It's weirdly hard to appreciate meditation. A big part of me is convinced about its gains, another can easily skip it. I often find this disbelief:
What might this not-doing offer that doing does not?
I also think gains from meditation are visible after two-three weeks of sustained practice.
Steps 1 and 3 are optional. I think including them helps tremendously with seeing a clear comparison between the two states and countering flawed memory, and My-side biasConfirmation bias
- On the day one, write a ten minutes self-evaluation. Ask yourself where is anxiety in your life and what it’s intensity? How do you score on areas such as: focus, peace, experiencing state of flow, self-wisdom (feeling internally wise and experiencing right direction in your life)? You may also include a stream of consciousness on states from the last week.
- For 20 days do at least 15 minute meditation every day (you don't need to know more than: Sit and try to stay in the present moment as much as possible. Know that everybody fails at not-thinking. When you notice just come back to the present moment)
- On the day 20th take ten minutes and repeat the evaluation and compare the notes.
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So far I did two tests. I recommend 20 min sessions, but I also think 10 min sessions will be good. For people without previous meditation practice 20-min sessions are very often way too long to go through.