Meditation is No Longer a Habit, It’s a Lifestyle & Identity

Meditation is no longer a habit? Wait aren’t you the daily-meditation habit builder guy?

Yes!

Let me share my story though and how things became a habit and then moved on to an identity. 

8 years ago when I first thought about trying meditation, it was out of desperation. I was grasping at straws and seeking anything that would relieve my struggles at the time.

I saw a free 7 Day Meditation Challenge put out by the folks over at the Headspace app. At the end of 7 days, I knew I should continue testing this stuff out. 7 days lead to 14 days and it’s now bee some 8-9 years of nearly daily meditation.

Like I said at first it was just to overcome the depression I was dealing with. Then it became a daily ritual. I started really enjoying it. I started wanting to learn more and how to meditate better. I was seeking some sort of meditation teacher or a monk to study under to see if I was doing it right or if I could be doing it better.

It took several years to find a guide to help me on the journey, but by the time I found someone I already had a consistent practice and I had already decided that I was committed to meditation and learning more and more about mindfulness.

Now it is something I think about, read about and seek new ways to practice on a regular basis. It’s hard to turn off my mind from seeking new ways to practice. Yes, it has become a lifestyle for me. Probably close to two years after working with my meditation guide, after taking 6+ meditation/mindfulness courses, reading a hundred books or so, and addending a few virtual mediation retreats, and twice a week group meditations with a Sangha, I guess I’ve also found myself moving from not just an everyday habit, but also a lifestyle and an identity.

What does that mean – identity?

Well for me what it means is I have decided not only study and practice meditation and mindfulness, but once the pandemic hit I felt called to now teach it to help other people. So I started seeking training and in May of 2020 I started building my first mindfulness course.

So I now see it not only as something I do, but who I am. I am a meditator. I am a meditation leader. I am a meditation coach. These are all just pointless titles when I’m also working on letting go of ego with the practice, but I was recently inspired to explore the idea of habit building. This is where identity came up.

In forming a habit if you are able to identify with an identity of that habit. Then the habit becomes who you are and becomes even more important to you. In my past I used to look humorously at my vices and joke about them. That was my identity early on in my adult life – someone focused on partying and heavy drinking.

Now I let go of my old vices (mostly) and have moved on to healthy “vices”, one of which is meditation. This is one that just like my old vices I’ve started building a community of like minded people around me. This community of people are continually working to better themselves and their practice and continue to push me to do the same. So I guess those folks you hang around also help turn your habit into an identity. Jim Rohn famously said that “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.”

Beyond this I track my progress. I take pride in my accomplishments when I have them. So for example, a few years back I set a goal of meditating daily for 365 days straight. Well this was a bit harder than I thought. I missed a day and had to go back to ground zero multiple times over the last 3-4 years that I was working on this. I hit 220 days once and missed a day and that was pretty devastating. However, I brushed myself off and got back on the horse.

I am now on a 335 day streak as of this writing. Just 30 more days to hit my old goal.

Here is the thing though, goals like this are ok, but honestly what is more important is building a system and committing to the lifestyle and not the goal. Once I hit the goal then what? Well then I wake up the next day and meditate some more. Ha!

I will say this about this goal, it did help me find little wins from time to time, which helped me build the daily habit or at least the excitement for it. The one thing it shows looking back though, is my commitment. Sometimes being committed is the first step. Moving into a teaching role this documented goal is now proving… I do meditate daily, and that I have for a long time.

The true benefit though is the practice becoming who I am through muscle memory because I’ve done it so often. When your routine is disrupted due to travel or something, that is where I missed days. I have been better with odd life disruptions over the last year. I hope I can continue to just do my meditation session first thing in the morning and then several daily informal mindfulness practices throughout the day, most days. I only track the formal practice. Actually, there is NO “I HOPE I WILL”, this is something in my heart I know I will never stop doing.

Forbes magazine has an article that digs into some of the benefits of meditating and the article is titled – 7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change The Brain.

Now seeing the value in the daily practice and seeing that some people struggle with building a daily habit has lead me to start sharing my own personal experiences. Yes, now I am helping people find their own path to building their daily meditation habit. I firmly believe it will change your life if you create a daily meditation practice.

So I created the 30-Day Daily-Meditation Habit Builder Challenge. This is 30 days of commitment for you to really focus on building that habit which could lead to that identity. The challenge will offer 7 days of work focused on habit building. It will offer lessons, homework, accountability, community and coaching as well as several different meditations to practice.

The goal is to offer everything a person need to not only learn or improve their meditation, but also how habits are formed and practices and strategies to build a system to build the habit. The more folks I can help build a daily meditation habit, the more we will improve the world (…in my opinion). 

We could use a bit more compassion, empathy, inclusiveness, unity, love, peace, and joy in the world. In a very divisive time that kind of celebrates violence, meanness, and hatred there could be no better time to work on change.

If you’d like to be a part of the change, you have a limited time to sign up for this new habit builder challenge. I’d love for you to join us today!