Arriving Home :: Making Meditation Consistent
Making Meditation Consistent
It's one thing to learn the practice of meditation, and it's another practice in itself to make meditation consistent and part of your daily life.
I often get asked what my top tips and practices are for making meditation a regular practice and daily routine. So this 'Arriving Home' is dedicated to just that: how to make meditation a true, daily practice and an effortless part of your daily existence.
The AGM Desire, Embodiment and Action Model
The most-effective way to make a meditation routine consistent is to make it an actual priority in your life. There is a difference between having the desire to meditate and having that same desire become an action in reality. A desire is a thought in the mind. As we all know, wishing for something is the step before actually having it.
When it comes to meditation, the desire or the thought to meditate is a starting point. But the next step is what I have found to be the most important, which is the feeling of the desire itself. When you feel the desire, you turn the desire into a tangible experience within the body - this is called embodiment. You may feel excited, anticipatory, calmer or like you have a true sense of looking forward to your practice. Let yourself feel all of these feelings. Let the excitement excite you. Let the calmness calm you. Let the anticipation become a magnet that brings you to your meditation practice.
Once the desire becomes a feeling you embody, then it is much easier to arrive to the action of meditation itself. The action becomes effortless, it becomes part of the decision (desire and thought) and the feeling is the energy carrying you into action.
My top suggestion to students who ask how to make meditation a part of their daily life is to feel it. Be lion-hearted about your practice and use that embodied feeling to bring your desires into reality.
For additional practical tools and techniques, you can explore 'Starting and Sustaining a Meditation Practice' and 'Creating A Home Practice'.
