7 habits of meditation - ext,

"To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem. To meditate means to
observe." - Thich Nhat Hanh

We all know meditation is a great way to deal with problems, live in the
moment, and of course manage stress. But, if you’re interested in
changing some negative habits you have, creating a habit of meditation is
the best place to start. To create other good habits, start with the habit
of meditation first. Here’s how:

1. Commit to “half of tiny.” Anytime we introduce something new, we
tend to run into resistance. At first the motivation will be there, but “life”
gets in the way. Here’s why: we try to solve our entire problem all at once.
Have you ever done this?: Decide you’re going to lose 30 pounds... Make
an extra $30k per year... Remodel your house... Publish a book... Run a
marathon…

You get into a frenzy of activity and then get totally overwhelmed - How am
I going to fit this into my schedule? How am I going to manage this extra
“thing”? I don’t know what I’m doing! And you quit.

So don’t look at “life-changing.” Look at lifestyle. To create the meditation
habit, commit to a few minutes a day. Not even 30, which is ideal, just
however many minutes feels realistically doable to you every single day.
10 minutes? 5? 2? Whatever it is, it’s right for you. Now: Commit to half of
that. And then do it every day, until it feels natural and normal.

2. Be aware of resistance. These urges can arise unnoticed and if we act
on them, we don’t take action on the habit. So whenever you think about
“not” meditating, bring your attention to the resistance. Being mindful of
these rationalizations and urges takes away their power!

3. Pick a consistent time of day. This is the easiest way to make
meditation part of your routine. Remember you’re meditating in super tiny
chunks so it’s not going to be a disruption.

4. Pick a trigger activity to “link” your practice to. For example, you may
get pleasure from having a cup of coffee in the morning. Link that to your
meditation practice! Put on the coffee pot and go meditate for your teeny
chunk of time. Link the pleasure of your morning coffee routine with the
emerging pleasure of your emerging meditation routine.

5. Be comfortable! If people were told that to meditate “properly” they had
to twist their legs into Lotus, or even half-lotus, many would not meditate
at all. Don’t fuss too much about how you sit. Or, for that matter, where.
There is no wrong way to “be,” after all.

6. Relax… and be okay with a wandering mind. Your mind will wander,
and you might feel frustrated and mad that you can’t make it shut up. I can
teach you to quiet your mind (it’s surprisingly easy) but, most of the time,
simply being aware of your mind’s travels is best. Meditation is about being
in the moment. Since most of our thoughts are “yesterday” and “tomorrow”
it’s easy to lose sight of the moment. So just practice bringing yourself
back to now. Your mind wanders off to a fight you had with your significant
other… notice that and tell yourself, “hey, I’m thinking about something in
the past!” That’s enough to break that thought loop and bring you back to
the moment. If your mind persists in going back to that topic, fine. Notice it,
and bring it back. Over and over, like a yo-yo, like waves in the ocean, like
the breath… back and forth from moment to thought to moment to thought…

7. Relax… and be okay with physical sensations and environmental
distractions. Suddenly you’ll develop an itch. A strand of hair will blow
across your face. A fly will buzz next to your ear. The neighbor’s dog will
bark. That doesn’t mean you’ve broken your meditation, even if you’ve
come out of a trance-like state - as long as you don’t get caught up in a
domino effect of thoughts triggered by this physical “intrusion,” you’re still
meditating. Awareness of a sensation and practicing non-judgment of it,
is a wonderful skill. Say you have an itch. Pause after you notice a
sensation; note your discomfort; “be with” the sensation as long as you
can, resisting the urge to scratch it - you may notice that by focusing on
the sensation of the itch itself, the urge to scratch it may disappear. It’s
really fascinating to practice this!

These 7 habits will help you create the most wonderful habit of all,
meditation. And you know that you get a lot of help from LifeFlow! Even
though the full entrainment process takes about 7 minutes, don’t feel that
you can’t use LifeFlow while you’re committing to a 2-minute meditation.
You can, and it will help you relax and be okay with “not doing” which is
super helpful when you’re starting out. As you build your practice, you’ll
find that LifeFlow helps you go deep into meditation very quickly;
stimulating the release of serotonin, dopamine and other feel-good
chemicals - and this pleasurable feeling will help cement the habit!

Let meditation be an integral part of your everyday routine with these easy
steps!