It takes about two months (hence the sixty-six days!) to turn a behavior into a sustainable habit. Along with consistency, habits also require motivation throughout a cycle of cues, cravings, responses, and rewards.
So how do you motivate yourself to meditate? Using a meditation app or calendar can keep you accountable while forming a good habit. These tools remove the legwork, offer structure, and encourage you to keep going through completion goals and reward techniques (which promote good habits). This approach also exposes you to all the different types of meditation styles that exist, such as ones with a speaking voice, mantras, music, or even a tailored series for sleeping or energy. You can go the old-school route, set a timer for five minutes, and use the intentional breathing strategy from the previous challenges. Or you can try a longer meditation—lots of people love fifteen-, twenty-, or even thirty-minute exercises. Find a meditation style and length that you can actually do for two months, every single day.
TRY THIS
For the next sixty-six days, do a two-minute mantra meditation each morning. Here’s how it works: after you wake up, but before you get ready or reach for your coffee, sit in a quiet space and close your eyes. Use the mantra “I am enough” as a phrase to focus on. With every inhale, think I am. On the exhale, think the word enough. Repeat with each breath for two minutes. You can swap out this mantra for another short saying, or extend the length of time at any point—just be sure to complete the meditation in the same spot, in roughly the same way, every day for the two-month period.