As somebody who has fallen out of meditating regularly,
What might I do to help establish a meditation routine?
Should I pick a quiet time at the beginning of the day or at night before I go to sleep?
Both are good.
If you do it in the mornings rather than in the evenings,
Your mind is more stable.
Because you have just woken up from sleep,
So your mind is relatively stable to begin with.
Because your mind is already stable,
You don't have to go and make that extra effort to stabilize your mind.
So it will be easier to get that state.
Also,
You minimize the possibility of interference by others' activities because all you have to do is just wake up a little earlier than the others.
Also,
Meditating as a start of the day,
Allows you to carry that equanimity and stability throughout the day.
Of course,
Once you start getting your everyday actions and meeting other people,
It's bound to kind of excite and stimulate your mind a little bit.
And by the time you get to the afternoon,
Your mind is probably in an excited state.
And if you look at how people act and when they get into arguments and fights,
It's likely to be more in the afternoons than in the mornings.
So if you hear loud arguments in the afternoons and evenings,
Just pass it by.
However,
If you start hearing loud voices and argumented voices starting the first thing in the morning,
You feel that's a little bit unusual.
And even crimes usually happen in the afternoons and evenings rather than in the mornings.
Therefore,
If you want to go and you're going through travel,
And you're going through some dangerous locations,
It's probably better to do it before noon.
And the second time,
We're as safe as at the beginning of the morning.
In the evening,
Although the evening may still be late,
But it's about to go dark and get into the night.
Psychologically speaking,
We get more tempted to act out in our motivations.
However,
In the very beginning of the dawn,
Although it's still dark outside,
Because the expectation is still soon be light,
In a way it's safer in the morning as the sun rises.
So once you know the psychology of most of the human beings and know how your own mind reacts to different lighting conditions,
Then even though you may be going through some dangerous locations,
You can control the timing as to minimize that danger.
But when you meditate in the evening,
When I said that's also as good,
It's that now that has the function of trying to calm down your excited mind.
But it won't be as easy to kind of calm down your mind to achieve that equanimity in the evenings.
So in that sense,
Meditation serves as a function of trying to calm your mind.
However,
It will help you go to sleep better.
So if you're thinking just the meditation itself,
It's probably better to do it in the morning because you start at a more calmer state.
But if you take a look at the benefits to your life as a whole,
Then trying to calm your mind after spending an excited day in the evening is also beneficial to the quality of your life.
But whenever you do it,
It's better to do it than not do it at all.
But you have to pick whether morning or the evenings.
Although it depends on the individuals,
Generally it's better in the mornings.
So the morning is more appropriate time just because you start off meditation in a calmer state to begin with and there's less chance of interference by others.
