Why You Don’t Meditate

My daughter Scarlett may not be super regular with her practice, but she always comes back to it.

By now, we’ve all heard about all the benefits of meditation and many of us have learned and have even gotten to experience those benefits, yet somehow very few people have solid, regular practices. Most of my students, even the really enthusiastic ones, will fall off the meditation wagon from time to time. I have to admit, before coming a teacher, I had stretches of weeks, even a couple months where I didn’t make it to the chair. What is it? Why is something that feels so wonderful, that enhances our lives so much, and is as easy as sitting in a chair so challenging to make part of our daily lives. There are many multi-faceted reasons, and everyone is different, but here’s what I find in my teaching to be the most prevalent reasons.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

The greatest challenge for me as a teacher is my students don’t know the value of what they are learning until after they’ve learned it. For the most part, people who haven’t meditated yet have no way of knowing how different the experience of their lives can be. When students find me, it is because some inner voice inside has been telling them for a long time that things can be different and that difference lies within themselves, but it is still a leap. If I could magically bestow, even for a couple minutes, the state of existence that comes from a twice daily dip into pure consciousness on my prospective…