Our last article described how Sahaja meditation and its wide-ranging benefits go far beyond those provided by mere relaxation meditation. Sahaja is a holistic way of enriching your life in every dimension. But it all comes with hard work and persistence until you can achieve a “failure-proof” meditation routine in your life. Having a failure-proof routine means that you’re set for life and don’t have to worry about having the discipline to get to your meditation schedule and sessions ever.

Here’s how to do this.

Change your “hygiene block” routine.

There are some things we do almost unconsciously in our daily routine and are hygiene factors. Let’s call it the “hygiene block” of activities. We cannot live without those, and we know it. We never miss brushing our teeth daily. We mastered the discipline of doing these even as children, even when we were sick or something big was going on in our lives. We no longer worry about doing these things each day. They’re wired and sealed into our memory, lives and routine forever. 

The first step to reaping the wide-ranging benefits of meditation is to add meditation to your “hygiene block” of activities. This means that when you wake up every day, you do your meditation along with brushing your teeth and whatever else are your activities in your “hygiene block” or essential morning routine.

This will take some practice since you’ll be changing a routine you’ve been following for decades since your childhood. Some key things to keep in mind when changing your hygiene block –

• You’ll have to make extra time in your morning schedule, and we all know that morning time is precious for nearly all of us. So think of going to bed half hour earlier, setting the alarm clock earlier, or making other adjustments where you will be able to fit meditation. If you have children or other dependents, you’ll have to find this time before they start their day or routine.
• Don’t second guess or think about the value of finding this extra time, no matter how hard it is. Remember that meditation is the most significant long term investment of your life. It will pay you back with a lot more time on your hands for the rest of your day that you can enjoy and use for so many things, without having to be worried, stressed or anxious.
• Create a record of the number of days in your first month that you were able to get meditation successfully into your hygiene block. Yes, there will be a few misses; you will need to plan for this. But don’t worry about it – no one is perfect.
• Stay the course for three months – there’s scientific proof that once a habit has been established for three months, there’s a high chance that it will stick and become permanent.
• Don’t entertain your inner negative voices or those of others around you who try to dissuade you from making this change in your daily schedule. This is YOUR life.

Find some time slots in your weekly schedule for the 2nd meditation of the day.

Once your morning meditation becomes a permanent part of your schedule, it’s time to fit in the 2nd meditation in your day, which can be even harder. The easiest way is to find a couple of days in a week and register for group meditations every week on our website. All our meditation sessions are free, and we have a variety of time slots and instructors available. Also, the group meditations are a lot more powerful than the individual meditation sessions you can do at home. They will keep you motivated and energized and remind you of the benefits you will get by spending this time.

Once you mark your calendar for these sessions, then the other things in your life can work around the meditation sessions that you have already scheduled during the week. 

But, remember not to skip your morning meditation under the excuse that the group meditation session you will be attending is a good substitute for your morning meditation – it isn’t. Both are equally important.

Make your 2nd meditation session permanent.

Once you fall into the routine of attending two sessions every week over and above your daily morning meditation, it’s time to make the 2nd meditation session a permanent fixture for each day. You can use a similar method as changing your hygiene block – for example, by doing your meditation just before you go to bed. Some people do it the first thing after they get back from work, alongside another activity at that time. Some even do it every day precisely 15 minutes before their dinner, thus making it a non-negotiable activity in their routine. 

In starting to establish a routine for your second meditation session of the day, you could go a bit easy on the duration. Even if you can do 5 to 10 minutes to start with, it is a win. You can gradually increase it to 15 minutes and then to 20 or 30 minutes. And after that, you can include the foot soak, a highly recommended technique for the evening or before you go to bed.

The goal here is to make the 2nd session a consistent activity until the deep, relaxing experience from it makes you want to do it every evening, no matter what comes your way.

Finding the motivation to stick to your routine

The most important aspect is to observe the positive changes and benefits as your meditation routine gets set, however small and gradual they might be. These may be visible to you and others. For instance, it is very typical for Sahaja practitioners to report the following immediate benefits within the first two weeks:

• Feeling calmer and more patient.
• Discovering an unusual smoothness to how their day goes.
• There are fewer problems than before and many tend to solve themselves somehow.

It would be best if you wrote them down and also any challenges you face every day; this keeps your attention fixed on making your new meditation routine meaningful and successful.

As you go through your routine over many weeks, you will have to base your success entirely on your improved state – how much better, rejuvenated, and spiritually elevated you feel every waking moment. Once you start doing this, the actual duration of your meditation session will be of secondary importance because you’ll begin seeking that valuable higher and better state and trying to be there as long as you can. That’s because you will enjoy it – it relaxes, soothes and heals you. 

When your life starts being driven by this pristine, higher state of existence, you will have cemented your permanent, “failure-proof” meditation routine. At this point, you’ll never give up meditation or struggle to make time for it. It goes on auto-pilot.

Collective meditation is the only way to make meditation a lifestyle.

No matter how much you try, keeping to your meditation routine without any group meditation sessions involved comes with its limitations. The challenges will be in terms of following the routine consistently and the extent and intensity of the benefits. This is why we have a team of instructors all year around conducting meditation sessions online with different topics and styles. There are even some advanced level sessions for those looking for something even deeper. We are here to help, and this is our only focus and reward too. We don’t charge money or get any other benefit except to see more and more people change their lives positively and establish spirituality and meditation as the basis of their lives. And then for them to pass it on to other people.

Spiritual techniques for securing a regular meditation routine

We’d be remiss if we didn’t equip you with the most practical spiritual techniques to help establish your meditation routine.

Remove the obstacles from the path of your progress.

Specifically, the power to do this resides in our first chakra, the basis and platform for our spiritual growth. This means that when starting to regularize our meditation routine and make it consistent, we focus on clearing and balancing this chakra. We may also use daily affirmations asking for one primary thing – to remove all obstacles in the path of our spiritual ascent and in doing our daily meditation. After all, if there is one wish to ask for, it would be this, so our meditation routine can then enable all other wishes.

Master your self-awareness and self-improvement.

The second most important principle and power resides in a spiritual realm that we call the Void in our abdominal cavity. Physiologically, it represents a gap in our central nervous system at the vagus nerve. Spiritually, this gap must be covered by the rising Kundalini energy using the power of self-mastery within us. This principle is also referred to as our Guru principle. This power grants us the ability to master our self-improvement in our lives and manage all our pursuits. We develop an innate ability to work on our shortcomings, choose the right direction and even get back on track when we’re on the wrong track. It helps us improve our self-discipline. 

So, when trying to failure-proof our meditation routine, we need to ask for this sustaining power within us to get stronger to seal and make our meditation routine a permanent part of our lives.

While there are so many other spiritual powers we can tap into, we need these two spiritual powers to be active and strong within us.

If nothing else works, reach out to us.

Sahaja instructors and practitioners are always available, especially if you find things aren’t working and you are about to give up. We’ve gone through such phases over many decades; we know how to get back on track and emerge from crises or a bad patch.

If your single-minded goal is to make meditation the center of your self-improvement in your life, we can certainly help.