When you’re short on time, cut down on the length of meditation, rather than skipping it altogether. Go for quality rather than quantity. Learn to manage your time a little more wisely. Remember that if you meditate your energy and concentration powers grow, and you will use all your time more efficiently.
It also helps to be creative in finding times and places to meditate. A father of three young boys told me that it is impossible for him to meditate once he gets home from work, because his sons are so excited to see him. His solution was to park his car a block from his house, and meditate there.
We do what we want to do. If you are having difficulty finding time to meditate, it isn’t yet a high enough priority for you. Remind yourself why meditation is so essential by recalling the times when it has transformed your life. Even a few minutes a day can have a tremendous impact. A married couple once told me that before they started meditating, their evenings were somewhat negative, because they were in the habit of coming home from work and complaining about their day. Now, with meditation, their evenings were radically different. Even their 5-minute pre-dinner meditations were enough to dramatically shift their energy, out of problem-consciousness, to a more positive and loving approach to life. They said their evenings were now a joy.
Yogananda said that the more we meditate, the more we’ll want to meditate. Often we just have to get ourselves started, and in a flow. If it is late at night, and your regular meditation routine seems like too much to do, select something from your practice you want to do, and say to yourself, “I’ll just do this.” Then do it! You’ll often find, however, that once you begin, you’ll want to do more.
Our quality of life depends on the quality of our awareness, because our outer lives are a reflection of our consciousness. The more we realize this, the more we will make time for meditation.
