Sometimes the beginning is the hardest part of any task. Check out what Huffington Post suggests to help you begin, and maintain, your meditation practice!

“1. Make a Contract with Yourself
There’s this funny thing about the brain. It wants to appear consistent to itself, and really dislikes things that make you look contradictory or hypocritical. This naturally applies socially, but it turns out that you want to appear consistent even to yourself. This is a psychological principle called “consistency bias,” and here’s how to make it work in your favor.

Write up a contract with yourself, explicitly committing to meditate every day, and then sign it. Once you put something in writing and sign it, your brain has a strong desire to appear consistent. You will actually begin to change your beliefs and actions to come into line with this written commitment. So even when you don’t feel like meditating — there’s a concert, or television show, or sleeping late, or whatever you would rather do — somewhere in the back of your mind you will remember that contract, and that can push you over the edge toward sitting down and meditating first.

2. Make a Calendar
You can make your written commitment even stronger if you create a calendar each week, containing specific meditation goals for each day. Post this calendar prominently, in a place where you see it all the time, and put a large X through each day after you sit. Combining this tip with the contract makes both work more effectively.

There are also all kinds of great applications that don’t only serve as a meditation calendar, but that actually remind you to do it. On Windows, Outlook or Lightning can be used to create a meditation calendar, and are integrated with email clients you may already have. If you want a stand-alone Windows program that is also free, Rainlender comes highly recommended. (I haven’t used any of these programs myself). On my Mac, I really like the Todo program from Appigio. Cross-platform, by far the best web-based application is Google Calendar. All of these can send you reminders to motivate you to sit down and meditate.”

Read all of the steps here:  5 Ways to Get Your Meditation Practice on Track