As an instructor, whenever I go around the room asking attendees if they’ve settled down and established a consistent routine for their meditation, the answers vary.
About 10% of the attendees will say that they’ve started meditating daily and usually, they go directly to talking about how they’re feeling more patient and reacting much less. I see the twinkle in their eyes, the excitement of having discovered some kind of a breakthrough in their lives.
“Not so much, haven’t gotten around to doing it yet.”, about half of the people reply. When I try to find out what’s preventing them from doing so, the single biggest reason amongst new meditators is the ability to make time for a new habit, a lifestyle change.
The rest say “I was able to meditate a couple of times a week, but I really like your weekly group classes, so I’m not going to miss them”.
By now it’s clear that meditation and specifically Sahaja meditation has a wide range of deep and varying benefits. So, what are the ways by which you can quickly establish your daily meditation routine?
Understand That You’re About to Develop A New Habit, A Lifestyle Change
Don’t think of Sahaja meditation as a course or an add-on thing to your life. You’ll have to realize that if you want any success or its benefits, you’ll have to accept it as a new habit for your entire lifetime, a lifestyle change. Apparently, fitting in a new habit takes anywhere from two to eight months if this interesting article is to be believed. This almost tallies with what I’ve grown up reading as well as experiencing with my new habits – the magic number is 90 days for me to stick to or abandon something – if my interest, the benefits and overall impact of what I’m doing holds up beyond this period, I end up making it a permanent habit.
So, brace yourself for a commitment of a few months first and focus on what might actually cause you to discontinue before this time. That’s how you stay on track and ensure it becomes a permanent habit. If you want greater impact, mark the end of 3 or 6 months from the day you start your routine as the date of the victory lap – for having settled down to being consistent with that habit.
Another way I’ve been exposed to by a few successful people is to write down a letter of commitment and hand it to your close friend or family member. Making your intent public adds great motivation and increases the probability of you sticking to the habit.
Forcing Time for Meditation on Your Calendar
We all have busy lives and full calendars, the best way is to put in 20 minutes into your morning routine for meditation and be prepared to wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual. Just before you drop off to sleep, tell yourself that you’ll wake up and meditate the first thing in the morning before doing anything else.
This way at least once a day meditation gets established and other things don’t get in the way during your day.
Introspection and Self-Awareness
The average time for someone to start seeing the results of Sahaja meditation is a few weeks. Typically, most people start feeling more patient, less reactive, calmer and less anxious within a week or two if they meditate daily. In about 3-4 weeks, they start feeling the sensation of vibrations on their hands or the top of their head (the 7th energy center). But this is not typical. I’ve known people who can take months to feel the sensation.
The key here though is to look at yourself and carefully observe the positive changes in yourself, especially, how you’re automatically reacting less or being more considerate to others. This is not by cognitive self-regulation, it’s subtle and happens inside you on its own. These changes are the rewards that will help you keep going.
A large number of people I’ve met say that they realize the magnitude of the benefits when they meditate for several days at a stretch and one day, miss their meditation. That day feels so horrible in comparison to the others that they really begin to get what the true benefits of meditation feel like.
Shrug Off The Misses
Don’t worry if you are only able to meditate once a day instead of twice or if you’re missing days in between in your meditation routine. Stay focused on the end goal – which is to make meditation a habit in the few months timeline that you’ve set for yourself. That’s what ultimately matters. Learn to adjust to periods of several days in between when you might miss your meditation in the initial stages due to family or work circumstances – to get back on track. Tell yourself that you’ll get back and you will. As long as you have the awareness within you, you won’t get off track or give up.
Most people fall off the bandwagon and lose it completely because they don’t have visibility into the goal, the time it will take and preparation needed to adjust to the obstacles. And when those obstacles actually hit them, they just discontinue, without even realizing it. The more difficult the habit, the easier it is for obstacles to derail you.
Schedule Time for Collective Meditation and Foot Soaking
These are terrific ways to clear your chakras to start experiencing the short-term benefits far sooner than normal. So you’ll need to put some time on your calendar, like an important appointment you’ll need to attend. Mark your calendar for foot soaking several times a week. More important is the external assistance in keeping to your routine. The collective energy of our group meditation sessions is a great way to flush your subtle energy system of negativities and obstacles, much faster than you can do on your own.
Even better, combine our group meditation sessions with a foot soak – you can do our guided meditation while you foot soak to double the effect and kill two birds with one stone – getting both your foot soaking and group meditation in a single time slot.
We Provide Active Assistance to Help You Settle Down
Sign up for a coach or someone to talk to at Sahaja Online to help keep to your routine. Yes, we’re around to help you if you’re really motivated and need help. Our instructors or coaches can stay in touch with you by email or phone, answer your questions, solve your problems that prevent you from settling down in your practice.
Each of our practitioners has been there and braved through this journey to become long-term meditators. You can do it too.
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