DAY 27: HOW TO KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED.
Secrets for keeping the momentum going, after you have finished these 28 days.
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Hi %%FIRST_NAME%%,
You’re nearly at the end of your four week meditation challenge!
Has it gone quickly? How are you finding it? Today I’m talking about how to keep yourself motivated, right now and then beyond the 28 days.
The Secret Key
When we’re learning a new skill or a habit it’s easy to keep ourselves motivated, once we’ve started to experience results. So your job is to make sure you’re noticing them.
Here are some ideas you could try out today.
Make sure you’re actually open to seeing the results you’re getting. Often they’re there in front of us, but we don’t spot them, because we’re expecting something else. So maybe it’s worth taking a few moments today to think about how taking part in the 28 Day Meditation Challenge has helped to change your life, so far.
Quick Exercise
- What impact have the last 4 weeks had for you?
- How have your emotions been going?
- How have you been feeling physically?
- How has your behaviour changed?
- Are you noticing it’s easier to carve out your daily ten minutes to meditate?
- What do you notice, if you miss your meditation?
How about sharing your answers?
And perhaps finding out how others are keeping themselves motivated?
I’m curious: how are you planning to keep yourself motivated with your meditation practice? What has worked well for you, so far? What has worked less well? Any questions? Any insights?
How To Keep Yourself Motivated
Allow yourself to notice the progress you’re making! We’re often too busy to spot it.
Other key strategies at this stage:
Don’t aim too high.
Keep it realistic and don’t make too big a deal of it if you miss a day (or three!). Learn from it and move on, as we covered earlier in the 28 days.
Start small and build on it.
To be honest, ten minutes a day really isn’t so much to ask of yourself. If someone told you to meditate for an hour, twice a day, that would be unrealistic for most of us, without making dramatic lifestyle changes. But to find ten minutes, which is enough to start making a difference, is absolutely possible.
Buddy up
Maybe you’d like to have a meditation buddy, a friend that you’re following the 28 Day Meditation Challenge with?
They can hold you accountable. You could text or phone or message each other when you’ve done your daily meditation and share the progress that you’re making.
Here’s where you can find buddies in the online community: Want To Buddy Up?
Remember you can concentrate.
If you’re finding it hard to concentrate, don’t give up. Concentration is a skill that we need to relearn. Yet concentrating is something that comes naturally to us: just look at a young child when they get absorbed in a task. You can call their name, over and over, but they can’t hear you, because they are lost in their task.
Quick Exercise
Think about the times in the past where you were changing something and you hit what we call ‘the wall’, and yet you kept going. When you got to the other side, you realised you had made a leap in your skill level.
How did you feel afterwards?
How did you keep yourself motivated?
What worked for you?
What didn’t?
If you could imagine a future you that has made it through the next few months and years, what advice would you give to the ‘you’ back in the ‘here and now’?
You did it then, you can do it now! The key is to keep going; to keep choosing.
Staying motivated is about allowing yourself to see the results you’re getting and to keep gently, consistently going with the routine of your daily ten minutes (or more!) of meditation.
And on Day 29 – after the 28 days are done – I’ll be sharing some final ideas on how you could keep your new meditation habit going.
I hope you really enjoy today’s meditation.
Day 27 Affirmation
I enjoy noticing the progress I am making – each meditation counts.
Namaste,
Clare
P. S. Tomorrow we’ll be talking about creating a sanctuary for your meditation space – and how this can help you keep going with the habit.
P.P.S. The key links you need for week four are:
Online Forum:
https://www.clarejosa.com/forum/28-day-meditation-challenge-online-course-1/
Week 4 Meditation:
www.28daymeditationchallenge.com/home/#week4