Falling off the Meditation Wagon

How to get your meditation habit up and running again.

Originally posted on Substack. Check it out here.

If you’ve kept a consistent meditation habit for long enough, you’ll go through periods of time where you don’t meditate that often. Those ten minute sitting that used to fly by now feel like hours. Resistance builds, and the thought of meditating can sound miserable. Here’s what I recommend to get your practice up and running again…

1. Drop any guilt. It’s all in the past. Don’t hold onto the guilt that you haven’t been meditating like you used to. Come back to the present moment, and begin again. Remember, there’s no such thing as a good meditator.
2. Lower the timer. It doesn’t matter that thirty minute sittings used to be “easy”. Let go of any ego around your ability to meditate. Set the timer to what feels comfortable now. Just come into it with beginner’s mind, and sit for a little each day.
3. Notice frustration. When you leave the practice for long enough, your thoughts are more likely to circle back to old thought patterns. “Am I doing this right”, “I used to be better”, “This doesn’t feel as good as it used to”. Let go of any attachment to how your previous meditation habit was going.
4. Return to the “why”. You got into meditation at one point because of something. Maybe it was an inspiring book or a podcast you listened to. Maybe it was a meditation class you took. Whatever it is, go back to the source material. Re-read things that previously inspired you. Remind yourself why you want to meditate everyday. Sometimes you just need the same nudge from when you first started.

Meditating can be hard. Forming a meditation habit is even harder. Just cause you fell off the wagon doesn’t mean you can’t get back on. It’s all in the past; just begin again.

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