One profound piece for me is doing a daily practice at dawn. 4am is considered the ambrosial hour when the veil between the spirit world and the physical world is thinnest. The thing I found amazing was the quiet and lack of distraction. A short warm up like sun salutations and a small cup of black tea and ginger beforehand. My practice involves a mantra projected mentally during pranayam. On occasion if feeling called I will partake in a very light dose of Changa after the warm up, but with this I never begin the mantra work until I have returned to base.

It is good to journal after meditation. Sometimes the things that come up, distractions of thought, personal revelations etc are worth noting. When there are obstacles they can then be understood and cleared. The aha moments can become reflections to return too over time.

Here is my challenge to those without a daily practice. Pick a meditation, do it for 40 days for at least 11 minutes and journal about it. Daily practice will bring about change. For me the discipline broke a lot of habitual behaviors and set a new pattern for my day. Just committing to getting up that early will shift a lot of things in order to achieve it.