November 2023 Blog Topic: Share a habit you have created and the process it took for this to become a habit.
By Amanda Burrows with Amanda Burrows Coaching
Meditation was never something I was taught to do so when I came across the self-care practice I was cautious about the benefits and whether or not I wanted to incorporate it into my life. I tried a few videos on YouTube every couple of days for a few weeks and found the benefits to be great for my constantly racing and overwhelmed mind. Then I researched an app that could provide me with the benefits of meditation but with a different type of meditation daily. I came across a few but ultimately decided on Daily Calm. I loved this app right away and I think the daily meditation helped me keep up with the meditation during the days when I thought I was too busy.
During the week I was able to keep up my habit of meditation fairly easily. I put meditation time on my calendar around lunch. There were a few times in the first few months where I skipped a day but I never beat myself up for it because I realized I was human and sometimes missing a day of meditation was okay. I keep that same mindset now, 2 years later, as well because some days are busy, meetings run long, fires need to be put out so I don’t always get to my meditation. And that’s okay.
On the weekend though, it was a different story. My weekends weren’t very structured and I wasn’t used to meditating during the middle of the day so I needed to get more creative than I had to during the work week. This meant putting reminders on my calendar, enlisting my husband to help by taking our daughter into a different room, and creating a space where I could meditate in peace. Doing this worked and now I meditate every day of the week (most of the time – I still miss some days but I don’t beat myself up for it.)
Creating a meditation practice was not easy. There were times when I wanted to give up because it felt like I was accomplishing nothing but after two years I can tell you that establishing this habit has worked wonders in my life. I am more aware of my thoughts, more patient, more loving of the people around me, and so much more. This shows that sometimes the hard habits to establish are the ones that are the best for you in the long run!
