I Meditated for 500 Days Straight: Here’s How I Built the Habit

It wasn’t easy to form the habit, but it was totally worth it

I first heard about mindfulness and meditation during the summer break after my third year of university. I started meditating for 3 minutes a day, guided by the Headspace app. However, I couldn’t really keep a long streak — five days was the longest I could manage.

I kept on for the next two months, though. Unfortunately, the I couldn’t really build the habit of meditation I wanted to. I’d usually sit and breathe right before going to bed, however, I had two other roommates, which made the task nearly impossible. I then tried in the mornings, but I was too sleepy to do anything and couldn’t much concentrate.

When I went back to university in September, I ceased to try. It was not until the following summer, when I graduated, that I started taking it seriously and managed to build the habit — one that I’m still nurturing.

As of this month, I have meditated for approximately 500 days straight (I have missed a day or two, of course). Now, I try to meditate for 15–20 minutes a day on one sitting — sometimes I’d do two sessions of up to 10 minutes, depending on my schedule. However, I believe that the latter strategy may be of more benefit, as I just somehow feel better when I know I have meditated both in the morning and in the evening.

Initially, I started meditating for the sole purpose of controlling my anxiety. In the beginning, I was not really aware of what the practice was all about, so I just trusted the various social media gurus that claimed that meditation’s sole purpose was to reduce stress, anxiety, and uplift mood.

Well, it did work as far as my calmness was affected. But it was not until I started reading books about Buddhism (and overall eastern philosophies) and listening to podcasts and talks, that I started to really understand why I’m doing all this. This helped me immensely in cultivating my habit.

How I Build The Habit

I believe you’ll all heard the saying that a good, long-lasting habit is built in 21 days. Other findings argue that it takes from 18 to 254 days for a human being to form a new habit — in conclusion, 66 days on average are what is needed for a new behavior to become automatic.

However, I can assure you that my experience with forming my habit was everything but automatic.

Willpower Is Important

So far I’ve read a couple of books on forming new habits and change in general, and the overall conclusion was that willpower doesn’t play a significant role in making it easier for you to create a habit from scratch.

Nevertheless, it seemed to have worked wonderfully for me. For the first couple of months I really had to use my will and force myself to sit down and meditate for as short as 10 minutes. Of course, it was not that I didn’t enjoy it, I just had to remind myself that it was extremely good for my mental health.

That did the trick.

Believe That It Helps

I have figured out that as long as you believe that a certain type of activity will benefit your health, your mind would start to naturally be drawn by it.

The same tactic I applied to meditation. If you really believe that the practice would benefit your mental health, all you need then a certain amount of willpower to practice it every day.

But how to believe that it actually helps?

Start Reading Books on The Topic and Listen to Respectable Mindfulness Teachers and Practitioners

As I said, it was not until I read my first book on the matter that I started to really believe in it. “The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle was the very first material I got immersed in completely.

Along with that, I was listening to the talks of Andy Puddicombe in his Headspace app. However, after half a year I ditched it, as it became way too mainstream and flat-minded, and switched to Waking Up by Sam Harris, who I admire.

The works of Alan Watts, Thich Nhat Hanh and Benjamin Hoff were also ones that really affected my views on meditation, Buddhism, and Taoism.

But there’s more to forming the habit. Here’s what else you can do, that worked for me:

Create a “Meditation Corner" In Your Room

It would be really beneficial for you if you create your “Meditation Corner” somewhere in your apartment. A mat to sit on would do a perfect job. Of course, a couple of candles, LED lights, and even an aromatherapy diffusers would contribute even more to the creating this designated spot.

The sole purpose of all this is when every time you come across it, it would remind you of the practice, which helps in forming the habit.

Overall, I believe that the effort one needs to form a daily meditation habit is totally worth it. This is one of these practices that do not yield benefits right away. Knowing that, it would be considerably easier for you to start meditating every day.

Thank you for taking some time to read my article! If you wish to read more written by me, please check my Medium page:

If you are also interested in psychedelics and mental health, I recently wrote about how cannabis affects your body and brain, and how psychedelics could potentially help with anxiety and depression: