This article is an explanation and comparison of the two best (in our opinion) strategies for how to start and maintain a meditation practice. After reading this article we hope you will feel a little more confident and self-assured about getting started.

The tantalising benefits!

There is now a wealth of scientific literature documenting a truly mouth watering array of transformative benefits to mindfulness meditation practice. The benefits of practicing for just 8 weeks include significant reduction in amygdala reactivity (the threat centre of the brain), reduction in anxiety, improved mood, improved emotional regulation, improved attention and focus, increased empathy and compassion, and reduced inflammation just to name a few.

However, the research found that you need to be practicing for a minimum of 20 minutes, consistently, which means basically every day to experience these benefits…

For many of you that haven’t even started a practice yet, sitting still for 20 minutes might feel comparable to climbing Everest. But really the fundamental point is just getting started, and that is what we are here to help you with. I hope once you’ve finished reading this, even if 20 minutes daily practice still feels like climbing Everest you will at least know how to get there.

For the sake of this article we can break down a mindfulness practice into two factors: quality, i.e. how much time in the day you intentionally devote to practice, whether on the meditation cushion or informally during your daily life, as well as consistency, i.e. showing up again and again to rewire that brain of yours and dismantle the old neural circuitry that stresses you the hell out.

The two approaches that we outline below are in our humble opinion the most successful methods for not only starting a meditation practice but also turning one into a habit. Neither of these approaches is the right way. Each of our mind’s and lives are different so different approaches will suit different people. The only right way is the way that allows you to build a consistent meditation practice that benefits you.

1. “Just do it, no excuses”.

It’s kind of as simple as that. Pick an amount of time and commit wholeheartedly to doing it (roughly) every day for a fixed time, e.g. 8 weeks. Think of it as non-negotiable and clearly set out the time and place in your day so that you have already made the free time for it. Then all you have to do is show up.

This is the approach taken by the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course since rather than going this method alone (which is certainly tougher) you get all of the support of the teachers and the group who meet every week for the duration of the 8 weeks. Using the supportive framework of an MBSR course is the optimal way to utilise this method.

The beauty of this approach is that if you can see it through (and we’ll come back to this point) you get both quality of practice – because you can commit to practicing for an optimally efficacious amount of time, e.g. +20 mins, as well as consistency of practice – since we commit to ‘just doing it’ everyday (or thereabouts).

If you have a strong intention to practice and can vividly and easily call up your motivation behind practicing, e.g. to be less anxious all the time, or stop fighting with my partner, or gain insight into the nature of your own mind, then this approach might suit you. The idea is that we put in a huge initial effort at the beginning where we are often forcing ourself onto the cushion just to get it done – we just keep showing up. But, because of both the quality and consistency of practice here, the initial cost of effort will be off-set by our experiencing the benefits much quicker than in other methods. And once we feel the benefits it won’t be a question of forcing yourself to sit so much anymore. The positive benefits of practice once experienced will carry their own momentum and deepen your practice all of itself.

The Downside:

The downside of this approach is that if you fall off the wagon, then for many of us that can be game over. Because of the level of commitment, effort and self-determination required of this method, a part of the mind will be desperately looking for an escape hatch. When we miss a sit, we can subject ourselves to self-judgement, as well as feelings of guilt, shame and failure. In addition to the mental effort required to keep up your practice, facing all of these negative thoughts and emotions can just tip us over the edge and off the cushion for good. For example, instead of meeting the guilt and the feelings of failure with an understanding of our own human fallibility, and connecting compassionately with ourselves we may attempt to justify why practice ‘just wasn’t for me’. As a defence mechanism we’ll justify our way out of it by telling ourselves “it clearly wasn’t working anyway”, “I’m no good at it”, “it didn’t come naturally”, “if I couldn’t stick at it, then it clearly isn’t for me.”

Tips and tricks:

• Each day try to really connect with your deepest intention and motivation to practice, e.g. I don’t want to feel this anxious all the time anymore, or I want to be kinder, or less quick-tempered, or I don’t want to beat myself up all the time.
• Suspend judgement for this period. Don’t judge the practice or assess your success over the period of time you’ve committed to practicing for. Progress is never entirely linear so just focus on doing the work and let the rest happen of itself.
• Practice self-compassion. Practicing can be really challenging sometimes and can bring up a whole range of unpleasant thoughts, emotions, memories and so on. It is hard being human! If we can practice being kind to ourselves and treating ourselves compassionately we can reduce the likelihood that if we fall off the wagon we won’t get back on again.

2. ‘The golden minimum’.

This is the gentler approach. The golden minimum is the minimum amount of time that you know you can practice for every day, without really any trouble at all. It doesn’t really matter how small, so long as you know you can do it and it is easily achievable.

The idea behind this approach is that consistency is key. Developing consistency of practice is for many the hardest part. So once you consistently meet your minimum here (and feel good about it!) you’ve got your foot in the door. Then you can wedge that door open a little more over time by incrementally increasing the time spent practicing to receive the deeper benefits of practice. It is far easier to incrementally increase the amount of time you practice for than it is to start again once you’ve fallen off the wagon. So this approach really focuses on supporting you to just maintain a practice, any practice, no matter how small, just do it everyday. And before you know it meditation has become a part of your life, and you are ready to see where it takes you.

The Downside:

Feeling the transformative benefits of practice will take longer with this method so keeping up your interest and connection with the practice will be harder. When you practice for 20 minutes each day, even though it can be challenging there will be so much coming up for you to work with and understand about yourself that it can be easier to see why you are doing it. However, if your golden minimum is really small then it might be harder to really notice the benefits of practice and keep yourself engaged. Your practice might just become some thing you do and losing this connection to practice can make it fizzle out. Don’t get me wrong here, even for a short but consistent practice you will absolutely experience certain benefits, like feeling calmer, more grounded, more aware of your thoughts and emotions. These cannot be understated, I’m just saying that the more transformative benefits will take you longer to experience.

Tips and tricks:

• Finding ways to keep your interest will be vital. If your interest develops so will your willingness to practice and your time spent practicing, and so the quality will soon catch up with the consistency.
• If you are only practicing for a small time each day then I suggest finding out more about meditation and what practice is all about. Read our blogs, buy a book about mindfulness, listen to podcasts, download a meditation app. Encouraging and following your own interest will be the key here.
• Then the big question is how do I go about increasing my time on the cushion?
• Well, you could plan it in advance, e.g. plan to raise the minimum every month, so go from 5 to 10 to 20 minutes.
• Or you can proceed more organically, following your own interest and curiosity at your own pace. Say you sit down to do your 5 minute minimum practice, but today you have a bit more time on your hands so you decide to try 10 minutes. You give it a go and see what challenges arise for you and how you meet them, and maybe you want to meet those challenges again, or maybe you are happy to return to 5 minutes for now.