel like I have more time than ever since I committed to meditating for at least 30 minutes every morning.

Meditation allows us to make better decisions, which ultimately gives us the gift of more time throughout the rest of our lives.

It’s taken me a while to get to this point, but the space allowed in the rest of my life has been a real game-changer.

There's a missing element in mindfulness teachings.

Mindfulness has been clinically proven to help several mental and physical medical conditions. The 8-week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and friends at the University of Massachusetts has been used for years, helping countless people take control of their mental health and lives.

I’m currently working my way through one of these courses, and to be quite honest, I love it. Meeting like-minded people and returning to basics is excellent as we practice simple activities like the “Raisin Meditation.”

Each session has guided meditations from the host, discussions, and opportunities for feedback on our experiences. Oh, yeah, there’s also homework to do every week.

In all of these courses, home practice is clearly an essential part of the course.

I’d personally argue that it’s the most important part of the course because an hour a week isn’t enough to see real differences.

You need a daily practice that you’re able to sustain long-term.

The problem is that these courses need to provide guidance on establishing or sustaining a long-term meditation practice.

Given that this is one of the most important things to use mindfulness to improve our lives, I’d say this is an oversight on many of the mindfulness programmes being delivered at the moment.

You have to make it manageable.

You’re probably here because you’re (understandably) struggling with the hardest part of meditation: showing up and doing it every day.

I’ve spent the past ~2000 days trying to figure out this, and I’d say I’ve nearly cracked it. I’ve missed a day or two in the past year, but that’s it because, you know, life happens sometimes.

One of the first things we must appreciate is that meditation is no different from any other habit we’re likely to pick up. That means we need to start small and gentle.

You wouldn’t weight lift on the first day and bench press your body weight.

You wouldn’t start running and try a marathon on your first day.

You wouldn’t fight a blackbelt on your first day at Jiu-Jitsu.

If you attempted any of these, you’d probably cause yourself enough pain to abandon that activity. So, why would you begin a meditation practice with lengthy sessions that overwhelm you?

You’ll experience significant mind wandering, suppressed thoughts and emotions, physical pain, and much more. This is why most people never make it past the first few weeks of their new meditation practice.

Their intentions are right, but they start too heavy and make the practice feel like a chore. This is exactly what we want to avoid. The advice here is to help you show up and do the reps daily. That’s the only way you’ll ever see results from any meditation practice.

In case you were wondering, we’ll examine the specifics of progressively increasing our time on the cushion in later posts. But for now, the main priority is ensuring we turn up to the cushion daily, no matter how long.

This is how you build a habit.

The good thing is that our brains are naturally wired to do things habitually. Consider how you brush your teeth in the morning without even thinking about it. After we’ve done something enough times initially, the circuitry becomes stronger, and we can do it with less effort.

The hardest part is getting started, but after we overcome that initial resistance, things should start to feel more natural.

One of the biggest problems is that new habits require large amounts of energy at first, but we can put systems in place to reduce this requirement.

In biochemistry, activation energy is the amount of energy required to start a chemical reaction. Enzymes can reduce this energy.

Think of the tools and strategies provided in this post as the enzymes to help you reduce the amount of energy needed to kick-start that meditation practice of yours.

If we can leverage our cognitive habits to get us to meditate with less resistance, then we’re onto a winner.

The goal is to make meditation feel natural.

We can focus on these concepts as a framework for designing each stage for optimal habit formation. Here are the steps, inspired by James Clear’s Atomic Habits, you can use to make it a reality:

Change your beliefs.

You change your beliefs by deciding the type of person you want to be and proving it to yourself daily with small wins.

You run daily if you want to be a runner.

If you want to be a weightlifter, you train every day.

If you want to be a calm & compassionate person, you meditate daily.

This truly comes down to your motivation for being here. You might not care about compassion or creativity and be a complete productivity nerd.

If that’s the case, you need to remind yourself every day how important productivity is to you and how much more productive you’ll be once you cultivate laser-like focus.

You only form that new identity by showing up and doing what you said you would. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 30 seconds or 30 minutes. But remember, no one is going to do it for you.

Make it obvious.

Do this by choosing a specific time to meditate every day without fail. Ensure there’s no question about what you do at that point.

