1/ Some Thoughts on Meditation from an Amateur...

Meditation is one habit I've struggled for years to build. And one key reason is because I held a common misconception: I always believed meditation was supposed to be relaxing. This is a broken way to think about the process.

2/ My mental image of someone who was "good at meditation" was someone who was relaxed, calm, present, focused. Whenever I tried to meditate, I assumed I should feel relaxed, calm, present, focused. But these are simply the results of meditation, not the process of meditating.

3/ When I would meditate, I would begin by focusing on my breath, but two seconds later my mind would wander to the leaves rustling or the car outside or my guilt about some stupid thing I said. I was always distracted and so I figured I wasn't "doing it right."

4/ Now I'm beginning to realize that the mind wandering is actually an essential part of the process of meditating. To explain why, consider the process of lifting weights.

5/ When you train hard in the gym, each repetition is effortful. This is how it's supposed to be. The challenge of lifting the weight is what makes the muscle grow. In time, your body adapts to the challenge placed upon it.

6/ Meditation also consists of effortful repetitions. After each interruption, you pull your focus back to your breath—the mental equivalent of putting in another rep in the gym. These effortful mental reps are what build the capacity to be relaxed, calm, present, focused.

7/ In this way, "getting distracted" is actually necessary for practicing meditation. Resistance is required to build strength. Distraction is required to build focus.

END/ I'm just a rookie at all of this, so if others have more to add I'm all ears.