Meditation was always something that spoke strongly to me. It was always something that I wanted very much to add to my life.

But I have a very busy mind. And there were times when I tried to meditate, and it actually felt painful, sitting in no-thought.

I also have a busy life. I enjoy my life thoroughly, but work and children and spouse and friends all add up to days when I feel like an additional 24 hours just might do the trick.

I look back now, and while it might not have been the smoothest road, I have definitely managed to craft a meditation practice that fits me perfectly.

That uniqueness is the key, I think.

So if you’ve been struggling to add meditation to your daily life, here are seven tips that you might find helpful:

1. It won’t happen until you’re ready to commit to it.

This may sound funny, if you’ve been feeling like you’ve been wanting a meditation practice for ages. But ask yourself, am I really ready for this? Am I ready to truly make a commitment?

You’ll know when you are. And when you ARE ready, you’ll find yourself thinking about meditating and looking forward to meditating, and easily finding opportunities to meditate.

2. A practice doesn’t have to be “same time, same place”.

This was my main obstacle all those years I tried to meditate regularly. I run my own business, I help my husband out with his, and I have three children. Flexibility is the principle that gets me through my days.

Targeting a specific time, a specific place, was simply not doable.

It wasn’t until I realized that I didn’t HAVE to mediitate “same time, same place”, that I actually was able to develop a meditation practice, one that was unique to me.

3. Ten minutes is perfect. So is twenty minutes. Or thirty.

This might sound like heresy, but I actually set as my target fifteen minutes of meditation. A mere fifteen minutes.

It’s a length of time that works for me.

And there are lots of days when I fall short of my goal. But if I have spent any moments at all in meditation, I’m happy. It’s the fact of actually sitting myself down, and quieting my mind, that has huge benefits for me, and if on some days I can only manage to meditate for ten (or even five!) minutes, it’s so much better than not having meditated at all.

4. Don’t beat yourself up about having lots of thoughts while you’re meditating.

Those thoughts are going to come up. It’s what your mind’s been trained to do.

And during meditation, you’re gently training your mind to take a rest.

But there’s a reason why they call it a practice. So every time a thought surfaces, know that you are fulfilling the purpose of a “practice” as you push the thought away.

5. You can miss a day. Or two. Or more.

Adhering to hard and fast rules might work for some people, but such an approach has never worked for me. As I mentioned, flexibility is the key principle in my life. And if I happen to have a day, or even days, when I find meditation elusive, it’s okay.

I don’t worry about it. I’ve made a commitment to a meditation practice, after all, and the strength of that commitment is still there. If I miss a day, I just make a point of intending to have the time to meditate the next day.

6. The ideal environment can be a less than ideal environment.

When you think of meditation, do you think of a cool green room, an open window, a breeze flowing in, and the sounds of silence as you listen to your breathing?

I love it when I find myself in that kind of an environment. But in the reality of my daily life, it doesn’t happen that often. I’ve learned to take my meditation time whereever the opportunity arises.

I figure, if I can quiet my mind even when there are kids having a rollicking good time in the room next to me, I’ve really accomplished a lot.

7. You can always find the time.

I know I said that it’s okay to miss a day (point #5). And it IS okay. But the key to developing a unique meditation practice is to know, with a deep certainty, that you can always find the time.

Point #3 comes in handy when you’re just beginning to develop this awareness. But eventually, if you remain flexible, and alert to periods of time in your day that hold meditation potential, you’ll find that you, too, have a deep knowing, that you will always find the time.

You’re meditating, and that’s what counts

Think of yourself as having a “meditation muscle”. Every time you meditate, no matter how long, no matter where you are, you’re exercising this muscle. The more you exercise it, the easier it becomes.

I do look forward to a future time in my life when I’ll have that soothing green meditation room, and a set time every day where I get to slip away to this calm oasis and quiet my mind.

Until then, though, I’m enjoying my own unique practice very much.

In her book The Giving Heart: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Generosity in Your Life, M.J. Ryan talks about striving for balance, and being able to receive as well as give:

I came to understand that receiving is as important as giving, otherwise no gift would ever find its home. The receiver has an important part in the process. It takes grace to say, “Yes, I would love that,” or “That would be wonderful, thank you.” It implies that you believe you are worth getting whatever it is that is being offered.

This really got me thinking today. When I give, I do it as much for me as I do for the person to whom I’m giving. I get great pleasure from giving - it’s what makes holidays and other people’s birthdays so much fun for me.

So how am I at receiving? Because, really, when I’m giving, part of the pleasure that I get comes from the reaction of the recipient.

And when I look at it that way, I know that the pleasure I get from receiving is as much a gift to the giver as the actual gift that’s being presented to me.

Giving … AND receiving. It truly is about balance.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to see what kinds of insights I’d attract to my life through the process of blogging here.

Today, my husband and I were talking about what we wanted for our house, which is on the “incomplete” side. I said I’d like to find competent and professional drywallers to finish off our upstairs.

He said he wanted most of all to go through all of our stashes of “stuff” and either put everything away or give it away. Whatever would work to get it all out of sight and bring back the uncluttered look we had before we began our renovations eons ago.

Immediately, a whole lot of resistance surged up in me. It’s taken most of today for me to shake off this resistance.

Now I’m sitting here, preparing to write this post. I reach for the next book in the stack of books that’s next to my desk - Wealth 101, by John-Roger and Peter McWilliams. I have several sections marked off already, but on a whim, I flip open the book, near the back, and come across a section entitled: “Make Room for the New”.

Hmmmm.

Just as we needed to create a container to receive the inner manifestations of wealth, so too we need to make room in our outer environment for the material possessions we plan to receive. We do this by letting go of all the material possessions we are not currently using.

Okay. So I’m really interested now. Not just for the purposes of this post, but for me, for me today, and the resistance I felt earlier.

What are the benefits of letting go of what we are not using?

1. It allows energy to flow from us. Basically, there’s a lot of energy tied up in the things that we no longer use. So when we free up something for someone else to use, we can take back this energy.

2. It starts the energy flowing into us. Letting go is like exhaling, making us ready for a deep breath in.

3. It creates a vacuum. And Nature abhors a vacuum and will seek to fill it.

The Universe … tends not to give freely to hoarders. Energy was not meant to be hoarded, it was meant to be shared. The Universe loves flow. You take something in, use it, appreciate it, feel grateful for it, and let it go. We hand off that object to the next person in line for it, and turn to greet our next experience.

I’m re-examining my resistance with new eyes even as I type this.