It’s all well and good to start practicing meditation, but how do you turn this into a habit? Some days it feels like you don’t have time for anything extra, so trying to fit anything new into your life can be a struggle and they tend to fall to the wayside. Creating a habit involves setting intentions and repeating activities to automate them.

Here are a few tips for making your meditation practice a consistent habit so that it becomes as routine as brushing your teeth!

Start simple 

Try to keep your intention in track with your reality. It’s a great goal to want to commit to meditation 7 days a week, but if you’re like us, you have kids, and schedules, and work, and partners and life and all that may take some time to schedule in meditation daily. Try starting with 1-2 a week for 5 or 10 minutes at a time. Once you nail this commitment, and can fit more in, then definitely go for it.

Set yourself reminders 

Time to add this to the diary, and while you’re at it, write it on your calendar, put it in your phone, set an alarm for times of the day that are good to practice. Make a date with yourself, for yourself. Your mental health is just as important as your families, so schedule it.

Keep to a routine  

We are all basically children, we thrive on routine. Spontaneity is the spice of life, but when trying to form a habit, you need routine.  Try to be consistent. Nap times (if you have kids) are great for meditation practice. Think of 5 or 10 mins a day or you could fit in some ‘you’ time and put that in your calendar on repeat.

Be gentle on yourself 

One of the most important things to remember is to be forgiving of yourself. Humans are not perfect. We make mistakes. Meditation is not perfect. It’s a feeling more than anything else. Know that there will be weeks that you break your routine, but that doesn’t mean you have broken your habit. It only takes one meditation to be back on track. There will be days where the work piles up, or the kids are all home sick. Forgive yourself, remind yourself of your progress and of the benefits thus far.

Remember, meditation is a practice, that takes patience, persistence and positivity.

Keep up your meditation practice with hundreds of meditations to choose from HERE.