Say Goodbye to Meditation Challenges with these Simple Hacks!
Last updated on January 5th, 2025 at 05:17 am
Meditation is a magical way to get rid of stress and anxiety, find calm, build focus, enhance concentration, sleep better, and most importantly, experience true happiness and inner peace. Magical because, at first a meditative state is difficult to achieve, but once you attain it, the practice can transform your life.
It works wonders in your personal and professional life, as it raises self-awareness, takes you closer to self-realization and over time, turns you into a better, more stable and a more grounded person. Initially meditation looks challenging, and it is common to face difficulties like restlessness, discomfort, boredom, distress, and doubt among others. However, it is important to persist even if you feel like giving up on meditation, because in the long run, this practice is sure to be rewarding.
Here we will look at some commonly faced meditation challenges and useful tips to overcome them.
#1 You’re too busy to meditate
The first and most common difficulty in meditation is that you cannot find time for the practice. Know that it’s actually the impetus that you don’t have and not the time. Affirm to yourself the benefits of meditation and infuse yourself with the energy to start meditating. Understand and assure yourself that you are going to reap some amazing advantages of meditation if you practice it daily. Once you are convinced of the importance of meditating, you will automatically find time. If you are a very busy person, start with a 1-minute breathing exercise or a 5-minute guided meditation. Even a few minutes spared daily for meditation can give you good results.
#2 You’re having trouble staying motivated
Go through books or online sources that describe the benefits of meditation. Tell yourself again and again that only a few minutes of meditation can change you for the better. Select something you want to achieve as your motivation behind meditation.
You want some time with yourself? Meditate.
You want a sounder sleep? Meditate.
You wish to gain clarity of thought? Meditation can help.
You are undergoing a lot of stress? Meditation could work like medicine.
The fact that meditating daily improves overall health, should itself serve as a motivation for meditation.
#3 You’re unsure if you’re meditating correctly
There is no correct or wrong way to meditate. Do not entertain thoughts of self-doubt about whether you are meditating correctly or not. Let the thoughts or doubts come and go, keep meditating irrespective of the thoughts and emotions that may enter your mind during the practice. If you are meditating on a certain object or a mantra, get your focus on the object or the words of that prayer (or japa), so that you channel your mind in the right direction.
#4 You’re experiencing physical discomfort
It is natural to feel uncomfortable if your posture is incorrect or if you are not sitting at a proper place. Know that you are going to be sitting still for some time and select a suitable place accordingly. Take a comfortable position. While someone may prefer sitting cross-legged on a mat, someone else may be more comfortable sitting on a chair or sofa. See that the air quality and light in your meditation space is as per your preference.
While someone may like to sit by the window where there’s cool breeze and sunlight, someone may like to meditate in an air-conditioned room with dim light. Go by your own definition of comfortable and set up your meditation space accordingly.
#5 You find it hard to settle into the right mindset
The moment you start meditating, or even before that, just when you sit still to meditate, worry, anxiety, sadness, anger and such other negative emotions may start entering your mind. When busy with some activity, these emotions seem to take a backseat, but the moment you sit still, they crop up from somewhere and start disturbing you. Let the thoughts and emotions flow in their own way.
If, while meditating, you get tears in your eyes, let them flow. If worry about something in the future just doesn’t go from your mind, let the feeling be. If you suddenly feel angry about something and feel like you can’t meditate in that state of mind, just accept your emotion and continue meditating. You cannot wait until you are in a so-called correct mental state to meditate. Emotions, positive and negative are bound to come, don’t blame yourself or feel discouraged to meditate. In fact, meditation is about accepting your feelings and ultimately reaching a point where you are not affected by them.
#6 You find it difficult to sit in one place for too long
Know that when the body is moving, even the mind finds it difficult to calm down. Stillness of the body helps with stillness of the mind. So, it’s important to not move while meditating. Initially, it will be difficult but over time you will achieve the patience and concentration to sit still while meditating. You may get the sensation of an itch or feel a slight pain in the body. Decide to not react to it, and watch it fade away in some time. You may feel fidgety and restless, but that’s because you are not used to sitting without moving for that long. At the start, even a few minutes may look difficult, but with practice you will achieve sitting still for a longer time. If the itch or pain is serious and you cannot resist it, resolve it and get back to meditating.
#7 You’re having trouble with visualization
Visualization is a great technique to help you focus while meditating. Some people find it hard to visualize on their own. To overcome this challenge, opt for a guided meditation in which there is vivid description of the visual and it is easy for you to paint that picture before your eyes. Once you learn to visualize while meditating, other difficulties like wandering thoughts, negative emotions or restlessness are also resolved.
#8 You feel sleepy while meditating
It is natural to feel sleepy during meditation, because you are practically not engaged in any work that time. We tend to stay awake while working, studying or when actively busy with something. We are not used to sitting still, just observing our thoughts and letting them traverse our mind. So, while meditating, you may feel sleepy and even bored. It is fine to feel so, accept your feeling and continue meditating. If you are falling asleep during meditation, use practical tips like splashing water on your face, meditating in a seated or standing position, and being in a well-lit room or outdoors. Avoid using the couch or bed to meditate. You could meditate on a prayer, on an object or on an image of a deity, or use a breathing or visualization technique, to help prevent dozing off during meditation.
#9 You get lost in your thoughts
It is very common to experience shift of attention while meditating. The mind starts wandering, and you get lost in thought during meditation, which can hinder the process of feeling calm and relaxed. However, understand that you cannot stop thinking and if your mind wanders during meditation you should just observe your thoughts and let them go.
To help yourself concentrate during meditation, you could use techniques like body scan meditation or breath counting. In body scan meditation, you have to focus on one body part at a time while breathing slowly and notice the sensations in that region, then proceed to the next body part, thus progressing from your head to the toes or the other way around. In breath counting, you have to count each time you exhale, then pause for some counts, then exhale while counting. These techniques help you stay focussed and stop yourself from getting lost in thought during meditation.
These were 9 common meditation challenges and tips to overcome them. Basically, why people struggle with meditation is because it’s difficult to stay focused without any active engagement and observing the thoughts and allowing them to come and go while just staying focused on the breath, sounds uninteresting to most of us.
So, meditation challenges range from feeling sleepy to feeling restless and from feeling physical discomfort, to experiencing emotional distress. Apart from using the tips given here, convince yourself of the amazing benefits of meditation and know that you will reap them only after giving substantial time to this practice. So, start meditating daily and transform yourself.