Like any delayed gratification activity (the clue’s in the name), it takes time before you notice the effects of meditation. As somebody completely new to the practice, it took me around six weeks of meditating at least 10 minutes a day, almost every day, before I began to notice any changes in myself. This was back in late summer last year, and since then I’ve seen enough positive impact on my life to justify continuing, making it a daily habit.
The effects were quite subtle as well, such that it took me some time to connect the slight changes in behaviour I was showing to the short period of time I spent in quiet focus every day. When I was consuming information about meditation the focus was mainly on explaining the shorter-term benefits one might experience from the practice, such as reduced stress, rather than what you might notice over time but it was the latter that ended up being more noticeable in my experience.
I found that instead of changes in how I was feeling in the moment, I started, over days and weeks, to experience an increase in mental presence. I also took time to notice this — I became more mindful before I was mindful of my increased mindfulness. Said mindfulness revealed itself through more conscious decisions, such as being more consistent with other beneficial habits and being less impulsive when it came to focusing on work. My emotions and motivation have become easier to control as well.
The most challenging thing about this habit is figuring out whether you are doing it right whilst you are actually engaging in the meditation. I never felt mindful when I was paying attention to whether I was present or not, because this required an element of conscious consideration. My best meditations have been when I reflected on my state after I finished, realising that I was very focused on my experience in the present moment, rather than some thought, like wondering how much time was left, or whether I was meditating properly.
I think that the best characteristic to take into commitment to this practice is persistence. It’s hard to know whether you are meditating correctly, and the effects are quite subtle and initially hard to recognise. Consistency is also important, as my experience has been that my mindfulness noticeably decreases if I go more than a couple of days without meditating. As with any change in behaviour though, meditation gets easier the more you do it, and you can more comfortably spend additional time meditating, in order to gain more benefit. I recommend starting at five minutes a day, then moving up to 10, 15 or 20 minutes, dependent upon how comfortable you feel, and how fast you want to progress.
I hope you gained some value from this short piece; give meditation a go, just for a while, and pay attention to how you feel. Thanks for reading.