Meditation ... 4th Time's the Charm
The first time I tried meditating was in college. We were required to take a certain number of "gym" classes and for a reason I can no longer recall, I chose meditation one semester. That was the first of four attempts before meditation became a habit in my daily schedule.
My husband started meditating a few years ago, after the kids were born. I think that our lives were so chaotic that he turned to it as a way to tap into a reserve of patience and calm that he needed to survive the day. He encouraged me to try it as well, and even offered to watch the kids while I went to a weekly meditation group in our town.
He wound up subscribing to Headspace, and I tried it about a year after he started. I completed the first round of 10 introductory sessions with relative ease. Each session lasted for 5 minutes ... totally manageable. The jump to ten minutes at session 11 was too much of a commitment for me though, and I got bored, so my burgeoning habit petered out.
My third attempt a year later went much the same way. The 10 minute commitment was a barrier for me, but I had an inkling that I could get into a flow if I limited my meditation to 5 minutes each day. It was probably another year before I tried again, but this time, it stuck.
I decided before my fourth attempt that if I was to do 5 minutes of meditating every day for the rest of my life, it would be better than doing none. Somehow, that mindset freed me to be able to make the transition to 10 minutes when the time came, perhaps because I didn't feel any pressure to do so. It's been about two months and my practice still going strong. If you've tried meditating in the past and it hasn't clicked for you, but you still want to develop the habit, why not give it another go ... this time might be your time.
My husband started meditating a few years ago, after the kids were born. I think that our lives were so chaotic that he turned to it as a way to tap into a reserve of patience and calm that he needed to survive the day. He encouraged me to try it as well, and even offered to watch the kids while I went to a weekly meditation group in our town.
He wound up subscribing to Headspace, and I tried it about a year after he started. I completed the first round of 10 introductory sessions with relative ease. Each session lasted for 5 minutes ... totally manageable. The jump to ten minutes at session 11 was too much of a commitment for me though, and I got bored, so my burgeoning habit petered out.
My third attempt a year later went much the same way. The 10 minute commitment was a barrier for me, but I had an inkling that I could get into a flow if I limited my meditation to 5 minutes each day. It was probably another year before I tried again, but this time, it stuck.
I decided before my fourth attempt that if I was to do 5 minutes of meditating every day for the rest of my life, it would be better than doing none. Somehow, that mindset freed me to be able to make the transition to 10 minutes when the time came, perhaps because I didn't feel any pressure to do so. It's been about two months and my practice still going strong. If you've tried meditating in the past and it hasn't clicked for you, but you still want to develop the habit, why not give it another go ... this time might be your time.
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