Why & How To Craft Your Daily Meditation Habit or Ritual
When it comes to meditation we’ve seen a huge gain of acceptance and popularity in the last 20 years. Over 14% of Americans now meditate or have tried it once. Check out these other amazing statistics about meditation in 2021 created by DisturbMeNot.com. You can see more info here.
The Top Mind-Blowing Meditation Statistics for 2021
- It’s estimated that 200–500 million people meditate worldwide.
- Over 14% of Americans have meditated at least once.
- Meditation improves anxiety levels 60% of the time.
- Meditation can reduce the risk of being hospitalized for coronary disease by 87%.
- Meditation can reduce the wake time of people with insomnia by 50%, according to mindfulness meditation stats.
- 66% of US Buddhists meditate at least once a week.
- Almost 10 times more children used meditation in 2017 than they did in 2012.
- 52% of employers provided mindfulness classes or training to their employees in 2018.
- Meditation can increase employees’ productivity by 120%.
- School suspensions were reduced by 45% thanks to meditation.
Check out This Infographic on Meditating Daily & How To Establish a Daily Ritual
This infographic comes from Yoga Journal. There are several things I love about this infographic, but be aware it also includes a recommendation for essential oils and defusers which also becomes an ad at the bottom of the graphic.
I have never used essential oils while meditating, but I have had people use incense and I can say that using something that engages another of your senses adds a unique experience to your daily meditation habit and when it comes to habit building this could be another trigger to help you build that consistency which I can get behind.
Other things in the Ritual area I like are committing or even going as far as scheduling your daily practice and doing it at the same time everyday. For me I meditate as soon as I wake up so there is no randomness from day to day. I mean the time can be different, but my formal meditation is tied to waking up and as long as I wake up, I meditate. That consistency helps. The being tied to something helps and planting the seeds for a happy healthy day have been huge for my success.
Turning off your cell phone might be a great suggestion for some, but I know others like me either use a meditation app, a phone based timer, or an app to track our daily progress. So sometimes keeping your cell phone on can assist in building your practice. Other times it becomes a distraction.
Have a look at the other great ideas they share about a daily meditation habit in this great infographic…
Let me add a few more thoughts to help you build your daily meditation habit and practice
I found a few more data points at mellowed.com. So let’s first address why people don’t meditate. It seems 33% just don’t know how and this keeps them from trying. This is one of the reasons I feel called to teach meditation because it is easy to learn and sadly so many folks feel awkward when it comes to meditating. We judge ourselves very harshly don’t we?
Now this is an interesting point. 87% of people who meditate do so alone and only 12% meditate with others (or both alone and with others). Too me one of the issues with meditation and how harshly we judge ourselves or feel awkward about if we are doing it right or what people will think of us if they knew we meditated is why we do not meditate in groups.
I will however tell you that in my own practice it took 3-5 years before I started searching for good instructor or monk to help me master my practice. It took me about 2 years to find a meditation group and meditation leader to help grow my skills.
I will say though that meditating in a group is a huge part of some success at building a regular practice. For me I started adding 2 days a week of formal meditation practice due to meditating with my group.
I just build a 30-Day Daily-Meditation Habit Builder Challenge to help folks build a regular practice, but one of my favorite pieces has been the community we are building of like minded folks sharing tips and support and cheering each other on. This adds a level of accountability that really helps boost your successful habit building.
Now let’s dig into how often you should meditate. In the image below you will see 22% meditate 3 days a week. That is wonderful and can be very beneficial. If you ask me my recommendation though, I would recommend doing daily meditation. This practice becomes your identity and helps in ways you cannot measure quickly, but after a month you should see a difference and the consistency helps you turn this habit into a lifestyle.
If you want to build this practice into your life get Enrolled for my 30-Day Daily-Meditation Habit Builder Challenge
If you want…
- Daily Meditations to make finding daily meditations easier
- A system to help you track your progress
- Strategies for building a habit that sticks
- Weekly group review, Q&A, coaching, and practice
- Accountability and support of like-minded folks
If you want to build this practice into your life get on the Waitlist for my 30-Day Daily-Meditation Habit Builder Challenge
If you want…
- Daily Meditations to make finding daily meditations easier
- A system to help you track your progress
- Strategies for building a habit that sticks
- Weekly group review, Q&A, coaching, and practice
- Accountability and support of like-minded folks
Very informative. I agree with you, a daily practice is preferable. Once you learn how easy it is, you can meditate anywhere under any conditions. We should lose that need for it to all seem perfect. With the benefits listed at the opening of this post, why wouldn’t we practice simple meditation daily?
Thank you for this post, Dale.
Well, those benefits should be good enough to get all people trying meditation. I honestly think that most don’t as they are skeptical that this sounds too good to be true. I can relate to that. It was only because I was in the thick of some serious chaos that I decided to try meditation. This is another reason I share my thoughts about meditation everywhere as well as write articles like this one. I want to help normalize the idea of meditation to get more people meditating. I truly believe we could change the world by getting more people to tap into their emotional intelligence, live a more healthy lifestyle, and find more compassion for themselves and others.
Convincing someone though is not easy, they need to be ready for it and decide for themselves to give it a try. It is exciting when they do though.
Thank you for your thoughts Debbie!