🔭 The Present Perspective Newsletter

🧘‍♂️When “I should meditate” becomes “I did”

There is a particular kind of frustration that comes from knowing something would probably be good for us, while also not quite doing it.

Meditation often sits in this category.

Here's how to make that first step smaller, easier and much more doable.

“A small daily task, if it really be daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” — Anthony Trollope
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Dear Reader

Almost everyone is “interested” in mindfulness and meditation.

This is not surprising.
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These practices receive a lot of positive attention in the media, in books, on podcasts and on social media. Why would we not be interested in something that appears to be genuinely good for us?

As most of us soon discover though, there is a very large gap between being interested in something and actually doing it.

How many things are we interested in, dream about, talk about, read about or plan for but never quite do?

There seems to be a threshold that needs to be crossed before an idea becomes an action.

With mindfulness and meditation, the good news is that this threshold is very low.

It doesn’t cost anything.
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You don’t need any special equipment.
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You don’t need to believe anything.
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You don’t even need to know very much about it.

You can simply sit down, press listen to a guided meditation, and begin.

And yet, even with all this, it can still be surprisingly difficult to practise.

There is always something else that gets in the way; work, family, hobbies, sport, shopping, emails, life admin, tiredness, busyness or just the general momentum of the day.

This won’t change unless we make it change.
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And of course, that is another barrier, because most of us don’t particularly like change!

Like many things that are very good for us such as regular exercise, healthy eating and getting enough sleep, the most important thing is often the simplest thing.

As Nike famously puts it: "Just do it."

Make a start.

Just a start.

Because getting started is often the hardest part, it helps to make the first step as simple and unthreatening as possible.

How to make a start

Step 1: Choose a small, realistic amount of time

Do not begin by trying to meditate for 30 minutes every day.

Start with something so small that it feels almost too easy.

3–5 minutes. 10 minutes at most.

The aim is simply to cross the threshold from “I am interested in meditation” to “I have actually meditated.”

Step 2: Choose a specific time and place

Vague intentions rarely work.

“I should meditate sometime” is usually not strong enough.

“Sometime” easily becomes “not today”.

Instead, choose a simple time and place.

After breakfast. Before checking your phone. When you first sit at your desk. Before bed. In your favourite chair. In the car before walking into work.

The more specific you are, the easier it becomes. You are not relying on inspiration, motivation or some rare gap in the day where nothing else is asking for your attention.

Step 3: Use support

Use anything that will support you to start practices.

• You could use a guided meditation
• Sign up to a meditation app, join a class
• Ask a friend to practise with you
• Set an appointment in your calendar.
• You could put out a chair or cushion in a room so you are reminded when you see it.

Once you have started

If you are able to practise meditation once, even for a short amount of time, it then makes building a habit so much easier.
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This is because you have shown your body and mind that you can do it—it is 100% possible.

The body and mind now know what the practice is like. We have sat down. We have paused. We have felt the breath. We have noticed the mind wandering. We have come back again.

It often does not take very long to start noticing the benefits of a regular meditation practice.
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You may feel a little more relaxed, more like yourself, less reactive, and more settled.
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In short, you feel better!

This becomes its own reward.

The habit begins to establish itself because life feels better when we do it than when we don’t.

So my encouragement, if you are reading this, is to make the decision to begin.

Set a day.
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Choose a time.
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Keep it simple.
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Give it a go!
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​Free Guided Meditations to Help You Get Started

​Click here to access a range of free, guided meditations which can help make getting started even easier.​

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🧘‍♀️ Mini Mindfulness Exercise: The 3-Minute Meditation (3 minutes)

Choose a chair. Sit down. Let your feet rest on the floor.

For the first minute, simply notice that you are here. Noticing the body. The chair. The room. The sounds around you.

For the second minute, feel the breath. You do not need to breathe in any special way. Just notice that breathing is already happening.

For the third minute, notice when the mind wanders. When it does, gently come back to the body or the breath.

That’s it! Give it a go :).

Why this exercise helps

Even a very short mindfulness practice can help interrupt the momentum of the day and bring us back into the present moment. By pausing, noticing the body and feeling the breath, we begin to settle the nervous system, reduce mental noise, and create a little more space around our thoughts and reactions. Over time, small practices like this can help us feel calmer, clearer and more grounded.

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Why this reflection matters
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​This reflection matters because beginning is often less about willpower and more about conditions. If meditation feels too long, too vague, too solitary, too difficult or too easy to “get wrong”, we are less likely to begin.
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But when we understand what would make the first step easier, we can build a practice that actually fits into real life.
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A small amount of support, structure and permission can make the difference between meditation remaining a good idea and becoming something we actually do.

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