Falling off the mindful bandwaggon

[HappilyNorth]

I've been practising meditating and to a lesser extent, mindfulness on and off now for 5 years.

And that's the problem. On and off.

Sometimes I will go for 4 weeks meditating every day or even as little as 3 days before life gets in the way and I stop my practice for a week or even a couple of months.

Gentle discipline is my downfall. I've tried different ways of ensuring my practice is consistent and have found that wake up/ tea/shower/breakfast and then meditate works best for me. But as I say life becomes busy and if I miss the practice, all day I'm like "oh bugger, I forgot to meditate. I must do it tonight when I get home" and then it feels like a chore.

Has anyone had similar problems with their practice? If so, do you have any sound advice of how I can overcome this?

[Gareth]

Great question.

How about setting the alarm 20 minutes earlier than needed and meditating as soon as you open your eyes? It worked for me for a long time, before mindfulness became embedded in my life.

I'll put this topic out to Twitter, thanks for it.

[JonW]

If you get home and meditating feels like a chore, work with that resistance. Sit anyway and simply observe thoughts like, 'I don't want to be doing this...I should have done it this morning...what's on the telly?'
Just do five or ten minutes to begin with, to get you in the swing.
And vary your meditations. Throw in body scans, mindful walking in addition to sits.
Maybe write a blog for us about the difficulty of maintaining practice? PM me if you need any advice on how to go about that.
Cheers,
Jon

[mtracyfryer]

I have trouble in that I write a blog about Mindfulness. I am totally consumed by it an I spend a great deal of time on the computer. I can easily Con vince myself that I am 'doing' Mindfulness. However it is easy to overlook Mindfulness Meditations. I want to try to do it early in the morning before I get revved up for the day. I am halfway on (not off) the wagon.

Tracy

[JonW]

Hi Tracy,
I find that, if I keep my daily practice up, I don't need to consciously bring mindfulness to the moment; it comes naturally. It's pretty much instinctive for me now. And I take the view that, although it is not possible to be mindful every moment of the day (an impossible aim), I can see each moment as an invitation to be mindful.
Self-compassion, as ever, to the fore.
Best wishes,
Jon

[HappilyNorth]

I tried that too Gareth but it didn't sit right for some reason, you know what I mean? Felt forced. But you're right, I should (and will) set the alarm 20 minutes earlier so I can fit my practice in before I start my working day.

Thanks for the quality advice, Jon. That's exactly what I should do. Observe/feel the resistance and mix it up a bit. Can you recommend a short but sweet walking meditation one can do in a bedroom?

Thanks all.

[JonW]

Hi HappilyNorth,
Maybe try a walking body scan, bringing your attention to different parts of the body as you walk around the room, noticing particularly the sensations directly associated with your walking - the different sensations on the feet, your hips, the movement of your arms, your neck etc.
All good things,
Jon