At the hairdressers the other day, I was chatting with a guy about meditation. He’s tried a few different styles, mainly guided meditations, but hasn’t stuck with it.
He’s frustrated – he knows it’s good for him but he’s questioning whether he’s cut out for it. He said, “I think my mind is just too busy. Maybe I’m one of those people who can’t meditate?”
It’s a question I hear a lot. And it will be asked in different ways:
“Have you ever had anyone who hasn’t been able to meditate?”
“Are there some people it doesn’t work for?”
“What % of people learn and then don’t stick with it?”…
The quick answer: “If you can think, you can meditate.”
The longer answer: “It depends on what you’ve been doing. Very often it’s not you, it’s the technique that’s off.”
Here are three signs you might not be practising the right technique:
- The meditations feel like hard work, and you don’t look forward to them.
- You’re not noticing enough benefits to keep meditating every day.
- You’re not sure you’re doing it correctly.
If this sounds like you, then it’s time to look at what you’re doing.
You’ll know you’re meditating properly when it is:
- easy, pleasurable and something you look forward to doing,
- delivering noticeable benefits in terms of how you feel and perform physically, mentally and emotionally,
- understandable – you need to know what correct meditation is, in order to feel confident about what you’re doing.
If this isn’t your experience, do more research and look at different styles of meditation. Usually, it’s not that someone can’t meditate. They just haven’t learned the right way to do it.
– Jillian Lavender is co-founder of London Meditation Centre and New York Meditation Center.
