Meditation and Forming a Habit

I've meditated every day this month, which means that I still have six days to go for it to become a habit.  One of the key elements I've learned about meditation is a concept called noting, which is about recognizing stress or anxiety and noting it.  One of the key approaches to meditation that I've learned is to focus on my breath.  What's interesting is the fact that I tend to sigh deeply when I'm under stress.  What's interesting about focusing on my breath is that it's not about taking a deep breath.  It's about literally focusing on the breath itself.  Interestingly, the concept is not to breath heavy, or to actually breath harder.  It's literally about focusing on a normal breath.  It's an interesting concept, and an important one.

I've found meditation to be an important arrow in my quiver to deal with anxiety and stress.  There's actually a growing boy of literature that demonstrates the value of meditation.  This includes brain scans that demonstrate the actual physiologic changes that occur in the human brain that are directly related to meditation.

My dad taught me that it takes 21 days to develop a habit.  I've been meditating daily for the past 15 days.  Which means that I have six days to go to lock in my meditation habit.  I'll be meditating before I go to bed tonight.  I'm going to develop this habit.