Meditation's Biggest Obstacle

I have heard a lot of different obstacles people face when they start to meditate, and I can definitely relate to all of them.

I'd like to focus here on debunking one of the most common.

It goes something to the tune of:

" I can't meditate because I can't calm my mind. I can't stop my thoughts."

Imbedded in this obstacle are several other inadvertent obstacles.

First and foremost, the premise is faulty: Despite a widespread belief in the contrary, the object of meditation is not to calm our minds and eliminate our thoughts.

I remember the day I discovered this. I had been meditating for about a year or so and found myself struggling with my "monkey mind" jumping from one branch to the next.

I was at a meditation center and asked one of the teachers about this.

He told me that quieting my mind was not what meditation was, but that it was about observing whatever was there; and then he gave me permission to have as many thoughts as I did and not to try to get rid of any of them.

What I began to see then, and continue to practice now, is how beautiful it is to let go.

Another way to look at this is akin to allowing yourself to move gently downstream a running brook. You don't want to fight the current and go upstream (ie fight the thoughts or emotions). Instead, you relax and float along in the direction of the current (the current is always being fueled by your breath, and no matter what is happening you can always shift your awareness back to your breath).

A few simple ways to start meditating:

1. Set your clock at work or home

2. Take 2 minutes in the morning before you start your day

and then 2 minutes in the evening before you go to bed

and just watch your breath

3. Allow whatever is there to be there

4. Just stay with the breath

This type of meditation is like having

bookends for your day.

5. Increase the amount of time spent in meditation as per your own discretion. No pressure to increase the time; just go with your intuition. It will feel easy and natural to increase the time.

I've been told that 20 minutes of meditation is like taking a 2-3 hour-long nap. That means you could add 730 - 1095 hours of rest to your life for a year for a mere 122 - 183 hours of actual time spent.

Now that's a deal people.

Finally, I will end on this note:

Of the many reported benefits of meditation, including decreased stress, decreased depression and anxiety, decreased hypertension, and more compassion, it seems fitting that we would have to work a little to get there.

Obstacles make us human. They are the jumping off point, not the end point.