Some ways you can find the time to meditate
In this day and age, we have so much coming at us from every direction.
Phones, televisions, computers, automobiles, appointments, meetings, learning, and then trying to find the time to meditate feels like it’s one more things on the to-do list.
As a teacher, I can tell you that there is a way to do it. I know, I live in modern society, too. I have my gadgets, another job, a life, family obligations, plenty of appointments and a full schedule.
I meditate at least once every day, and most days twice a day.
Prioritizing meditation
Have you ever noticed that when you really want to do something, you make it happen? You figure out how to get to that concert, you make time to get coffee with a friend, you watch that movie – at home or in the theatre.
You have to first decide that your mental and emotional health is just as important as all the other things in your life. If you don’t, then making time for meditation won’t ever become a regular activity in your life.
But you don’t have to immediately start out meditating for an hour a day, either. In fact, if you do that, you won’t succeed.
Meditation is something that you need to ease into. Just as you wouldn’t sign up for a marathon when you’ve never jogged a mile before, you must learn to train the muscles of the mind.
Take five minutes
Think about what you can do in five minutes. You can:
- Brush your teeth and floss.
- Change from your work clothes to your PJs.
- Stand in line to get coffee.
- Take a quick shower.
- Heat up your veggies in the microwave or on the stove.
- Snooze your alarm and sleep longer.
- Make a sandwich.
…and you can meditate! Really. It can take just five minutes a day to start seeing benefits from a meditation practice.
Create a routine
That five minutes to make time for meditation won’t happen if you don’t create a routine.
There’s an acronym in the meditation community: RPM.
It means, “rise, pee, meditate” when you get up in the morning.
Giggles aside, this is pretty much what I do, and have done so since 2008. I might do a couple other little things such as drink a glass of water, or let my cats out.
But then I head straight to my meditation space, set my timer, and begin. It’s such an ingrained habit. Upon rising, I don’t even think about it.
Make it a daily habit
If you can create a routine upon waking to head to your meditation space and meditate, you’re much more likely to make it a daily habit. You need a daily habit so you really feel and benefit from the practice.
Think about brushing your teeth. You get the benefits by having a daily brushing habit. If you only brushed your teeth once a week, you can imagine what would happen…
Understand the different brain states
Meditate earlier in the morning if you can. Part of why the morning is so good is that when you wake up, you’re not fully in high brain-functioning mode. (That’s my very-scientific way of putting it.)
You’re coming out of a sleep state, and it’s a “twilight period” before you experience full wakefulness.
Meditation keeps the brain in a more relaxed brainwave state. It will also aid in the brain’s transition to a fully awakened state.
Stick with it
Once you commit to a length of time that you’ll meditate for, stick with it. If you set the timer for five minutes and begin, let nothing interrupt you.
You’re training your brain to focus – despite possible distractions – leading to powerful benefits over time.
Set up a dedicated space
It doesn’t have to be fancy. Maybe it’s as simple as sitting up in bed. (Pro-tip: don’t meditate while laying down unless you want to sleep, because that’s what will happen.)
Maybe you go out and sit on your couch. Just be sure you won’t be disturbed by waking children, your cats, dogs, lizards or someone coming in and turning on the television.
Go to another bedroom. This is what I do, and I’ve done it for over a decade. It’s my dedicated space, with a blanket for a cushion, a candle, my eyemask, and earplugs.
Avoid going outside. This seems counterintuitive, right? But the outdoors have all kinds of wonderful distractions.
This summer I was camping and decided to go to a secluded spot to meditate. I was almost at the end of my session when I felt quite a few “needles” on my toes. It turns out that ants were crawling all over me, especially my feet!
Get others involved
Tell everyone where you live that you are meditating and ask them not to disturb you.
You can also use an app that can help motivate you. This can be helpful knowing that others are sitting with you “in spirit,” but also that counts your hours and sessions of meditation.
I prefer the Insight Timer. It’s a timer, has guided meditations, gives you “rewards” for your meditation sessions, and has guided meditations to help you, too.
