It’s good to meditate every day. It’s not good if we stress and feel like a failure when we don’t. A meditation practice needs time to take root and the best way to cultivate your practice is to:

  • Be patient with yourself
  • Be gentle with yourself
  • Sit only as long as you are enjoying it – no joy, no do.

It’s more effective to meditate for a few moments once or twice a day than it is to try to sit for an hour once a week. Truly.

If we are patient with ourselves and hold the following as our long-term vision:  “Step by step, day by day, year by year, decade by decade, I am building my meditation practice,” we allow for those gung-ho starts and the, “I just don’t have time today,” misses that are an inevitable part of establishing a meditation practice.

Just as we gently bring our mind back to the technique when it wonders off during our meditation, so we gently bring ourselves back to the cushion when our practice wanders off. When we miss a day or three, or one hundred and three, all we need to do is sit for a few moments and we are resuming our practice.

Beating ourselves up for not meditating makes about as much sense as waging war for peace.

So, be gentle my friends. Gentle with yourself. Gentle with the world. And, if you can do this, you will be bringing your practice into your world and reaping the benefits of meditation whether you sit to meditate or not.

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