Why do we resist meditation?

Do you ever find yourself resisting meditation? Perhaps you've resolved to meditate regularly either because you think it's good for you, or you've enjoyed meditating and what it does for you. And yet, for some reason, you find yourself resisting meditation. Georgina asked about this in a comment:

"I really love meditation and your podcasts have greatly assisted me and changed my life. But even though I love meditation and I know it is good for me, I find myself resisting doing it almost daily… why is that? Do you have any insight on why we resist meditation? Why I find it so hard to sit for just 10 minutes a day sometimes? Is it the mind not wanting you to go away from it?"

Before I comment, I'd like to invite you to share your experience with this. Do you find you resist meditation? How do you experience that resistance? Do you have any idea why you resist?

I know many people struggle with this. As I wrote to Georgina, the best thing is to investigate for yourself why you resist. It can help you get in touch with what the resistance is all about and lead to valuable insights. Often when we become conscious of the feelings and beliefs that underlie our behavior, we can find ways to make changes.

I suspect that the reason for the resistance may be different for different people, but a couple of possibilities come to mind. It may simply be the momentum in our busy lives that keeps us moving at fast speed, as well as our culture which is telling us to do, do, do.

Our culture doesn't recognize a very fundamental principle, and that is that being rested and relaxed is the most important key to being creative and productive. Getting things done is equated with putting in time. With this deeply ingrained idea, we often don't give ourselves permission to take time out for meditation. And then when we do take the time, the mind and and body are in such high gear that we feel restless. You may sit to meditate and find yourself feeling like you have to get up and go. Meditating requires that we be prepared for that and continue to experience the restlessness and let it unwind.

The resistance can also be emotional. All of our busyness keeps us from feeling things we don’t want to feel. Meditation gets us in touch with our inner experience, including our emotions. If there is something going on in our lives that troubles us or we are not comfortable with certain emotions, we may tend to avoid meditation. And yet, to be truly relaxed and present, which are both goals of meditation, we have to be able to experience our emotions.

What is your experience with this? Do you resist meditating sometimes, and do you know why?

Celebrating 3 years of podcasting!

Three years ago today our first podcast episode went up on iTunes. And now there have been almost 3 million downloads. We never dreamed that so much would come out of the podcast, for us and our listeners, and we're celebrating that today. Of all of the things we've done over the years with meditation and personal growth, I'd have to say this has been the most rewarding. We hear from our listeners almost daily, and are often amazed at the profound impact the meditations are having on so many peoples' lives. It doesn't get better than this -- to know something you've done has helped another along the way. And yet we know that the positive changes you experience aren't really about us. Your openness to meditation, your willingness to grow and change, are what makes this happen. The podcast is a joint effort in every sense of the word. What we hear from you - your experiences, questions, comments, requests - help us learn and grow.

So, please lift a cyber-glass to toast with us today, and thank you for taking this journey with us!

Guided Meditation for Stillness, Stability and Balance

In the swirl of activity and the intense demands of life, it's easy to lose ones center. It can be challenging to maintain a sense of stability and balance. Our latest podcast meditation is designed to help you experience stillness in the midst of busyness, and then to create a stable reference point within that stillness. The meditation helps focus and steady the mind. I've had requests for a morning meditation and as well as a meditation especially for students. This meditation may be good for both purposes.

Tips for this Meditation

1. This meditation is best done sitting up in order to maintain alertness. It's not a meditation for falling asleep.
2. Occasionally my guided meditations suggest some use of visualization. In this meditation, you are guided to locate stillness and then a stable balance point within it. That point then becomes the focus of the meditation. It's important not to strain to create this point or to work at concentrating on it. Just be very easy about the whole process. If what I suggest comes easily, fine. If not, let it go. It may take several repetitions of this meditation to get the hang of it.

I'd love to hear what you experience with this meditation. All comments and questions are welcome!

In life, as in music, the pauses make all the difference

These words -- "in life, as in music, the pauses make all the difference" -- floated into my mind a few weeks back. I tweeted them on Twitter and started a post about them. The post has been saved as a draft since then, barely started and abandoned. Checking in with my drafts today, the words were quite welcome, as I am in a place where I need to pause. There have simply been too many things going on and my mind and body need a break. Reading these words was a good reminder, since everything in our culture demands that we constantly do, do, do, and then do some more. We think that when we pause -- whether for a brief break or a week-long retreat -- we are losing time that could be used productively. We think we're making progress when we're in motion -- moving forward, as it were, on our way to our goal. In reality, it's often when we pause that the most progress is made. It's common wisdom that discoveries are made and insights come when we stop working on something and let it go. Inspiration and insight spring from deep within. They can't be reached through mental focus, thinking and logic. They are accessed when the mind is relaxed and creativity can flow.

Pauses refresh and renew, hence they actually contribute to our productivity. But even more important, they bring balance and an enjoyable rhythm to life. We can't live at all without the long pause of sleep or even the tiny pause between the breaths. Pauses give life. Why not honor and allow ourselves to relax into them completely? Today, instead of lamenting the fact that I need to take some time off, I'm relishing the hours ahead. And when I've had enough r and r, I'll relish plunging back into work.

In music, it's the pauses that make the rhythms. It's in the pauses that the notes settle in and have time to reverberate in our hearts. It's in life's pauses that we find the silent background of our being. Today I shall delight in pauses!

On the "Effortless Effort" of Meditation

Usually the term "effortless effort" is associated with Taoist philosophy and its concept of "Wu Wei". It has to do with how we act, or experience action, in daily life. I like the Wikipedia description of Wu Wei as "natural action" giving the example of a tree growing. It is doing growing, and yet it is not doing it.

I like to use "effortless effort" when talking about how to meditate. It's indicates that the art of meditation is not one of following instructions. It's the art of allowing the mind to experience a natural state.

I often tell people not to take what I say in my meditations too literally. Sometimes I am asked what I mean by something like "not minding thoughts". It's impossible to answer those questions. The words I use aren't meant to be instructions to follow precisely. The words are more like confirmations of the correct experience. Quite naturally the mind will start relaxing into a state of "not minding thoughts", and if there is some resistance to that happening, words can give you permission to let go. My words are more like "reminders" to gently prompt the mind to let go of effort. But that letting go is an effortless effort!

How can effort be effortless? It's a paradox. The paradox happens because in guiding someone in meditation, we pretty much have to use words. You can't demonstrate meditation like you can dance, because it's an internal process. Although music alone can sometimes induce a meditative state, more often than not some verbal guidance is necessary. And yet, using words and phrases to guide that process is full of pitfalls. The meditative state is actually something that the mind falls into, not something you can make happen through following instructions. The instructions can only set up a situation where the mind can slip into that state.

Meditation is a state of effortlessness and sometimes a phrase here and there can help us to let go of effort. For example, I might say "let thoughts go". The idea isn't to actively let them go, like when you open your hand to drop a ball, but rather hearing the phrase "let thoughts go" may help the mind let go. That's because the mind is naturally drawn into a meditative state when given the opportunity, and there may be some resistance to that happening. The words can help dissolve the resistance. Letting go is not an active doing. No words or concepts can tell you exactly how to do it.