[How To] Stick With It!

Has this happened to you? You’re sitting in meditation on a very busy day (good for you!). You’re feeling stressed about the pile of things you have to take care of, and you’re starting to feel pressured to get up. Good for you, you resist the urge, but in spite of your best efforts, you aren’t able to relax the mental chatter and the urge to attend to your responsibilities, and you decide that it’s pointless… and you get up, guiltily telling yourself that you will meditate when all of this is off your to-do list.

I have to be honest – I’ve been there, myself! Our lives are so busy – too busy, in many cases – and taking time for stillness is often seen as a luxury.

Actually, it’s a necessity.

Think of your car. You can go go go go go go go for a really long time – all you need is a few stops to fill up the tank, right? But, as every car owner knows, maintenance is far cheaper than repairs. If you don’t change the oil, air up the tires, and keep up with other simple maintenance, you’ll run into bigger expenses later. Sometimes these expenses mean you’re without your vehicle for several days. And – have you ever noticed that when your car breaks down, it’s at the worst possible time financially?

It’s the same with your body. Take care of it, and you can avoid most if not all of the ailments that plague people who neglect their bodies with lack of exercise, poor nutrition, bad sleep habits and unhealthy lifestyles.

Now – what about your inner self and your emotional needs? What about your birthright to peace and happiness? What about creating the balance that helps you pause to enjoy life? What about putting things into perspective? What about cultivating the awareness needed to make positive change?

What might change in your life if you jumped off the treadmill for 30 minutes every day to find peace and tranquility?

It’s easier than you think. It just takes a little mindset shift.

You will never get it all done.

Read that again. You will never get it all done.

Our frenzied hurry to get it all done does nothing except cause us anxiety! Yes – there are things that have to be done every day: work responsibilities, caring for family, etc. etc. but often our busy-ness is due to choices to be, do and have what is not authentically us.

Keeping up with others’ expectations, taking on too many social responsibilities, doing too many projects at once… all this juggling is exhausting!

I am a big fan of simplicity. If you decide right now, that it’s true, you will never get it all done (because there will always, always be more coming!) then you can relax… pare down your activities to the ones that mean the most… and then, almost magically, you will find time to meditate. Or exercise. Or work on a project. Or enjoy some time in the hammock.

Committing to meditation for a specific amount of time does a few wonderful things for you:

1. It develops discipline
2. It is precious “me” time
3. It puts your daily activities into perspective
4. It’s adequate time for reflection, gratitude, mindfulness
5. It gives your body a chance to activate its healing/restorative abilities

I encourage you to stick to your designated time by acknowledging that you will never get it all done… and when you emerge from meditation you will be more energized yet calm, more focused and therefore more productive, and happier!

Short of a real emergency, stick to your designated meditation time. Think of meditation as necessary maintenance for your soul. The world will keep spinning, you’ll pick up right where you left off… but in those 30 minutes (or whatever amount of time you commit to), you will gain peace of mind and happiness, and release the burden of overwhelm, negativity and stress!