According to yogic philosophy, it takes 40 days to break a destructive habit or to develop a new, healthy habit.  Today marks day 27 of my 40-day meditation journey.  I’m more than half way through to my 40-day goal, and at the end of it all, there is no end.  The end of 40 days will just mark a new beginning.

Ultimately, my hope is to have a meditation practice that is engrained into my daily life.  I want it to feel as natural as brushing my teeth or making my morning tea.  Why am I so set on developing a lifelong meditation practice?  Well, meditation, I’ve heard, has incredible powers—the power to reduce stress, promote deeper sleep—even cure physical ailments and lessen physical pain.  If any of this is true, I need a piece of it.  You probably do, too.

This is not a post to teach you how to meditate.  Rather, this is just my list of observations based on my own experience.  My journey is just beginning, but I am eager to share what I’ve learned so far: 

There is no “right” time to meditate.  Originally, I thought the “right” time was at the crack of dawn.  I reasoned that the early morning stillness of my household would be conducive to a peaceful, meditative atmosphere.  I also figured that my mind wouldn’t be racing with work and family obligations so early in the day.  In theory, this all made sense, and I thought I had it figured out.  I didn’t.

I quickly realized that my body just hurt too much in the morning to meditate.  As a newbie, it’s hard enough to enter a meditative state when all conditions are perfect.  Just imagine how difficult it is if you’re focusing on your arthritic knee the entire time!  Ultimately, I moved my meditation practice to the evening when my joints were generally happier and my body felt pretty good.  I highly recommend that you try meditating early in the morning when your mind tends to be clear, and adjust the time of day if necessary.

Moving your body first makes a BIG difference.  It is MUCH easier to sit in stillness if your muscles are warm and loose.  If you can’t fit an entire workout prior to your meditation, you will still feel much more comfortable if you stretch for even just a few minutes.  A few rounds of sun salutations and some gentle hip openers should do the trick.

Your meditation space may not be the most obvious choice in your house.  The most peaceful place in my home happens to be in my living room next to a large set of windows overlooking my backyard.  I assumed this was the ideal spot to feel enlightened and grounded.  It wasn’t.  Winters in New Jersey are cold, and even with a good heating system, I was freezing my ass off by the windows.  I moved from room to room in my house, and surprisingly, I ended up on the floor of my bedroom closet.  It was the perfect meditation spot.  Go figure.  Start your meditation practice in the most peaceful spot in your house.  Maybe it will work out just fine, but don’t be too surprised if you test out a number of different rooms and then end up in an unlikely location.

A pillow and a blanket work wonders.  No, it’s not bedtime, but you will probably find use for your pillow and blanket.  I’m not sure if this is typical, but as soon as I close my eyes to meditate, I become hypersensitive and aware of every ache and pain in my body.  My back aches.  My hip suddenly hurts.  My feet feel cold, and I can’t concentrate.  I’ve learned from experience to keep a pillow close by to sit on or to use as a bolster.  Sometimes, I use the blanket across my lap or around my shoulders.  I’m not always cold, and I don’t always use the blanket, but I can pretty much guarantee that I would be freezing if I didn’t choose to have a blanket close by.  That’s just the way life works.

You will think you suck at meditating, and that’s okay.  At the end of each day, my teacher would send me a text and ask about my meditation.  For the first couple of weeks, my answer was the same.  “Yes, I meditated, but I really sucked at it.  I’m not sure if it’s even fair to call it meditation.”  That’s when my teacher enlightened me.  She said everybody thinks that they suck at meditation.  No one walks around claiming to be excellent at meditation.  It’s an evolving practice.  Some days, you will easily enter the zone, and other days, you will be making grocery lists in your head and thinking about the dry cleaning that you need to drop off.  Don’t beat yourself up.  Everyone who is new to meditation is going through the same thing.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to meditation.  I experimented a ton.  One day, I meditated while holding my hands in a strengthening mudra.  The next day, I meditated while practicing a forceful breathing technique.  Then I tried using music in the background.  Then I tried breathing normally while focusing on my third eye.  And then there was this one time that I tried to meditate with my eyes open…while counting backwards in my head.  Each time I tried a new technique, I learned what worked and what didn’t.  Don’t be afraid of trying something new.  Keep experimenting until you find a routine that works for you.

Your attitude towards meditation matters.  The first few times that I meditated, I felt very antsy.  I had a lot to accomplish, and sitting around doing nothing was a difficult concept for me to swallow.  I’m glad it didn’t take me long to come to this realization—meditation is not “sitting around and doing nothing.”  Well…let me rephrase that.  Meditation IS sitting around and doing nothing, but the effects of meditation are FAR from “nothing”.  Meditation is a form of therapy.  It’s free, it’s available to everyone, and you can perform it on yourself.  Reconsider your attitude if you are concerned about wasting your time “doing nothing”.  I assure you that your mental and physical well being is not a waste.

The way to get better at meditating is to meditate.  And here is the most important thing I’ve learned so far on my journey:  You can read books about meditation, analyze all sorts of different techniques, and ask for advice from your friends/yoga teacher, but at the end of the day, the way to get better at meditating is to just meditate.  It’s as simple as that.