How to cultivate a mindfulness practice that sticks
We all know mindfulness is beneficial. The real challenge is finding a way to cultivate a mindfulness practice that you actually enjoy, because for many of us a generic guided meditation doesn’t feel relevant for where we are in our lives.
We also know that your initial experiences with anything new, mindfulness included, will influence how you feel about that thing long term. As someone with a company that has a mission to make mindfulness feel possible for more people, this is why I feel that it’s important to consider how to create a positive first experience with meditation and how to adapt that experience as our relationship with mindfulness deepens.
This isn’t to criticize mindfulness apps, but one of the limitations to many of the more popular ones with the onboarding process is that the introductory content may not resonate with you. If you don’t enjoy the sound of the narrator’s voice or agree with the messages that they are giving you, then it can be counterproductive in developing a mindfulness practice. After all, you’re not going to feel incentivized to return to it if it makes you wish you could drop off your brain at the inner peace store and go do other things, or if you’re counting down the minutes until the meditation is over.
With this in mind, here are some things to consider when starting a mindfulness practice that have helped many of my clients and me develop an approach to mindfulness that actually sticks.
Approach mindfulness with a sense of curiosity and discernment.
If you don’t like the first app or teacher you work with, it’s okay to try an alternative. You don’t need to go with the first option presented to you if it doesn’t feel right.
If something works initially, but later you find yourself disengaged, explore other options.
For example, when starting my mindfulness practice, I initially used Ten Percent Happier. At a certain point, it stopped working for me, so I switched to Calm. I also tried Headspace twice, which never resonated, so I moved on. Now, I’ve curated and customized my favorite meditation practices, which I use outside of the apps and I’m so grateful I gave myself the space to let my process evolve over time!
If you don’t like vocally guided meditations, try one that is sound based instead.
Consider this the theme, but there is no one right way to mediate. If you don’t like people talking at you, there are forms of meditation that rely on breathwork and sound instead. One app that you can try that does this is Breathwrk.
Don’t place unnecessary pressure on yourself to meditate daily or in a specific way.
Some people love habits and find a daily meditation practice comforting. For others, myself included, it’s a practice that you’re comfortable and grateful to have, but it’s not something that you do every day. Your practice is yours alone. There is no rule that says you have to do it a certain number of times a week or at the same time every day.
I’ve found that meditation serves a different purpose for me than what I originally thought it was “supposed” to do. I use it to help myself prepare for important meetings, presentations, and interviews. Sometimes I use it to help me sleep. I’ve also used it to pump myself up for making big decisions and to help me move forward despite self consciousness or imposter syndrome. Meditation has also been there for me when I needed to process hard things.
What’s also helpful to know is that I don’t rely on a single meditation to do any of these things. Rather, I’ve curated a collection of them over time as I’ve identified what each style of meditation helps me with.
Like all things in life, developing a meditation practice isn’t always straightforward and you may not find exactly what you need in a single app, with one teacher, or with a single school of thought. However, if you remain curious, patient, and flexible in your approach, then you can find the things that work for you, are rewarding, and help you navigate life a little easier.
