I can find many reasons why a regular meditation practice is great. It roots you, calms the sea of thoughts and can give your life more structure. The hard part about it is actually making it a routine.

So how does it work?

For me the key was in taking it easy, not trying to meditate everyday 45 minutes but starting with 7 minutes and gradually increasing the time, whenever I felt it was safe and I could ad an extra minute or two. Instead of putting the bar to high, I started with a timing that was easily achievable for me. Way to often we give up because of our high expectations like “I should meditate everyday for an hour.” But maybe you don’t have that hour…

… Or your body and mind aren’t exercised yet to sit there for that long.

After I tried and failed with 45 minutes, I started to develop my meditation practice in baby steps. I prepared a spot in my flat which was only dedicated for the purpose of mediation. It has comfy cushions, candles, an altar with stones and feather and sure buddha is there as well. My phone is on flight mode and so am I.

When I started meditating I thought I had to think of nothing. But that’s really hard, if not impossible. And whenever a thought came I would judge myself for having one and getting real frustrated over it. Maybe my mind wasn’t ready for this?

Meditation isn’t about not thinking, it more about letting the thoughts you got pass by. Your mind will always produce thoughts, that’s what it is build for. In the beginning it is much easier to just concentrate on your breath. How deep is it? Where do you feel it most strongly? Later when that feels good, you can try to let your thoughts pass by like clouds, without judgement.

Once you understand what meditation is really about, it becomes easy.