It’s normally helpful to do it immediately after something you already do daily, like brushing your teeth. This is called habit stacking.

My favourite time is first thing in the morning, just after I’ve had a shower to freshen and wake me up.

Attempting it later in the day leaves me feeling too lethargic, whereas starting the day with a meditation session sets a positive tone and provides an early win.

If mornings aren’t feasible for you, aim for a time when you’re awake but not overly stimulated, perhaps shortly after a workout.

The key is to experiment and find what works best for you, ensuring that your meditation practice becomes a non-negotiable part of your daily routine.

Make it attractive.

The best way to make a habit like meditation attractive is to have a dedicated space for it.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a cosy chair, cushion, or simple stool tucked away in a quiet corner of your room; having a designated meditation space transforms the act of meditation into a mini-retreat for yourself.

The space should invite you to fully immerse yourself in the present moment without distractions from the outside world.

Building a tranquil environment helps you cultivate a sense of anticipation and eagerness to return to your meditation space each day. You want this to be a space where you can retreat from the hush and rush of daily life.

I spent years sitting on meditation because I couldn’t find a posture suited to biomechanics. I almost concluded that it just wasn’t for me. However, I invested in an armchair last year, which is the perfect balance of comfort and upright support.

My meditation practice has accelerated tremendously since that decision, partially because I look forward to meditating in my chair every morning. You’ve got to make it appealing.

Make it easy.

Making the practice easy is linked to making it attractive. I find my practice easy because I have somewhere comfortable to sit and practice.

If you need to take time to find a configuration that works for you, then get stuck in and enjoy the process. You might find that you prefer to lie down, so you leave your yoga mat out.

Prepare everything you need for the morning and the night before. Ensure you have your work clothes ready and lunch packed the night before. This will allow you more time in the morning to focus on your meditation practice.

Remove friction to give yourself a seamless transition into your practice.

Make sure your yoga mat or meditation cushion is already out and waiting for you. By having these items readily available in a dedicated spot for meditation, you eliminate the need to scramble or search for them each time you sit down to meditate.

It might require sacrificing space for other belongings, but this intentional use of space reaffirms your commitment to the practice.

By prioritising your meditation practice and simplifying the setup process, you set yourself up to win through consistent and effortless engagement.

Make it satisfying.

You’ll never stick to something if it isn’t satisfying in some way, shape, or form.

Let’s be honest; sitting silently on a cushion for prolonged periods doesn’t appear inherently enjoyable in the first instance, does it? That’s why we must try to make it a little more engaging when starting out.

Using habit tracker apps, bullet journals, or specialised apps like Insight Timer or those linked to Mindful Minutes for Apple users allows you to monitor your progress metrics and streaks.

It’s important not to get fixated on streaks, though. They’re just one aspect of your journey; they can provide a dopamine boost, especially in the early stages of your practice, encouraging you to stay on track.

Consider making a promise to yourself, such as treating yourself to a comfortable meditation cushion if you meditate every day without fail for a month.

By including elements of fun and tangible rewards, you give yourself something to work towards, which brings a sense of satisfaction and progress.

Have a backup plan.

Life happens.

We’re all human.

We’ll have a late night, or something will come up, which means we oversleep and miss our morning meditation.

It’s crucial to have a contingency plan in place to ensure that our meditation practice doesn’t fall by the wayside.

This involves making a promise to ourselves that if we miss our scheduled meditation session, we’ll make time for it later in the day, maybe as soon as we get home after work.

Acknowledging the inevitability of setbacks and proactively planning for them, we empower ourselves to stay consistent and resilient in our meditation practice.

The last thing I want to leave you with is this: do not judge your meditations. Your job is to show up and accept whatever happens. Your meditation will reflect your current state of mind and life at large, which is fine.

Even if you are stressed and rushed and manage to sit down for five minutes at the end of the day, only being aware of one or two breaths, then do it. That is still an achievement.

Just commit to the practice as an exercise without any expectations. Don’t be discouraged. Meditation does work, but you must be patient and gentle with yourself.

Meditation is not a goal but a process, and a life-long one at that. As you remain persistent in observing your breath, body, thoughts, and emotions, you will become more proficient at staying cool and composed in the array of situations that life throws at you.

Enough for today.