Why can’t I meditate? (Don’t worry, you can!)
Introduction
Woah, woah, if you identify with the title of this post I just want to stop you. You can meditate. I promise. Perhaps it’s a little bit difficult, sure. Lots of things in life are difficult. You may think that you can’t meditate, but the truth is everyone is capable of it. In this article we’ll lay out a couple of ways you may be making this hard on yourself.
The Three Key Reasons Why People Struggle to Meditate
The Habit
Life is incredibly busy. And like many, it’s very easy to put ourselves and our own mental and physical health last. Finding your time, and really engraining it into the schedule of the day is step numero uno. You won’t be able to progress at something if you don’t take the time to practice!
Fear/Frustration
Meditation, for many, can be a frustrating experience. The biggest reason for this is that we place too much pressure on ourselves to experience something that meditation isn’t. You can sit, and think “Am I supposed to be feeling something? Why am I not feeling something? Am I doing it wrong? Am I sitting wrong?”. All of these thoughts are valid thoughts, but they have expectations attached to them. Expectations about your practice only serve to hurt you. Meditation is recognizing these thoughts as just thoughts, and returning your focus to the breath.
The Wandering Mind
Many enter meditation with this idea that a wandering mind is bad. That’s not ‘good’ meditation. If you get lost on a tangent you chide yourself and think “How could my mind get carried away like that?”. That is meditation. You’ll never not get distracted. You’ll never not start thinking about dinner or work or your significant other. What’s important is that you gently return yourself to the breath and recognize those thoughts as appearances in consciousness. Thinking is not a failure of meditation, it is part of it.
Overcoming the Barriers to Meditation
Luckily you can address these barriers. Make sure the time you use to meditate is sacred. Talk with your significant other to have them help you own that time. Prioritize that daily self care. Secondly, have some patience with yourself while learning something new. Mistakes happen. One good breath is all you need. And remember the goal of meditation is not to stop thinking. Stopping your thoughts is too forceful. Often during meditation we try to do too much. It’s best to do less. Of course if we do too little, we then drift off with the flow of our own thoughts and lose ourselves. Therein lies the practice.
Why Meditation is Worth the Effort
Meditation can improve our concentration, sleep quality, and self awareness. Regularly taking part in this ancient practice allows us to become more in tune with our own thoughts and bodies. Everybody (including you!) has the potential to meditate. We simply have to remember to address the barriers that are harming our practice.
