1000 Days Of Meditation – My Experience

There are only a few self-improvement practices that have changed my life. Meditation is one of them. After I’ve now meditated for 1000 days, here are my thoughts on how my life has changed.

Many people consider meditation to be the go-to positive habit to develop. I very much agree. As of writing this post, I’m at a streak of 1002 days of meditation on Headspace.

To me, that’s crazy. For almost three years now, I’ve been meditating for 15 minutes every day.

In this post, I’ll be sharing my experience with meditation. We’ll look at how it’s changed my life and I’ll give you some tips for your own meditation practice.

How Has Meditation Changed My Life?

There are many ways that meditation has changed my life. The things I’m going to share here are the benefits I have received from meditation.

Wellbeing

The biggest change I’ve seen due to meditation is a significant increase in my level of wellbeing.

This includes a considerable reduction in anxiety and an increased baseline level of confidence. I’m generally more comfortable and much calmer in most situations.

I like to think I have what Headspace calls a ‘quiet confidence’. This is being vulnerable and content with that vulnerability.

As a result of this new level of wellbeing, life is more enjoyable. I’m much happier and consider ‘happy’ to be my emotional baseline. Emotions have less control over me. I find it easy to laugh, particularly at myself.

Growth Mindset

Another big change is developing an open, growth mindset. Meditation has opened my mind and helped me to become more curious.

I’m always seeking to learn, grow, and improve. I attribute this to beginning my meditation practice. Doing so prompted my passion for self-improvement and has made me the person I am today.

Productivity

Meditation has helped me to be more focused. I’m better able to recognise and minimise distractions. This allows me to be productive for longer periods of time.

Meditation trains you daily to concentrate, ‘without effort’, on your thoughts. It seems natural that this will transfer to other areas of your life. This allows you to better concentrate on other tasks.

Self-Awareness and Mental Clarity

Meditation has developed my self-awareness and mental clarity. After beginning regular meditation, you’ll better understand yourself and your own mind. It becomes easier to understand why you do the things that you do.

With this comes a shift in focus from the short-term to the long-term. Immediate gratification loses some of its appeal. You’ll become more connected to your present and future self.

Meditation helps you to look out for your future self. This means you’ll engage in more positive activities. ‘Future you’ becomes less of a different person and more of a developed version of yourself.

That’s actually quite an important point. With mental clarity and self-awareness comes the ability to connect with yourself. You’re then able to understand yourself and your actions in relation to your life.

Meditation helps to frame your life in the form of a journey of constant change and growth.

Your thoughts and breath while meditating can act as an analogy for the importance of life. Change is constant and nothing lasts forever. Meditation teaches you to be ok with, and even appreciate, this concept.

Wisdom and Knowledge

Meditation has made me wiser and more knowledgeable. I find I’m better able to understand concepts and lessons. Things make more sense. It’s easier to draw connections and conclusions.

Self-awareness and mental clarity have allowed me to experience more epiphanies. Your own human nature and actions, as well as that of others, makes more sense with regular meditation.

This has also helped me become more mentally mature. I’d consider my mental age to be at least several years older than my physical age. This is due to mental clarity, knowledge, and wisdom offered through my meditation practice.

There are many other ways that meditation has changed my life for the better. Too many to list in this post.

If you’d like to know more, don’t hesitate to leave a comment with your thoughts below.

Meditation Tips

The practice of meditation itself isn’t something you can aim to get ‘better’ at.

Yes, regular practice will make your meditation sessions more enjoyable. Yes, you’ll be better able to recognise thoughts and bring yourself back to your breath.

But, it’s not something you should seek to develop like a skill. Doing so would defeat the purpose.

Thus, when I refer to meditation tips, I’m talking about how to best create and maintain the habit of meditation.

Habit Stacking

The number one tip that’s helped me is linking the habit of meditation with another daily habit.

For almost my entire time meditating daily, I’ve meditated right after showering.
Showering is a habit that many of us do daily. By linking this habit with meditation, you’ll also be meditating daily.

Start by cleaning, relaxing, and preparing your body for the day. Follow that with clearing, relaxing, and preparing your mind for the day. It’s a two-step process that helps make each day more successful.

I find this works best in the morning since you’re able to experience the benefits throughout the day.

‘Habit stacking’ is the name of this concept. I’ll cover it more in detail in a future post on habits. Make sure you’re following the blog or subscribed to our mailing list so you’re notified when that post is live.

Start Small

Another effective tip is to start small. If 15 minutes seems too much, start with 5 mindful minutes each day. Once your habit is established, increase to 10, 15, or 20 minutes. 10 minutes is the amount everyone should strive for.

Remember that this is time for yourself. After a while, meditation becomes its own reward. The sessions are enjoyable. With repeat practice, you’ll recognise the above benefits in your own life. That will motivate you to continue the practice.

For me, I know that if I were to skip a day, my mental state would suffer. My thoughts would be messy and overactive. I’d struggle to focus and would get distracted a lot.

Knowing this provides me with motivation to ensure I meditate every day.

Accountability

One final tip is to have a form of accountability, or a way of tracking your progress. Headspace’s daily streak feature is great for this purpose.

Knowing that you could lose a streak by missing a day of meditation also provides motivation. This is both useful for creating the habit and maintaining it.

It takes an average of 66 days to form a habit. If you can reach a streak of 66 days on Headspace, you’ll likely have formed the habit of meditation.

Accountability can also come in other forms. You could begin meditating with a friend to keep each other on track. Forming a habit with another person makes it easier to keep going as you don’t want to let the other person down.

Use these in combination to increase the likelihood of your meditation habit sticking.

To wrap up, meditation has completely changed my life in more ways than I can list in this post alone. I’m a completely different person, for the better, because of meditation. There are SO many benefits that if you’re not meditating daily, you’re missing out.

Life becomes so much better with regular meditation. Invest 10 minutes a day into yourself and watch how your life can improve.

Thanks for reading.

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