How to get better at meditation: 5 Top Problems & their solutions

how to get better at meditation

You can become good at meditation by making a conscious decision to do it, cultivating the habit of daily practice, keeping motivation going,  following the proper technique, understanding the expectations and goals and really getting to know how much you have moved in the direction of those goals. I will cover all these points in detail and if you still want to ask any question, you are more than welcome.

Whether you are a beginner or a mid term meditator, challenges keep coming as we make progress. These can be unique for everybody but some of these challenges are pretty consistent among all meditators. Every challenge is genuine and can be addressed if understood properly. 

It is very helpful to understand how meditation actually works and the more effects we understand, the better we can become at techniques. You can read about it here. Now let’s tackle the problems and their solutions.

Make clear conscious intention to meditate:

how to get better at meditation

If want to know how to get better at meditation, make clear intention. Our intention is like super power if used in the right way. Take a moment, pause for a second. Bring your complete attention and say internally that I am going to meditate everyday. This is like setting a strong base for practice and it works like magic. Please don’t take it for granted. One day you will come to realize the power of intention. Until then, trust me or read this neurological research.

Cultivating the habit of daily practice:

Have you ever asked why we do anything? We do it first because someone motivates us. We start doing that and if we get some results, we dont need external motivation anymore. It becomes a self motivating pattern.

Same is the case with meditation. We stumble across meditative paths because either we are badly hurt in life or we are very curious about ourselves and the world around us. Both of these things are natural motivators. So as we try to understand it a bit more by reading articles like this one or watch a youtube video, we start to get more motivation. 

how to get better at meditation

This is external motivation and we do need it until we start to see some results. Once we start noticing the effects, we start getting motivated from inside. This motivation is extremely powerful and will never let you sway from the path. It’s like your show up everday for practice and the habit is now solid as a rock.

I don’t know if I am meditating the right way or not:

First of all, just realize that it happens to everyone. This is the internal chatter of the mind and it tries to convince us that we are doing it wrong. This is just our conditioning coming up. Remember how many times you were told as a kid that you are doing it wrong. We internalize this dialogue at some point and it shows up in every aspect of our lives. Why wouldn’t it show up during meditation? After all this is one of the qualities of meditation, to bring stuff up which has always been holding us back and then release it.

So the antidote would be to include it in your practice. Just notice it as an object of meditation and let go. This will not last for long I promise.

That being said, there could be a genuine problem of not understanding the technique. What’s worse is that, especially in the beginning, we keep forgetting the technique. So whatever technique you are using, read the instructions very carefully and it’s better to read them everyday before starting the session for at least a week.

This will change things for you.

Example:

Let’s say that the object of your meditation is internal chatter. The technique is not to get trapped in it, rather just observe how and when every thought arises and then passes away. You can use labels like “thinking” and “resting”.

The mind system can be in three states. Active, resting and completely off. Completely off states is something very important but it will need another article to explain. 

So the point is to not worry about what comes up but when it comes up and when it disappears. If some thought completely absorbs your attention and pulls you out of just noticing, do not worry at all. Practicing everyday will soon root this out for good. Even if you notice, there is something present inside you now which brings you back to that state.

I can not pass a certain point:

Now that the basics are out of our way, let’s discuss this one. It so happens that we cover everything written above and become really good at practice. We don’t get distracted anymore and we sit the whole session without any problem. 

But the thing is that we feel stuck. It seems like we have certainly achieved some results in the form of changes in life to deep meditative experiences. This is all great but can’t seem to pass a certain threshold. 

The antidote to that is to number one, increase your session time a little bit further. This will provide the mind body system with enough challenge to break through the ceiling. Secondly, do a longer sit at least once in a week. If your daily practice is 20 minutes, do a weekend session of 1 hour. This will take care of the issue at hand. Another thing that helps a lot is to be of service to somebody. Don’t ask the reason, just do it and see the results for yourself.

I don’t know where I am at on my journey:

In the beginning of our path, we are often frustrated and thoughts like we are wasting time and energy keep coming up. Then we start to get some results and these thoughts disappear. These results are actually deep meditative experiences. An example would be incredible peace or an absolutely quiet mind for a long time. 

These can include some really different experiences including a glimpse of no self or true self to out of body experiences. This all is very interesting and we want that in our journey but what’s truly something which can measure our progress? Something reliable.

The scale that my teacher uses to understand the progress of students is very simple but very powerful. How less are you suffering now? Yes. How much suffering has reduced in your life in a bigger picture. Everybody can see that in their own lives and understand where they are at.

Conclusion:

We have covered everything I could think of. The problems that meditators face early on. I certainly faced them along with my fellow meditators. I hope that the above provided information will help you on your journey but keep in mind that sometimes, we start wanting deep experiences when we read about them. We even start wanting less suffering without realizing that this wanting is “suffering”.

The results are an organic process and our job is to fully understand the technique and do it to the best of our abilities. I promise you that the results will follow soon.

If you have any more questions related to this topic or NOT, please ask in the comment box or email me. I will reply to them. I wish you best of luck and I wish you to be free of suffering. Signing out.

Categories: Meditation Practice
Zeeshan Haider

Written by:Zeeshan Haider All posts by the author

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