If you’re not meditating, you’re missing out

One of my new year’s resolutions this year was to start meditating daily. I had dabbled in it before but never made an effort to make it a daily habit. With all the research that has been coming out around meditation’s positive effects, I figured it was worth putting some real effort into it.

Now having been meditating for 83 days, I can definitively say that it has had a meaningful positive impact on my life. I feel noticeably happier and much more aware of myself. I think almost everyone can benefit from it, but especially extremely busy people like the entrepreneurs we at Eniac have the pleasure of working with every day. If I had been meditating during my seven extremely stressful years as an entrepreneur, I’m confident it would have improved my happiness level and sense of well being…and likely some business results.

Here are a few things I’d suggest to anyone who would like to get into meditating:

Use one of the meditation apps

They will help guide you through the process. We happen to be investors in 10% Happier so I chose that one, and have loved the experience. However, there are a few other high quality options to choose from. Most offer free and paid versions. If you’d like to try the full 10% Happier experience for free, I’ve shared a gift code and instructions at the bottom of this post. My favorite teacher on the platform is Joseph Goldstein. I’d start with his class called “The Basics”.

Keep the bar low at the beginning

I found it very difficult at the beginning both because of my overly active mind and busy schedule. The key for me was doing at least a tiny practice every morning. Even if I was running late I would stop and do a 2 minute meditation. Even that small daily commitment was enough for me to start seeing results in a couple weeks. And once you start seeing results, the practice becomes much easier. It reminds me of when I started exercising daily, once I didn’t “feel right” without it, motivation was no longer a problem.

Create a special place in your home for meditation

Having a dedicated area in your home where you do your meditation will help put you in the right state of mind for your practice. Here is some inspiration on Pinterest. It doesn’t need to be overly Buddhist; it can be purely secular but should be an area you find calming. I bought a meditation chair (there are also lots of specially made pillows) that helps me sit with proper posture, since my posture is naturally bad. I started sitting at the dining room table, so that’s definitely an option but I noticed the difference when I created a dedicated space with a seat that helped put me into the proper posture.

Thats it. Go try it for 2 weeks and let me know what you think!

Here are the instructions to access 10% Happier:

(Note: Step 1–3 must be done before doing step 4.

1. Open http://redeem.10percenthappier.com
2. Use the Gift Code: {HARRIS10}
3. Setup an account with your email address.
4. Download the iPhone App and sign in with your account.
5. If you’re using an Android device, you can access the web app on your device here.