Article first published on Huffington Post : http://huff.to/29AQeAF

Are you one of those enthusiastic meditators who always find the time, no matter what, to meditate? Here, I am not talking about monks in a monastery, I am talking about people like you and me, who are managing their time between family, work, household tasks, friends and all the other activities that a day may contain.

Truth is that only a few of us really succeed to do it, day after day. After a few days, the initial enthusiasm and good resolutions are not there anymore. Despite the fact that the key element to reap the benefits from meditation is consistency, only a few of us have the discipline to continue and benefit from consistent meditation practice. Meditation is a life-long commitment. 

If we know that meditation is good for us, and thousands of studies [1] confirm that, why do we not take it up or cease doing it?

From my personal experience, this is not really a problem about the “how to do it”- most of us have been enrolled in a meditation program. The issue is more about “how to stick to it into our busy life”.

I was involved in different meditation programs and although the content was great, I was never taught specifically how to integrate and maintain it in my daily life. I remember at the beginning when there were days when I completely forgot to do it and other days where I didn’t feel like I wanted to practice. I was always able to find a legitimate excuse (no time with my baby, my parents visiting me or trip with my family…).

Fortunately, thanks to my background in coaching and training, I found a system that has helped me tremendously to get back on track and even rekindle my enthusiasm for my meditation practice. With the right framework, some guidance and resources, it becomes much easier to become a consistent and enthusiastic meditator. And this is what I share in my book “The Enthusiastic Meditator: how to finally stick to your meditation practice” [2].

Here, I would like to share with you 3 secrets to help you to finally stick to your meditation practice.

FIRST SECRET: BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DO IT

The first secret for meditating is simple but not so easy: You need to first believe that you can do it! YES, YOU CAN DO IT! If others can do it, why not you? There are numerous examples of very busy people who can still find time to meditate: Oprah Winfrey, the late Steve Jobs, Arianna Huffington, Jeff Weiner, Deepak Chopra, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Aniston, Gisele Bündchen, Ellen DeGeneres, Cameron Diaz, Yukio Hatoyama (former prime minister of Japan), Clint Eastwood, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Russell Simmons, Angelina Jolie, Derek Jeter, Madonna, and so many more! Remember: “The first step is that you have to say that you can.” (Will Smith)

SECOND SECRET: BUILD YOUR MEDITATION PRACTICE AS ANY OTHER HABIT

The second secret is to build your meditation practice as one of your habits, like writing, running, waking up early, going sugar-free, eating more vegetables etc. We now know that willpower is not enough to rely on. So we need to look for another strategy with other tools: I’m talking about habits. The idea is that “we first make our habits, and then our habits make us” (John Dryden). Why? Because the more you create the automaticity of meditation practice, the easier it becomes to do. This is the principle of any habit. You may now think that “uh ok but I haven’t been able yet to add reading as a habit, so how would I be able to do it for meditation?” My answer is: re-read the first secret. YES, YOU CAN DO IT! Moreover, thanks to researchers and authors like Charles Duhigg, James Clear, BJ Fogg, we now know more about the science of habits and behaviour design which gives us some tips on how to build the meditation habit (More on that in my next article).

 
THIRD SECRET: MAKE YOUR MEDITATION PRACTICE AN ENJOYABLE ONE

The third secret is to make this new habit an enjoyable one. According to Marisa Peer [3] “your mind is hardwired to moving towards pleasure and staying away from pain.” I do believe that if your meditation practice is too painful, your mind will do everything not to experience it anymore. So it is important to find ways to make your practice enjoyable.

In my first meditation program, we were asked to practice 45 minutes each day for 8 weeks right from the beginning. At that time, being a new mum with a baby several months old, I clearly remember telling myself “how am I going to do this?” I blamed myself for not being able to do it regularly and was about to stop (fortunately I did not!). The point that I want to make here is that if it seems like a chore for you, then you are not setting yourself up for success. I do believe that meditation is more like a treat because it helps you to get a pause in the midst of busyness and to take care of your mental hygiene.  “The busier we are, the more we need that centring time—that time to actually be able to connect to our inner wisdom,” says Arianna Huffington.

Keep these 3 secrets in mind for your next meditation practice. I will share with you in my next articles more tips on how to build the meditation habit.

REFERENCES

[1] Madhav Goyal; Sonal Singh; Erica M. S. Sibinga; Neda F. Gould; Anastasia Rowland-Seymour; Ritu Sharma; et al.  “Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.” JAMA Internal Medicine, 6 Jan. 2014.

[2] Nadege Esteban, 2016, “The Enthusiastic Meditator: how to finally stick to your meditation practice”. Foreword by Shamash Alidina.

[3] Marisa Peer, TEDxKCS “To reach beyond your limits by training your mind”: http://bit.ly/1VTPitU.