Peloton’s Aditi Shah Says There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Bad Meditator’—Here’s Why

3 min readPeloton instructor Aditi Shah, who joined the steaming platform in 2018 to help launch its yoga and meditation programs, admits that even she considered herself a “bad meditator” in the beginning.“I would want to spend 10 minutes focusing on my breath, and I would spend seven minutes of it lost in thought,” she recalls of those early sessions. But as she explains to editors Abigail Cuffey and Amanda Lucci on the latest episode of The Huddle podcast, meditation is called a practice for a reason—the more you do it, the better you get at it.In fact, Aditi believes nearly everyone can be a meditator and reap some kind of benefit from it. How, you might ask? Let Aditi explain...Practice Without JudgmentAditi knows how easy it can be to get bogged down by the question of Am I doing this right?! when starting a meditation practice. But meaningfully engaging with those thoughts is actually a part of the process, she says.“The practice is noticing. Once you notice that you have gotten lost in thought, you are doing the practice,” she explains.The vital part, Aditi says, is not criticizing yourself for letting your mind wonder. “In life, if you fall down, when you get back up, if you're carrying the weight of a mistake with you, it's harder to continue forward,” she says. “Letting that weight go and continuing forward is, I think, a really helpful part of meditation practice.”Aim for ConsistencyAs with exercising, you’ll get the most benefits from meditation by doing it on a regular basis. And that’s where Aditi recommends the practice of habit stacking, aka tacking it on to a pre-existing part of your routine.“Pick a time that you're going to do every day, like right after brushing your teeth,” she says. ”That's an easy way to remember. If you try every day to schedule a different time to practice meditation, it's going to be challenging.”As for how long you should be meditating each day, Aditi says there isn’t a hard and fast number, but that she likes a 10-minute session.Identify What Success Looks Like to YouWhile Aditi stresses that there isn’t just one right way to meditate, she adds that in order to gauge whether your practice is having a positive effect on your mental and emotional health, it’s helpful to set a goal. It can be a specific metric or it can be a feeling. Maybe your goal is to sit in stillness for a full 10 minutes. Or maybe it’s to feel more at peace than you did a month ago. Either way, you’re working towards something—which is what Aditi wants for all of us.“If we spent a little bit more time thinking How does this make me feel? Not What do I need to do? I think we might behave a little differently,” she says. “We'd maybe just be nicer to ourselves.”Hear more of Aditi’s insights on meditation by clicking play on the latest episode of The Huddle above.Video Executive Producer Dorenna NewtonVideo Producer Janie BoothDirector of Photography Derrick Saint PierreVideo Editor Will KleinAmy Wilkinson is a contributing entertainment editor at Women's Health, where she edits the magazine's celebrity cover stories and writes health features. She has previously held editor titles at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News. In 2021, Amy completed her 600-hour teacher-training at Core Pilates NYC to become a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.