Already Dropped Your Meditation Resolutions?

 

01.15.2021 ALREADY DROPPED YOUR MEDITATION RESOLUTIONS? “How can we possibly meet all of the demands of modern life?” asks Vinny Ferraro, senior faculty of Mindful Schools, in his Lion’s Roar piece, “Too Busy to Meditate?” “How do we prioritize spiritual practice within our schedules? And can we find other places in our lives where we practice just being?”  Good questions! We’re all so busy and perhaps overwhelmed these days. So if you’ve dropped your New Year’s resolution to meditate more, take heart: our new series of “Meditation Hacks” by Buddhist teachers and thinkers will help you stay committed to your practice or find new ways to practice if the old habits aren’t serving you anymore. This collection answers questions such as what to do when you don’t like meditating, how to work with overwhelming emotions that come up, and finding the balance between not trying hard enough and trying too much.  They’ll give you insight into how to keep at your meditation practice. Plus, plenty of fresh resolve.  —Ross Nervig, audience engagement editor, LionsRoar.com

Too Busy to Meditate? As part of our #MeditationHacks series, Vinny Ferraro, senior faculty of Mindful Schools, instructs a parent too busy to maintain a meditation practice, asking: Are there moments in your day when you could check in with yourself? I feel stretched thin. I have a full-time job and young children to look after. Plus, I always try get enough sleep and exercise, stay informed, and be an active citizen. I can’t seem to find enough time to meditate. Vinny Ferraro: How can we possibly meet all of the demands of modern life? We can’t do everything, and we can’t do much without some downtime. Otherwise, our heads can feel like they’re spinning as fast as the world around us.

Not Enlightened Yet? Author and musician Miguel Chen comforts a practitioner who doesn’t seem to be getting any closer to enlightenment. I thought the goal of spiritual practice was to attain some sort of enlightenment or wisdom, but I don’t seem to be anywhere near that. What am I doing wrong? Miguel Chen: Perhaps you are overthinking it. Let’s consider “enlightenment” or “wisdom” to simply mean seeing things as they really are. If you’re setting a goal for things to be different than they are, you have already missed the point.

Overwhelmed by Emotions? Author and lay Zen teacher Susan Moon is asked: “Should I stop meditating when emotions begin to overwhelm me?” I’m afraid of the intense emotions that come up when I am meditating. Sometimes I feel deep sadness and other times I’m taken over by anger. Should I stop meditating when emotions begin to overwhelm me, or are there ways to work with them in meditation? Susan Moon: The quiet space of meditation can be an open house for troubled thoughts and feelings, who enter uninvited and take advantage of the captive audience of my mind. When this happens to me, I find that it’s what I then say to myself—the judgments, the self-blame—that does the damage. I try to remember my bumper sticker that says, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

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