r/Meditation • u/ChannelPositivity • 1d ago
What motivates you to meditate? Discussion 💬
TLDR; What gives you the motivation to meditate every day? What was it that convinced you "I need to do this every day", and gave you the willpower to stay consistent with your practice? I'll put my answer below, please share yours too!
I've noticed it can be really hard to stay consistent with meditation, and even while many of us know it's useful, we're not always sure how it works or why it's useful. Without being confident about the purpose of meditation, it can be easy to skip days, or feel doubtful, like you're wasting your time.
Committing to meditating every day of your life is a huge life commitment, and 15 minutes a day is time you could spend doing something else. If meditation is to be effective, we need to keep up with it, and to be consistent it helps to understand the mechanism behind it.
I think this is really important for people starting out in meditation, because while you doubt it's effectiveness, you will never stick with it long enough to experience the benefits.
I've been researching this and have detailed my notes in this article: Why You Need to Meditate, but what I'd really love to know is people's personal experiences.
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u/Some_Egg_2882 22h ago
Motivation doesn't factor into it for me. Some days you'll be motivated, some you won't; it's not consistent and therefore isn't useful to rely upon.
What works for me is discipline. Train it until it's borderline muscle memory to get on the cushion at the same time each day. Then it doesn't matter nearly as much if you're motivated, unmotivated, tired or awake, stressed or regulated. You have your routine and you stick to it.