Why is Meditation So Hard?

Theoretically, meditation is so simple. Sit down for 10 minutes. Think of nothing else. That’s it.

You are meditating already.

But try to do that in practice. And you will understand that it is far, far easier said than done.

I have literally sat for thousands of hours and felt nothing at all. Yeah, a little bit of peace maybe.

But was it working at all? That made me wonder, what makes meditation such a difficult practice?

You see, the first thing to note is, life itself is hectic these days. Can you sit still for a few moments? Of course not. Either your dog jumps up on you from the back or your kid climbs up on the kitchen table for something (I don’t know what).

You are either fixated on some new series on Netflix, looking at the latest arrivals on Amazon or your best friend needs to talk to you after her breakup.

In short, meditation is hard.

Say, you still got that free time to kill. 30 minutes daily, perhaps?

Even then, meditation is a hard beast to put those reins on. Why? Because it comes equipped with many subtle weapons… and I am going to tackle them one by one below.

Meditation takes time. And time is money. Are you going to waste “money” on a little thing like meditation? When you are saying it takes time, all you are asking is whether it is worth it.

Is your inner peace worth it? Is mental clarity worth it? Is a zen-like mind worth it? The answer is yours.

I won’t say that meditation does not take time. The question you need to ask yourself is — do you really need it? The answer will most probably be yes.

Trust me when I say that.

Meditation requires patience. And let’s face it. Most of us are not patient at all. We are the slaves of instant gratification. We want it NOW. Meditation is painfully the opposite of that.

Actually, it might be wrong to say that meditation requires patience. In fact, meditation IS patience. The way I see it is, meditation is a way of teaching you being patient in life. That in itself can be humbling at times.

Monkey mind matters. Though I am not as restless as I was in the 20s, I still struggle with my monkey mind from time to time. I believe everyone does. We have so much on our mind these days after all.

Our mind loves to jump around from one idea to another…one emotion to another. It does not want to stand still because it is scared of what it will find within itself.

As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “every one of us has insight. We know that the object of our craving isn’t worth it. We know we don’t want to get hooked. We know we don’t want to spend all our time and energy on it. And yet we can’t let go. This is because we don’t know how to apply our insight.”

Do not let your monkey mind rule you.

Life is distracting. I am going to add this again as an individual point here. Because life is distracting… and that’s the job of life. To keep you from grabbing a hold of its true meaning.

Your job, your friends, your family… everyone will try to stop you from sitting still with your eyes closed. That’s probably why sannyasis could meditate for 24 hours… and for a regular day job worker, convincing the boss for a pay hike seems more fruitful than meditating on your self.

However, meditation taught me when we learn to focus, we tune out the garbage around us, and that’s when every problem that has been nagging at you solves themselves.

In other words, consider your distracting life as a symptom of a disease and meditation a necessary way to cure it.

Meditation needs belief. It’s one of those metaphysical concepts (although countless scientific studies have been done already!) that we don’t want to wrap our heads around. “Is it even working?” That’s the question, isn’t it?

The answer is, even if you don’t feel it, meditation works. Those minutes that you are spending trying to calm yourself and focus on a mantra or visualizing a happy and blissful life, your subconscious is at work rewiring your inner DNA towards that.

Meditation is like love. You meet a person every day. You walk together in the sunset, stir up a laughter over a cup of coffee, and get scared watching the horror movie under the same blanket. And all of a sudden, one day, you feel it. You don’t know when it all happened but now you know.

That’s what meditation feels like. You believe in love, don’t you?

Meditation does not suit me. The one that baffles me the most is this one. I understand why they say this but still…

What meditation stands for is not what you do during meditation.

You might focus on the candle flame. You might concentrate on a thought or a feeling. You might even do nothing and watch yourself go through the day.

Ultimately, meditation means is not to do anything at all. It means to enjoy being at present.

So, how can enjoying your existence not suit you? You just haven’t reached there yet. Just like you cannot reach home from your office without walking all the way or spending money on a cab or bus. Similarly, you have to invest your time and energy here to reach that state of bliss.

Are you willing to do that?

I will say, meditation is hard. That’s true. But meditation requires so less of you. Simply focus on something that you want to. And let everything else happen on its own. 30 minutes a day is good to start.

I know you can do it.