I recently started a couple of rounds of my 8-week Cultivating Compassionate Balance classes. One of the things we talk about in the first class is the willingness to listen to a guided meditation every day. I ask, very directly, “Hands in the air if you believe you’ll listen to the audio every day.” No hands go up. I appreciate the honesty. Then we talk about some of the barriers to making a commitment like this.
Everyone has invested time and money to taking the course. Everyone wants to change some sort of habit (or learn new ones). Why does it seem difficult to do the work involved? I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit the past few days.
So I changed the perspective and brought it back to myself. Mostly I don’t find it difficult to find time every day to meditate for 15 or 20 minutes… But I do find it difficult to find time (have the desire/motivation) to exercise. “They” (society, doctors, research, and popular news) say that regular exercise (just as regular meditation) has tremendous health benefits. I get it intellectually. I have been told over and over that exercise is good for me. So, why don’t I do it?
I’ve come up with some ideas… maybe they’ll resonate with you too.

1. We find it difficult to carve out time for ourselves. Many of us spend time serving/helping others and we don’t feel like we have much time left over for ourselves. 
2. Self care takes low priority. When we don’t feel like we have much time, self-care (whether it is in the form of exercise, meditation, or something else) goes by the wayside.
3. It takes work. Yep. Plain and simple it takes effort to exercise or meditate, or fill in the blank. And I know for myself that sometimes I just don’t feel like doing the work. But there is no easy pill to swallow that will suddenly tone my muscles, or calm my brain and open my heart.
4. We don’t really believe it will make a difference. For me this is the biggest one of all. Honestly, I’m not convinced I’ll see any noticeable change if I started exercising daily. I bet some of you might feel the same way about meditation. I’ve dabbled with exercise; I used to dabble with meditation. My dabbling with exercise has not created any noticeable results. And when I dabbled with meditation, it was nice but I didn’t really notice any results either. But, and here’s the crux that might get me exercising, when I actually began meditating on a regular basis, opened my heart to it and prioritized it, I noticed profound changes in my life. Ultimately I had to get beyond my skepticism and BELIVE it would make a difference, even if I didn’t see it day to day or week to week. 

So, what am I going to CHOOSE to do about this? I’m going to honor myself enough to take care of me (by exercising in this case) and make a commitment to carve out the time. I truly do have 30 minutes I could prioritize for this even though at a superficial level it doesn’t seem like it. I’m going to believe that there will be a difference if I keep at it and develop a new habit. And, I will commit to doing the work. 
I ask my students to commit to doing the work… so I’ll honor them as well as myself by committing to do some work as well. 
Are you ready to CHOOSE to carve out some time for SELF-CARE? Do you want to have a quieter mind, live more in the present moment, and have a better connection to your inner wisdom? Then I encourage you to make a commitment. Find some time to meditate every day. Even if that means a couple minutes. If you find you like to listen to something to help you, listen to my audio tracks (ones you received in class, or some on my YouTube channel). Or, listen to someone else’s audio tracks, (consider this 28 Day Meditation Challenge put together by Sharon Salsburg in the month of February). But make the commitment to take time to take care of yourself. Try it for a month, and let me know how it goes!
I’m off to exercise now!
Wishing you well for peace, health, and contentment, 
Amy