“I don’t understand what people are talking about when they say meditation makes them calmer. I don’t feel like that while I’m meditating. It’s like that runner’s high thing… that’s never happened to me either.”

A friend of mine recently shared that with me while we were talking on the phone about her frustration with meditation. I tried to explain to her that you don’t necessarily feel the effects of meditation while meditating, you feel them later when your boss gives you 3 new projects and tells you to work all weekend.

You also don’t usually feel great during the run, it’s after the running that you have a sense of peace and ease when your partner makes a mess of the kitchen and leaves it for you to clean up.

Its rare to experience earned tranquility when you’re new at something. After you’ve been practicing a while, the calm and balanced feelings sneak up on you.

My friend is also the kind of person who wants to go all in immediately. You know the type… forget starting with a 5 minute a day meditation habit, let’s do one hour. Run?!? What marathon can I sign up for? You know how these endeavors go. In less than a week, the new passion is out the window and the old routine of wine and whine is back in place.

I had a war with meditation for years before I locked down a consistent daily practice and I’ve been a runner for over 30 years. I tried and failed and tried again with yoga, nutrition, and daily energy routines before I became consistent.

With all the trial and error, I developed a concept I use over and over: To pick up a healthy habit, I do a little bit every day over a long period of time and value the process over the result.

I’ll write that first part again because it’s been so pivotal for me:
A little bit every day over a long period of time.

When you commit to and actually DO a small thing every day, magic happens. All of those collective modest efforts add up and you don’t even realize the major impact on your life that they’ve had…until one day you do notice.

It also feels easeful. Each day you do your thing, the sun comes up, the sun goes down. Then you get up and do it again.

If you accidentally miss a day, you notice… because you feel different. But the sun rises again and you continue.

Doing my own daily energy medicine routine was, for me, a little scattered in the beginning. I’d miss a day here and there and if I did, I’d feel “off” almost immediately.  I’d have more stress and anxiety and a sense of overwhelm that made me cranky. (Which was how I was most days before I started doing energy work on myself).

I’d soon realize what I forgot to do and get right back into it. Over time, it became something as ingrained in me as getting up in the morning and making coffee. A habit had formed.

That’s when I really felt the sense of internal quiet and less angst: I got my routine dialed into exactly what my energy needs and did it regularly.

Getting into a personal daily energy routine is easier than a meditation habit. I’ve had enough meditation clients and energy clients that I can promise you that.

All it takes is a little bit every day over a long period of time and then the magic happens for you too.