To establish a meditation habit, choose a realistic daily duration (even 30 seconds) and commit to practicing every day for 30 days, as consistency is key, especially in the early stages.
Engage in a 30-minute daily compassion meditation for two weeks, starting with a loved one, then yourself, a stranger, a mildly difficult person, and finally all beings, using authentic phrases like “may you be free from suffering, may you experience joy and ease.” This practice, available for free download from the Center for Healthy Minds website, can boost altruistic behavior and activate empathy circuits.
To ensure the long-term benefits of practices like compassion training or any mental skill, continuous and regular practice is necessary, much like maintaining physical fitness through ongoing exercise.
Maintain your meditation practice by focusing on its tangible benefits, such as becoming “less of a jerk” to yourself and others, rather than solely on abstract scientific changes in the brain.
After your morning meditation, quickly review your daily schedule and reflect for a few seconds on how you can be present and most helpful in each meeting or interaction, which can lead to feeling nourished and refreshed throughout the day.
Shift your attention from constant thinking to the immediate sensory experiences of your body and environment (e.g., touch, sound, sight) to find relief and cultivate presence.
Practice open awareness meditation by allowing all external and internal phenomena (senses, thoughts, emotions) to arise and pass without fixation, fostering a sense of clarity, luminosity, and expansive consciousness.
Explore various meditation traditions and styles to discover the path that best suits your individual personality and preferences, as “one size does not fit all” and different approaches offer unique benefits.
If you are a skeptic about meditation, use scientific evidence demonstrating its effects on the brain and well-being to overcome initial hesitation and begin a practice.
Consider enrolling in an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course, a structured and secular protocol widely taught at academic medical centers, to learn and practice mindfulness effectively.
For a serious start to meditation, consider dedicating an immersive period, like a retreat, to explore and study with experienced teachers in a chosen tradition.
Understand that meditation can modulate symptoms and receptivity to certain illnesses, but it is not a cure-all, and its role is to support mental and physical health.
If you believe in the importance of a new practice or field, persist in its exploration and application, even when facing skepticism or discouragement from established peers, to potentially pioneer new understanding.
When confronted with metaphysical or unproven claims within a spiritual tradition, adopt an attitude of “total not knowing” rather than immediate rejection or acceptance, and focus on areas with scientific common ground.
Advocate for and practice meditation in a secular way, presenting it as a universal mind-training technique accessible to anyone, regardless of their religious convictions, to reach a wider audience.