![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.horizoninspired.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/L7zy41Yg-scaled-1024x683.jpeg\" "\\"How")
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We all know meditation is good for us. It is a practice we can all do at home very easily, supported by numerous free apps<\/a>, online courses, classes and guided audios. So then, why do we find it so hard to\u00a0embed a daily meditation routine?<\/p>\n Without conscious awareness, we might convince ourselves that we are too busy, we can’t be bothered or there are much more important things to do than to meditate. But is that really true? Or is it our protective little voice of ego keeping us from doing the very thing we most need to do?<\/p>\n My reflections, and gathered research, on why the ego functions this way, and why it so often “protects” us from the very thing that we seek, will be shared in a post in the next couple of weeks but for now let’s consider our own conscious choices.<\/p>\n I hope the following reflections will help you, if you’ve ever wondered how to embed a daily meditation routine. So often we create mountains for ourselves to climb but as the saying goes \u2018one conscious breath is a meditation\u2019. Can you find five minutes before climbing into bed at night, or two minutes before getting up in the morning, to sit quietly with yourself, check-in and breathe? Meditation is free and always accessible, we just need to show up for ourselves. You don’t have to do 2 hours of meditation a day to embed a routine. Start small with just 2 minutes and build up from there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are many different meditation approaches and practices; there is no \u2018one way\u2019 as I so often remind you. Play with your daily meditation routine, fill your tool kit with a number of practices, so that no matter how busy your day might be, there will always be something you can make time for. (If you’re unsure where to start, or what the heck I even mean by this, check out the Discover Meditation Course<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n True meditation is surrender – of thought, grasping, griping, of tension and control – it is deep relaxation, effortless flow, being with and accepting yourself as exactly who, what and where you are. What – a – relief! What if you reframed meditation in your mind to see it as a daily treat not a chore. See it as sacred time for you to just be. See it as vital for your mental and physical health. See it as a loving choice for you and others. See it as welcome relief.<\/span><\/p>\n In our fast-paced world, where we want instant gratification and tangible rewards immediately, it can be hard to make time for meditation, which offers much slower, subtler benefits. The deep, internal shifts a meditation practice facilitates changes our whole experience of living. Those deep and lasting changes don’t happen over night. Your neural pathways and your nervous systems conditioning isn’t permanently changed after one meditation sitting – it takes time and practice. I see it like a big ship leaving the dock; it takes effort and time to start with but once you find your rhythm, you are sailing.<\/span><\/p>\n Meditation, as a spiritual practice, is something we live and breathe throughout our daily lives, not just as a stand-alone, closed eye practice. Letting go, embodying presence, gratitude, trust, compassion and curiosity throughout all of our daily doings, not just in our closed eye practice, is living meditation, and the very reason why we show up for it in the first place; to live in peace. Having said this, it doesn’t then mean we don’t then have to show up for a more formal practice. There is so so SO much repair and restoration that happens when the body and mind are in a conscious state of deep calm and acceptance. For the vast majority of us, who aren’t the embodiment of presence 24\/7, it is undeniably and inexcusably helpful to simple get still and quiet; to meditate.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Start where you are, do what you can<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Play with your practice<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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See it as a treat, not a chore<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Give it time<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Life is a meditation\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n