Most people think of meditation as something you do alone, but the ancient practice of meditation has always been practiced in community. It may seem like this tip contradicts #1 and #3, but it is important to accept that you will have a “consistently inconsistent” practice! Giving yourself permission to start over is the only way anyone maintains a meditation practice. Rather than beating yourself up, save your energy and give yourself permission to begin again…and again and again. There will even be times when you go for months without practicing. Even though a daily mindfulness practice is important, you will skip your practice. A 3-minute or a 5-minute practice is a wonderful place to start! Try to think of mindfulness as “dose dependent.” A few minutes of practice once a day will strengthen your muscle of mindfulness more than one long session once a week. ![]() There is some debate in the field of mindfulness about how much a person should practice in order to feel the benefits. Your mindfulness will slowly get stronger, and it will naturally find its way into your stressful moments. Do this without any expectations for 2-4 weeks. Practice a formal meditation once a day, when you feel the least amount of stress. It’s a bit like completing one running session and thinking you can run a 10K race the next day. People often take up the practice of mindfulness because they hope to reduce their stress, but they try to force mindfulness into their moments of stress before their mindfulness muscle is strong enough to handle it. I highly recommend using the free meditations on the Insight Timer app. One of the best ways to practice on purpose is to use a guided meditation. Start with a few minutes of practice each day, and add more time as you go along. Just as you wouldn’t try to think your way into running a 10K race, you can’t think your way into being more mindful. It may seem obvious that you need to practice on purpose, but I have seen people try to think their way into being more mindful by talking about it, reading about it, and listening to podcasts about it. In light of this, I would like to share 5 tips that I have found to be incredibly helpful in maintaining my own mindfulness training (or any other type of training program for that matter): Most people who attempt to practice mindfulness quickly discover that it can be difficult to maintain a regular training program. We can actively prepare ourselves by training in the direction of our hopes! If you hope to become more mindful, you can train yourself to rise to the occasion, which is pretty hopeful! ![]() What can we do instead of falling down the spiral of hopelessness? The second part of Archilochus’ quote provides a clue. My disappointment often leads to beating myself up, and I can all too easily conclude that I will never rise to the level of my hopes. I can’t speak for you, but I don’t like feeling the sting of my own disappointment. It can feel risky to be honest with yourself about your hopes because you will likely fall short of your own expectations. When I say, “I hope to be a more peaceful person,” it lands more softly than “I expect to be a more peaceful person.” Another word you can use for expectations is “hope.” I like the word hope because it feels more gentle than the word expectation. The ancient Greek poet, Archilochus, wrote, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”ĭo you have high expectations for yourself? I know I do.
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