Karen: Can you convince me to make meditation a part of my life? I try but I just keep thinking about other things. I can never clear my mind which according to my 15-year old daughter is quite bizarre!

Oh, and as well as convincing me, you also have to come up with a foolproof plan to make me do it.

Thank you, Karen. Perfect timing … I’ve just finished teaching my first meditation course over the weekend, so this is very front-of-mind for me.

The first thing I said in the course was that I wasn’t there to teach people to meditate. My intent was to help them establish the habit of meditation. So the first thing I did was make the case for a meditation practice.

And luckily enough I’ve co-authored a book (with a couple of very clever PhDs) on just that.

The science is unequivocal. A meditation practice helps with:

happiness
health
relationships
performance

Who wouldn’t want that?

But Pete, I hear you say, that may work for other people, but not for me. I’m just no good at meditation. I try, but I can’t get my mind to be still.

That’s a very common belief. We think the point of meditation is to still the mind. That’s not how I think of it. I think of it as building the muscle of noticing when we’re not present, and coming back to the present moment. And when I sit and meditate, I’m just doing reps building that muscle. Some days my mind is busier, and I get to do more reps.

As for a foolproof plan to make you do it … here are some things that will at least tip the odds in your favour:

a public commitment
a limited experiment (ie. commit for six weeks or 3 months, not indefinitely)
someone to be accountable to
a community that you are doing it with

Good luck!