5 Reasons Meditating Ends

Beginning meditation is the toughest part.  I mean this in two ways.  Beginning a meditation session and beginning your practice of the art of  meditation. Meeting in a group, especially with instruction and Q&A time for tweaking your experience,  makes moving past the beginning procrastinations  more likely to occur.  How can you keep your practice going?

You might be surprised to know it is the regularity of practicing meditating, more than the frequency or length of a session that will lead you to the benefits faster.  Changes  in mood, compassion, stress and mental clarity are reported, or made evident in studies, within 8 weeks of  meditating for 20 to 45 minutes each day.

At first you might aim for 5 to 10 minutes, setting your phone alarm or another timer so you can let go and not worry about the time.  Once you are able and ready to lengthen the time I find people enjoy it much more because they get more out of it.  Anywhere from 20-45 minutes, 30 is fine, work the best for most people. This is because it takes about 10 minutes, 15 on a super stressful day, to get into the stillness.  This beginning period of mental chatter and calming  them down is a natural part of each meditation for the majority of people, so include it in your time.  If you can’t get past that period, don’t give up. Some days are better than others. Anyway, it is still  providing some relief toward de-stressing your body and mind.

My goal, as your teacher in a class or in therapy, is to help you to integrate meditation into your lifestyle 5 to 7 days a week.  This means finding the right type of meditation for your purposes, doing it at the right time for you, and in the best location for you to have a silent period of time.

These are five common reasons  people stop meditating when class is over:

1. It’s tough to stay motivated when each time it is difficult to get going and the rewards are felt less often.

2. You procrastinate and don’t find the time often enough so your intention to practice stops bringing your awareness to the intention you had when you began the class.

3. You get a scare or feel unsure of how to proceed and don’t want to try again or alone.

4. You only practice the type of meditation that comes easiest for you, and your brain isn’t stretched and used as well as it could be.

5. You get bored doing the same kind of mediation.

In my next blog posts, I’ll talk about each of these 5 meditation stoppers and offer you some ways to get around them to keep your practice going.