Medivate Forum

For me, like exercise, shaving, teeth brushing, and trimming fingernail, meditation is a habit. And I think it's best that way.
Why? Because I believe pretty strongly that "you are what you repeatedly do." Stated differently, I think that habits matter more than most anything else. They're so automatic we don't think about them much, but they really shape everything. It nearly goes without saying, but someone in the habit of watching TV all day isn't likely to write the next great novel. Someone who makes a habit of writing everyday just might.
So by having a meditation "habit" I do it regularly. For me anything that I think I should do that doesn't reach the level of "yep I regularly do that and feel weird when I don't" is something i just don't reliably do. It's something I vaguely feel obligated to but never quite accomplish.
I know some people worry about losing some spiritual quality if they make or view meditation as a routine activity. I think there's some merit to that. But I get so much more value out regularly making a point of meditating (especially when there's a lot of resistance and struggle in it) that I wouldn't want it to be more will-based. I just know I'd delay and dally so I never really did it.