When trying to improve your own life you will often be told to reflect on your daily habits. To write down and track how you use your time each day in order to see where you are doing well and where you can improve upon time usage.
The goal of this being to cut down on time waste, to kick out the activities that are holding you back from being a better version of yourself. When you eliminate the fat from your lifestyle, you then have the opportunity to add in new habits that move you forward.
A daily meditation practice is one of those habits that are commonly prescribed as a way to get yourself further in life.
But what makes a meditation practice productive?
This is a gray area.
Some will argue that meditation in & of itself is unproductive because you are just “sitting there” when you could be using your time to build.
Others will argue that when done properly meditation will offer you the insight and perspective needed to grow to new heights.
Let’s clear this up a bit.
Meditation is not a “productive” practice. Meditation is merely a window of time that you are allotting into the day for you to connect your mind with your physical body.
A window of time where you can spend a moment with nothing other than just you, your thoughts and your breath. It is a period for you to put your entire presence into the present.
You may go your entire day shuffling and moving along, with a thousand things on your plate, building, grinding and GOING. But for this period of time? You are just here.
THAT CLEARED UP, let’s dive into what you can do to get the most out of this ancient practice.
PRODUCTIVE PRACTICE:
Consistency - as with anything, you get what you put in. If you meditate one day, then miss four days, then meditate again and miss five days, but try to then start it up again (you see how this goes? over & over?) you are simply wasting your time. FIND CONSISTENCY - practice at the same time EVERY DAY, practice for the length of time YOU can handle & keep it at that length of time. BE CONSISTENT!
Minimize your distractions - set your phone to silent, turn off the artificial light in your room (better yet, meditate outside whenever possible) so it doesn’t interfere with your practice, turn off anything in your immediate area that can make noise & take you out of practice.
Use a cushion - I sit on a cushion whenever I meditate. It allows my to stay in the seated pose of lotus/half lotus easier. Also beneficial because it makes your diaphragm be higher than your hip bones so it inflates fully while breathing!
Use a meditation timer - You can find a ton on YouTube, but really I would suggest downloading an app or buying a physical timer. Going on YouTube for meditations to me almost feels like going on YouTube to get a beat to make a song. Just doesn’t feel right. I personally use Insight Timer but I have written an article where I review Headspace & Calm. You can read it here: Choosing a Meditation App
Practice non-judgmentally - This is a core principle behind meditation practice that will get it’s own post in the near future. But for now? Do not aim to label practice as “good” or “bad”. It is merely practice. Your thoughts & emotions that arise during practice? They are neither “good” nor “bad”. They merely are. REMEMBER: we do not meditate to eliminate thoughts, we meditate to become comfortable & learn to process our own thoughts.
That’s all I got for ya today! If I said this once, I’ll say it a thousand times: meditation is productive WHEN APPLIED! So apply what you are learning!
Stay Blessed
P.S. You can book a 1 on 1 consult call to learn breathing & mindfulness here: bowtiedfighter.gumroad.com
P.S.S. BowTiedThinker made the banner at the top! Check him out on twitter @bowtiedthinker !!!