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Meditation is very much like going to the gym. Practice it regularly, and you become fit. Slack off, on the other hand, and you become chubby. In order to attain profound levels of inner peace, mental clarity, and happiness, you must practice meditation consistently.

In 2010, a study conducted at University College London showed that it takes on average 66 days to build a new habit. This means you need to invest about two months of effort before the behavior of meditation becomes automatic – something that you do without even thinking about it – a habit .

The key to making meditation automatic is to make it your top priority for the next 66 days. Meditation essentially has to become the most important activity in your day. Here are 9 ways to turn meditation into a habit:

It’s important to get crystal clear on why you want to make meditation a habit. Go through the list of benefits of meditation again and decide exactly why you want to meditate. Are you motivated to relieve stress, crush anxiety, be more successful or build stronger relationships? Make sure your WHY resonates deeply within you. When you have figured out your WHY, start visualizing your success. Imagine how your life would be when you achieve your goal and use this image as fuel and motivation to keep you going throughout your meditation journey.

Take a moment and make an oath to yourself to start meditating every single day from now on. Firmly set your intention that you are going to do this and never give up. Feel the energy rising inside your body and seal the commitment with your heart.

There is no "right" amount of time to meditate for. If you’re a beginner, don’t fall into the trap of trying to meditate for hours on end. Your mind simply isn’t trained to sustain it. You can start with as little as 5 minutes of daily meditation and you can gradually build your way up from there. The key is to not overwhelm yourself when you’re starting out– 5 minutes of meditation everyday is much better than 5 hours of punctual meditation.

When you are trying to develop a new habit, it’s very important to have a trigger that reminds you to perform the new behavior around the same time everyday. The easiest way is to incorporate your meditation into your morning routine or evening routine. The key is to choose a trigger that makes it easy to juxtapose the new behavior onto an already existing habit. You can decide for example that you are going to meditate everyday day right after you brush your teeth in the morning or right before you go to bed.

Use a calendar to track your progress and make it visible. Mark down every time you follow through on your new habit. This will inspire you to keep going even when things get difficult. It will suddenly become more painful to break your streak. You can also use habit-tracking apps, which I have found to be extremely useful.

Find an accountability buddy, preferably someone who is also looking to develop a long-term meditation practice. This will greatly increase your chances of success. When you have someone that holds you accountable, you will find it much more difficult to miss a session .

One simple trick you can utilize to make your meditation more enjoyable is to split your meditation into two smaller sessions. This will allow you to easily increase your overall session length. Instead of trying to sit for a whole 30 minutes for example, it is much easier sit for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening.

Whatever gets rewarded gets repeated. Your brain is constantly associating pain and pleasure to everything you do. So if you want your meditation habit to stick, trick your brain by rewarding yourself right after you have completed your meditation. It can be something as simple as giving yourself a pat on the back and saying to yourself: " Good job, you made progress today!".

Remember, consistent action is the only way to make mediation a habit. By practicing it everyday, you will create new neural pathways that will make the behavior automatic and you soon enough you won't even have to expand any willpower to sit down and meditate. Make meditation a long-term habit and it will transform every aspect of your life.