Hey,
A lot of people want to start a meditation practice but either they don't really do it or they start a meditation practice and it doesn't really stick.
And there's really five things you want to do to prepare yourself for a meditation practice that's really going to help you create something a bit more enduring,
Enjoyable,
Insightful,
Going to get the kind of juice out of it.
And the first thing that a lot of people fail to do is prepare themselves.
And what I mean by that is just this mindset of understanding really what you're getting into.
What you're getting into is a learning experience.
In other words,
The meditation practice itself is not a performance.
There's no good meditation and bad meditation.
It's not that I am not good at it and I failed at it or something like that.
What you notice is when you settle into your practice,
And let's say as an example,
You're paying attention to the breath,
You're paying attention to your body naturally breathing and what happens is your mind kind of drifts off.
And what you're learning from that is just how busy your mind is.
And where it drifts off to is also important.
What you're learning from that is really what's on your mind.
So it's okay that that's happening.
So prepare yourself for the mindset that this is a learning-based experience.
It's not about like performing well.
That's like the complete opposite mindset you want to have.
Okay.
The second thing is you want to bring your heart into it.
You know,
What do I mean by that?
Your practice is ultimately about caring about yourself.
Every time you're sitting with yourself or lying down or whatever it is,
You're attending to your life.
It's about caring about yourself enough to pay attention to yourself because ultimately what that does is makes you more available and present for the people around you,
Whether it's at work or your family or just the strangers all around.
And that inevitably has ripple effects.
So you want to bring your actual heart into it.
You want to care enough to actually do it.
The third thing is you want to be really forgiving.
This is where a lot of people totally miss the boat.
You're going to fall off your practice.
Your mind's going to wander a whole lot.
So you want to integrate this quote that I have out of this six-month online coaching program called A Course in Mindful Living,
Which is,
Forgive,
Investigate,
And invite.
So forgive,
Investigate,
And invite means you're going to wander off.
So forgive yourself for the time gone by.
As Lily Tomlin once said,
Forgiveness means letting go of any hope for a better past.
So forgive yourself for the time gone by.
Investigate what brought you off track.
That brings us back to the first thing,
Which is it's a learning experience.
So what brought us off tracks?
We can learn from it,
Build from it,
And just begin again.
By the way,
That forgive,
Investigate,
And invite,
Inviting ourselves to begin again,
Is something powerful for any change you want to make,
Anything you want to bring into your life.
So bring that in.
So forgive yourself.
And that fourth thing is really thanking yourself.
Your body,
Your brain has to know that this is an important thing to pay attention to.
And so you want to really congratulate yourself or celebrate yourself every time you complete a practice.
So thank yourself for taking the time and space out of all your daily busyness,
What your mindset would,
Could,
Or should be doing for your own learning,
Health,
And well-being.
Make sure at the end of your practice that you really kind of celebrate or thank yourself in your mind.
It's really important for telling your brain what's important to pay attention to.
Okay,
Finally,
The last thing is find a buddy.
This is really tough stuff to do just on your own.
And so find someone in your orbit that also wants to do this type of practice or bring this stuff into their lives and start up a chat with them or if you're actually in person with them,
Even better.
And if you want to go to a live experience with people,
That's fine.
I know we have every Sunday morning at 9 a.
M.
We put on a live meditation call with the whole world.
But if you want to get more intimate,
We have you find a buddy.
And another thing we do in that coaching program,
Of course,
In Mindful Living is we really kind of get people involved with each other so that this is like an experience you realize we're moving into together.
So find a buddy.
So again,
If you want to have the five things,
The five things is make this a learning experience,
Prepare yourself,
Prepare yourself with that learning mindset.
The next thing is bring your heart into it.
Recognize that this is about caring about yourself and having the ripple effects.
The third thing is be really forgiving with yourself because you're going to wander off.
Your mind's going to wander off within the practice and you're going to wander off from your practice.
So forgive,
Investigate and invite.
The fourth thing is don't forget to thank and celebrate yourself after you do the practice.
And the fifth thing,
Find a buddy.
We're like all in this together.
We really are.
We're so much stronger together.
We always are.
So hopefully those are really powerful and helpful.
And if you have any questions,
You can always pop them into any comment section where this lives and I look forward to continuing to be with you.
