Lesson nine, creating the habit. No course on meditation could be complete without a lesson of forming good habits. Because regular meditation is, after all a habit. And why do you want to learn to form good habits? Because you will never change your life until you change something you do daily. And I assume you're taking this course on meditation because you want to create a change in your life.

Forming good habits will benefit you in every aspect of your life. If you want us to be successful in any endeavor, you must be able to control your mind. Limit the 50,000 random thoughts and concentrate on how to achieve your outcome with no distractions. The most important moment of any habit is the starting. It's that simple. So here are some keys to creating good habits.

First consistency. Do it every day at the same time every day. Start small so you can have success. Remember my failure when I was supposed to meditate one hour every morning and one hour every evening, it was just too much for a beginner. Commit to at least two minutes a day for a week, then perhaps increase to five minutes for another week. Then 10 minutes, the third week, you're building habits, just like muscles if you were starting an exercise program, because you are small wins will build your confidence and cement the habit.

Same time each day. I'm repeating myself here but it's that important. Find your motivation. It's important that you will To do it, don't feel you have to find your passion. Go back to the why meditate lessons and choose a motivating reason to do it. If you've gotten this far in the course, you clearly want to have a regular meditation habit.

I congratulate you on that decision. If it's for health reasons, let's say lowering your blood pressure, right, your ideal blood pressure on posters and put them where you'll see them every day. In the bathroom in your meditation space. Anywhere you could use the reminder. commit to doing it for 30 days. Research shows that 30 days is the right amount of time for adding or subtracting a habit.

Do with a friend because accountability makes a huge difference. Check in with one another every day. have consequences. One consequence is that people may respect you less if you don't do what you said. You would You may also think less of yourself. I will sometimes give myself consequences such as if I don't do such and such I can't have any chocolate today.

Chocolate is a big motivator for me. Or reward yourself when you've meditated every day for a week. If you miss a day, recognize why and find the solution to avoiding the problem again. Try not to miss two days in a row, it will make it harder to start up again. If you're running late and can't sit in meditation, do some focused slow breathing in the car or bus on the way to work. Last but not least, congratulate yourself on your successes.

Here's some powerful words from meditation teacher Pema chodron. Are you experiencing restlessness stay our fear and loathing out of control, stay aching knees and throbbing back. Stay, what's for lunch stay, I can't stand this another minute stay. I'll leave the lesson with this thought. So a thought and you reap an act. So an act and you reap a habit.

So a habit and you read Reaper character, so a character and you reap a destiny. This is how you change your life. For your homework, decide what your motivation is for meditation. Why do you want to do it? And decide on the consequences if you don't, and if you do report in the Facebook group our next lesson because it consists of some last meditation tips before we launch into the actual techniques.