Feel the benefits
After a period of time of meditating day after day, you’ll start to feel the benefits.
Once you notice them showing up in your life, you’ll want to meditate more. And more.
Remember how I said that in this day and age, so much is coming at us all the time? Yeah, you’ll be able to handle all that better. You’ll get more efficient. And you’ll be able to focus more effectively.
This is what happened so that I went from five minutes back in 2008 to ten, twenty, thirty, forty-five, and to sixty minutes or more in the mornings, years later.
Now, most people probably won’t do that much. But then again, this is why I became a meditation teacher.
You can do it!
You just have to set your mind to make it happen.
What great advice. I am not going to lie, but I get up before everyone else around here in my home to get a jump start on things. So love the idea of taking even 5 minutes of that time to meditate and get centered. Thanks for the suggestion and will have to give it a try. Happy Monday now and hugs xoxo <3
Janine – ah, thank you! Getting up before everyone else is a wonderful way to fit in those things you’d like to fit in, such as meditation. And five minutes is all you need to get started and get centered. It’s so incredibly powerful – no matter what your path in life is. 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful week ahead, and thank you for coming by! xo
Great tips Cynthia. Creating a habit and ritual of self care with meditation is key.
Brad – thank you! Yes, I’m sure you already have lots of wonderful habits in place – you exude a calmness that means you have a powerful practice. Thank you, always for your kindness and thoughts. I hope you have a wonderful week!
If I’m being honest with myself, and others, Lil Sis, finding time to meditate, like finding time to exercise or any other productive activity, is not the problem. Making a commitment to do those things is the problem for me. I have the time if I make the time, you know? If it’s important to me I always find the time to do it…so there is my personal struggle for all to see.
Hugs from sunny, eternally-beautiful Olympia
Big Bro – yes…I believe it takes anywhere from 30 days to six weeks to create an ingrained habit, where you don’t even think about it. 😛 But I’m like you in that if I have the time, I’ll make the time. And yes…finding the time is of utmost priority to me…just this morning, again, I touched the silence and these moments are coming more and more…it’s so incredibly profound. Words can’t even compare to the feeling of bliss…whew! Hehe.
Thank you for your thoughts here. Sending you hugs back from sunny Cackalack (as they say around here). 🙂
Good suggestions. ‘specially liked the ‘Feel the Benefits’. I find that sometimes I have to remind myself to take note of improvements, consciously and deliberately. At first that feels too ‘self-congratulatory’ but then it dawned on me that the self tends to resist change and it’s only if I ‘claim’ the benefits does the conscious mind take note (grudgingly).
But for me, a lot of what I do in terms of trying to change and/or self-develop myself requires that I acknowledge it as it happens. Otherwise the routines will simply wash it away as soon as the frequency wanes even a little. There is inertia in our day-to-day lifes that can be ignored only at the price of establishing new ways of living.
Clark, I appreciate your thoughts here! I’m right there with you: I have to remind myself to take note of improvements and even celebrate them. I’ll get to a goal or intention and then when I reach it, think “yeah! Awesome! Okay…next!” And I think you’re right, though: if you “claim” the benefits, the conscious mind will take note. I need to do more “claiming” haha.
Acknowledgement – of others and of the self – goes a long way toward improving relations, and spreading some goodwill. Making a point to do that will help with the routines that wash away the benefits/acknowledgements of change and accomplishment.
Your whole comment here, Clark, reminds me of something a great philosopher like Kierkegaard or Franz Kafka would say. And that is a high compliment. See what I did there? Acknowledgement. 🙂
Dear Cynthia,
I’m also the first up in the morning. I like the idea of jumping right into meditation before the
day starts to get away from me.
Thanks for leading by example. Love and big hugs, Maria
Mar – so very awesome! I bet you’re up and having already meditated this morning as I write this comment. Hehe. Thank YOU for being someone who regularly gives me wonderful feedback. I take it, treasure it, and use it to stay motivated. THANK YOU.
