When people start practicing meditation & mindfulness they often come across obstacles to their practice so this week we are going to explore the 3 most common hurdles & how to overcome them.
I don’t have time.
This is the most common obstacle people come across. There is an old Zen expression: You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes, unless you’re too busy then you should sit for an hour. When we are struggling to find time to meditate, it can feel like another thing ‘to do’. Coming to your meditation in this mindset, you may well find that you either make excuses not to do it or the temptation is to rush through the meditation to get on with everything else. This misses the point! You may well find a few minutes of peace & calm in the practice but it doesn’t translate into your life. If you come to practice for the love of doing so, you’ll find the benefits from the practice extend into your daily life too.
Meditation releases happy hormones into your brain, which actually make you more creative & productive. This, coupled with the focus that mindfulness brings helps you to be more efficient. Many of us think we can multi-task. Scientists have proven that less than 5% of people can actually multi-task effectively. When you are multi-tasking, you are in fact putting your brain under a great deal of strain & it takes longer than we imagine to get back into the task at hand. Mindfulness & meditation promote a single tasking focus which is much gentler on the brain & makes you much more efficient & productive. So, if you feel overwhelmed by what you have to do, stop, slow down, take some time to turn inwards, getting still & silent – it will help you to be more productive, creative & efficient.
My mind keep wandering & I get distracted.
Well here’s the thing: we can’t stop our minds doing what they do, which is thinking thoughts. The goal of mindfulness & meditation is not to control your thoughts but to stop them from controlling you. If you can can bring some of the attitudes of mindfulness to your practice: non-judgment & a kindful acceptance then when your mind wanders, which it will do, instead of getting frustrated or beating yourself up because you’re not doing it ‘right’ you’ll find yourself accepting it. This subtle shift in perspective & seeing the distraction as a way to strengthen your practice can be really helpful.
Mindfulness & meditation is like exercise for your mind. So, when you get distracted, simply recognizing & acknowledging that you have been sidetracked & gently guiding your attention back to your anchor (the breath, your body, something you are observing or listening to) & reminding yourself this is what mindfulness is – noticing you are off down the rabbit hole with a certain train of thought & gently guiding your attention back to your anchor. The more you do this, the easier it becomes. Sometimes when you have a lot going on, your mind can be very scattered. The best thing to do is to just let your mind free-flow, observing the thoughts like clouds in the sky without getting caught up in the story line. Over time you’ll notice your thoughts start to settle, a little like when you throw a pebble into a pond, the ripples eventually settle.
Other times there can be a lot of noise & distraction around you & it can be difficult to settle into your meditation. Gelong Thubten was teaching mindfulness to a business in London. The employees were complaining about the renovations in the building & the noise of this building work being so distracting. He advised them to rest their attention on the noises, using them as their anchor rather than seeing them as a distraction. When he returned months later the building work had finished & the employees said how much they missed the sounds of the workmen & their power tools! This week’s meditation is the expanding awareness meditation & it can help with this process.
I keep falling asleep.
Many of us are sleep deprived & don’t get enough sleep. If you fell asleep whilst you were meditating, you haven’t done anything wrong, it was what your body needed. Instead of beating yourself up, instead take a moment of gratitude that you gave your body what it needed. After all, the Dalia Lama himself says, sleep is the best form of meditation. And if it’s good enough for the great man himself, then it’s good enough for us. You may find practicing at a different time of day or in a seated pose helps, so play around with your practice, discovering the best posture or time of the day to practice. With any spiritual practice it is a practice, don’t give up at the first hurdle & watch your intention, like I said at the beginning. You will always get more from the practice when you meet it with a sense of love & joy than if you think of it as another thing to do. Play around with the practice – try different times of the day, different positions & different styles of meditation, have some fun, you will get so much more from the practice this way. Next time we’ll explore some other obstacles to practicing as there are more than you’d imagine!
This week’s FREE meditation is the expanding awareness meditation. To try this meditation for yourself, simply email Alex to the email address below quoting Frost EAM.
Alex is based on the edge of the stunning Cotswolds & has been sharing her love for all things yoga & mindfulness for the last 8 years, not just in the UK but also around the world. Her mission is to help everyone discover a sense of peace & calm within & to encourage them to embrace regular self-care practices.
If you would like more information on how to practice mindfulness, meditation & yoga message her at alex@myananda.co.uk.
