Meditation: Where to Go Next

The Meditation Habit: Where to Go Next

Post written by Leo Babauta.

After a month of learning about the habit of meditation, you might feel like there’s still a lot to learn about meditation. And you’re right — we’ve just taken the first steps.

Our focus for this month has been to learn how to create a simple meditation habit — and if you’ve been following along, you should be well along the way. If for some reason you didn’t start, or you had to stop, don’t worry — you can always do it next month, or anytime after. Some advice for those of you in this boat is below.

While we’ve learned more about the habit than actual meditation, if you’re interested in learning more about meditation, some advice also follows.

If You Didn’t Create the Habit

Some of you never got around to starting the habit. If that’s because you’ve been busy this month, that’s OK — when you find a time that is less busy, feel free to start then. If you didn’t start for other reasons — you’re intimidated by starting the habit for example — think about what those reasons are, and see if you can start with just 1 minute a day.

Some of you started but stopped for various reasons. Don’t worry about not succeeding — that’s in the past, and feeling bad about it isn’t useful. This guilt actually needlessly stops a lot of people from starting again. The most important thing is that you start again — you can’t create a habit unless you do it, and starting should be made as easy as possible. Again, just 1-2 minutes a day. Figure out what your obstacle was last time, and see if you can think of a good solution.

Start. It’s not hard, and it’s crucial to habit creation. Learn to get good at it!

If You Want to Continue Learning

If you’ve established a decent meditation habit, I would encourage you to continue it daily. I’ve extended the Meditation Habit Tracker through March, so you can continue your tracking as a group if you like. The longer you do the habit regularly, the stronger it will be.

And the longer you do the habit, the more you’ll learn about it, and yourself.

Some other things to do if you’d like to continue learning:

Books: