Hit the ground sitting! Day 1 of our 100 Day Meditation Challenge

Welcome to Day One of our 100 Day Meditation Challenge. The aim is to develop a strong habit of meditating daily through committing to sit. To support you, you’ll have an opportunity to share how things are going, and to learn from others.

Three “rules.”

1. Sit for a minimum of five minutes. We hope you’ll sit for much longer — 20 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour — but if you sit for at least five minutes you can put that day in the “done” column.
2. A “day” is the time between getting up and going to bed again, rather than clock time from midnight to midnight. So if you’re up late and don’t manage to sit until after midnight, you can count that “day” as one in which you’ve meditated.
3. Walking meditation “counts.” And you can count one yoga session a week as part of your meditation practice, but we do want to focus on sitting practice.

If you join us late, that’s fine!

Some advice:

Redefine yourself
If you sincerely want to develop a habit of meditating, it’s going to take some work, but this can be easier than you think. Here’s a post I wrote on the topic of Becoming a rock-solid regular meditator. It’s worked for me.

The short version: tell yourself repeatedly, “I meditate every day. It’s what I do. It’s just who I am.” There may be a little voice that says “that’s not true!” Acknowledge that voice, but choose not to believe it. It’s true from now on. What we need to do is to change our self-definition from “someone who can’t meditate regularly” or “someone who meditates most days” to “someone who meditates every day. This affirmation is a way of imprinting a new sense of who you are and what you’re capable of. It’s just a temporary thing; once you’ve used this affirmation for 100 days you probably won’t need it any more. You’ll just be someone who meditates every day. It’ll be part of who you are.

Say it now: “I meditate every day. It’s what I do. It’s just who I am.” Say it often. Say it at the start and end of your meditations.

And you’re not alone. Post a comment below, or on our Facebook page or official Google+ page to let us know how you got on.