Love these tips Cynthia.. Indeed a routine is best.. I know when I was working having to be out the door at 7am some mornings, I still managed to fit in ten minutes of Qui Gong before I left home..
Meditation need only be ten minutes.. Just create that space within your daily routine.. I practice mine mainly in the afternoon.. Simply because some days we have our granddaughter sleep over and do the school run..
So after lunch is my quiet time where I take myself down my stepping stones.. 😀
When you begin to breathe deeper, its almost as if your lungs are filled with clear fresh air for the first time..
All too often we do not breathe properly we only breathe shallow and do not use our lungs to their fullest capacity.
Breath takes oxygen to our blood stream and makes our circulation improve too
Thank you for all of these wise tips.. When we make up our minds to do it, I agree, we create the time and space to do follow it through…
See you in the thought stream my friend..
Take care and enjoy your weekend..
Much love and gratitude.. <3
Sweet Sue! Your comments and insights are always so full of wisdom and I look forward to them! Ten minutes of qi gong sounds incredible. I think that is something I’d like to look into next. (Or at least one of the “nexts” that I aim to do in the next year.) It seems like an incredible practice.
Indeed, meditation doesn’t have to take up lots of time. To be sure, I meditate probably an hour and a half a day on average, but I would expect that of a person who is supposed to be a teacher. 🙂 Everyone else doesn’t have to go all out like I do. Hehe. I’m writing this comment after an hour of meditation this morning, along with eye yoga (to help my vision as I am blind in one eye), my 5 Tibetans and abhyanga. It’s a veritable hour and a half of tending to the spirit in the mornings. (Since starting that, though, I’m noticing that I’m going through some purification experiences. I’m being gentle on myself…)
Indeed, when you start becoming aware of the breath, the air seems different, doesn’t it? I think the body recognizes that what’s happening is for its own good and somehow sends more love to the air and purifies it. 🙂
In any case, I have more comments to respond to…life has been a little busy (when is it not? and like I mentioned…needed to take a mini-step back and allow the purifications to work themselves through…) Sending you hugs! I hope you have an incredible week! xo
I love your dedication to your meditation time.. In the old days I would sit religiously each evening.. Morning was never good for me to meditate as I was up early for work.. But I would always fit what is a longer routine of Spring Forest Qi-Gong and I shortened it so I did less moves than it stated but contained all of the moves in my ten minutes.. Plus if I ran out of time.. At work especially if the day was a stressful day.. I would go into the ladies what you call rest-room and lock myself in a cubical lol and do the ten minutes exercises again.. Always coming away energised and refreshed
And yes.. Breathing deeper reaches deep into the pockets of your lungs that shallow breathing never touches.. So its good for circulation and oxygenating your blood stream.. 🙂
Sending LOVE.. <3 and Mega Hugs.. <3
Sweet Sue – thank you for your sweet comment! That’s so interesting about the evening – I think that whatever works is what’s important and that worked for you. I usually go first thing in the morning mostly because by the time the evening rolls around, I do my best to meditate, but it can be so hard to not fall asleep and/or to fit it in Hehe. You know…with dinner, walking the dog, catching up with husby, fitting it all in can be a challenge. But, it’s also funny that you talked about having the time. Indeed! Hehe. But a lot of the time I DO meditate in the afternoon and it’s such a NICE way to de-stress from the day, no? As I type this, I had the intention of responding to your comments, but this is after a nice afternoon meditation. 🙂
As for those Qi-Gong exercises, I would give anything to know what they were/what you did. And I smiled at how you mentioned doing exercises in the ladies’ room. Hehe. That’s great. But whatever it takes, right? I will finish a project at work and then go take a walk around campus to get a bit of fresh air and to “reset to mindful” along the way. 🙂
Breathing deeper: so many benefits. So much good. And imagine if the whole world did this…the Dalai Lama was right: there would be world peace! 🙂 Hehe. Sending you hugs, sweet friend! xo