meditate Archives - Possibility Change

What To Do When Meditation Gets “Hard”

Many people have told me they’d like to meditate more regularly, but they just find it “too hard.” The reasons people see meditation as difficult vary. For instance, perhaps they find themselves getting easily bored while sitting alone. Or maybe anxious thoughts race through their minds, and they have trouble relaxing.

If you’re having a tough time keeping up your meditation practice, I want to offer a perspective that may help your motivation and focus. The perspective is this: meditation isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s actually a technique for noticing the patterns of thinking and acting that are blocking you from reaching your full potential.

In other words, when meditating feels difficult, that’s because it’s helping you see the places where you have room to grow. As meditation teacher S.N. Goenka wrote, meditation “takes you to the deepest level of the mind and allows you to cut the roots of past conditioning.”

Learning To Listen To Our Inner Wisdom

By Christopher R. Edgar / 18 Comments

One of the most disturbing things in my life right now is that I know several people who feel the need to drug themselves in order to go to work. In the morning, they drink, use prescription drugs, or even take painkillers or sedatives to make sure they stay composed, and keep themselves from having “emotional outbursts,” while in the office. Without a little something to take the edge off, they don’t feel like they could function.

These may sound like extreme examples, but in some way most of us are “taking the edge off” to deal with the stresses of working and other aspects of our lives. When we get home, for instance, most of us immediately turn on the computer, radio or TV, craving an escape from the anger, fear or despair we experience in our working lives. Like “hard drugs,” these activities temporarily distract us from, or numb us to, how we’re feeling. The fact that most of us do this in the evening to “wind down,” as opposed to doing it in the morning to “gear up,” doesn’t seem like a very meaningful distinction to me.

How To Meditate (& Why it May Help You Overcome Depression)

By Tejvan Pettinger / 96 Comments

Meditation involves silencing our mind. It is not an intellectual activity, but an attempt to expand our consciousness and be aware of our ‘real sense of being.’ Meditation can be a practical tool for relaxation, concentration and better health; it can also be an invaluable tool to self discovery. Through meditation we develop the capacity to be content with ourselves as we are. It is a happiness not dependent on external wealth and success. If practiced correctly, meditation can be a powerful antidote to depressive thoughts.

It is hard to pick up meditation from just reading an article, but I would like to share a few basic pointers about what meditation involves. No matter what form of meditation you follow, the basic shared principle is to quieten your thoughts and mind. We can sit in a chair for many hours, but, if thoughts continually pass through our mind then our meditation will be ineffective. Ultimately the aim is to have a mind free of thoughts. It is in this inner silence that we can experience a consciousness of real peace.