Why you struggle to find time for meditation and the best tricks for making it a daily habit
The Real Reason People "Don't Have Time" for Meditation
If meditation has such a positive impact on personal fulfillment as well as peak creative performance for founders, athletes, or musicians, proven by science, why do so few of us manage to take a few minutes daily to meditate?
"No time" is certainly the most common and convincing answer. However, in my opinion, that's not true. We all find at least 5-10 minutes each day (and much more) to scroll through Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, the daily news, or watch the latest Netflix series.
Understanding the Fear of Being Alone with Our Thoughts
If it's not due to lack of time, then what's the reason? My guess is that it's our discomfort or even (unconscious) fear of being alone with ourselves and our thoughts. We prefer a small adrenaline kick from the news or a simple distraction through social media or Netflix.
Naval Ravikant's statement, "To measure the quality of your life, simply do nothing, and see how it feels", contains a lot of (sometimes initially unpleasant) truth.
The Benefits of Facing Unpleasant Feelings in Meditation
During meditation, you immediately notice how you feel at the moment. You instantly and intensely feel if you are restless that day or have other unpleasant feelings. And, of course, that makes it an even bigger hurdle to do the meditation and continue the next day (since you subconsciously associate negative feelings with meditation).
But I think it's a huge opportunity to allow these feelings during meditation and address them specifically, as the unanimous opinion of leading psychologists and scientists is that suppressing feelings is the least successful approach to dealing with them in the medium and long term.
Strategies for Establishing a Daily Meditation Habit
I started meditating in 2012. For the first few years, I meditated quite regularly but became irregular with my meditation practice between 2017 and 2021, sometimes not meditating at all. So I know how hard it is to keep at it.
However, after recognizing the distraction tactics and unconscious feelings that prevent truly integrating meditation into everyday life, I decided to take a closer look at my own experiences. I reflected on the conversations, books, and articles I've encountered over the years. This introspection ultimately led me to meditate (almost) every day from 2012 until 2017 and resume this practice from 2021 until today.
If you implement these strategies, meditation will soon become a valuable daily habit in your life that you look forward to and do naturally.
To make meditation a daily habit, I found the following 5 strategies helpful:
1. Adopt a mindset of treating meditation like a sport, using negative feelings as a chance to detach and enhance daily relaxation and life satisfaction.
2. Informing my wife and daughter about my need for meditation time.
3. Making daily meditation a priority and integrating it into my daily routine
(to support this, I set aside time in my calendar for meditation, just as I do for everything else that is a priority for me that day).
4. Starting with short sessions of 10 minutes, which are enough to begin (see also this Harvard Business Review article and study here).
5. Continuing the practice even if I miss a day or a few days, remembering the quote, "A winner is just a loser who tried one more time" - George M. Moore, Jr.
The Importance of Consistency, Patience, and Long-term Perspective:
In the journey of meditation, it's essential to remember that progress doesn't always follow a linear path. Some days, meditation might feel easier or more effective than others, and that's completely normal. The key to reaping the full benefits of meditation is to maintain consistency and patience, understanding that progress often unfolds in waves rather than a straight line.
When you zoom out and look at your practice over several weeks, months, and even years, you'll notice significant changes and improvements that were not immediately apparent on a day-to-day basis. By maintaining a long-term perspective, you'll be better equipped to embrace the ebb and flow of your meditation journey and truly experience the profound transformations that come with dedicated practice over a longer period of time.
Celebrate Your Progress and Stay Inspired
Lastly, take time to acknowledge and celebrate the progress you make in your meditation journey (e.g., by writing a journal). Recognize the positive changes in your life and mental well-being, and let them serve as a source of inspiration and motivation to continue your practice.
To sum it up, finding time for meditation is not about having more hours in a day but about prioritizing and understanding the huge value it brings to your life. By facing your fears, being consistent, adopting a long-term perspective, customizing your practice, and celebrating your progress, you can make meditation a daily habit that enriches your life in countless ways and gives you back many times what you have to invest in it.
Find out what my favorite meditation app is after 11 years of meditation and my Top 5 Meditations for every emotion in my article here.