6 Things I Wish Everyone Understood About Meditation
- You have to do it every day.
Or as close to every day as you can. Even when you’re busy, even when you’re stressed, and even when you feel so good you don’t think you need to.
2. The best meditation is the one you actually do.
There are a lot of different types of meditation. I personally prefer mindfulness meditation, where you focus on your breath and continually bring your mind back to your breath whenever you start to wander off in thought. I like to use the Headspace app a lot of the time. But don’t get hung up on what type of meditation you’re doing. Whether you do guided or unguided meditation is a lot less important than whether you meditate or don’t meditate. Do whatever type of meditation you want to do the most — the one you’re most likely to stick to.
3. It’s hard at first! It’s supposed to be!
A lot of people get turned off by meditation early on because it’s so challenging. Those people need to meditate the most! (I used to be one of them.) You have to train your brain to be “good” at meditating through regular practice—don’t quit at the first hurdle! It doesn’t matter if your mind wanders off for 99% of your practice, what matters is that you practiced.
