Meditation is hard…and that’s okay

If you’re like me, when I initially brought intentional meditation into my life, I was excited and felt as if I as making progress to calming my monkey mind.

However, with any exercise or practice, we come to a plateau. When I hit this plateau(s), I became frustrated with myself and took a brief hiatus. I now know this is not what I needed. There is a balance between discipline and striving; which was the key for me in keeping a consistent meditation practice.

Striving is what allows us to set goals and achieve them. This is excellent for marathon training or studying for an exam, for we can set incremental milestones that help us get from point A to point B. We see this a lot in self-help books and professional development webinars. When we strive to be mindful or become ‘aware’ in our meditation practice, we are unintentionally taking away the purpose of the meditation practice. I know, I know. You’re probably asking ‘but if I don’t have a goal for this, what is the point?’. Believe me, I went through the same thing as you forward thinking, high achieving planners (because I am one of those too).

Consciousness. In reading the Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali, there is a distinction between awareness and consciousness. Awareness is seeing things as they are. Consciousness is the sense of self, which influences how a person sees things around them. The consciousness comes from life experiences. Consciousness is what allows us to set goals, have attachment and feelings to these goals, and strive. It is the belief of Patanjali that we can not reach awareness (calming the monkey mind) if the consciousness is in the way.

What does this mean? How I interpret Patanjali (which is centuries old mind you) is that when approaching an informal mindfulness or formal meditation practice do not strive to achieve something from the practice. Observe without assessment of what your brain, mind, and body are doing in that moment. Create a disciplined practice free of judgment. It is better to practice 5 minutes a day vs 30 minutes once a week.

This has helped me move past my various plateaus and reset my intention which is non-striving. Hope this helps you on your journey too.