6 Myths About Meditation That Smart People Know Are Trash That Holds People Back
Mediation is for everyone and should be in the human body operation manual.
cottonbro studio | Canva Daily meditation practice can enhance your life. It doesn't have to be all day chanting while sitting on a mountain. Small moments of being aware of your thinking can supercharge you. Despite what people might be trumpeting about meditation, there is much more to it than the myths imply.
Michelle Maros, co-founder of the non-profit organization Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life™, joined Andrea Miller on Getting Open. Michelle is a registered yoga teacher and an advocate for mindfulness, holding multiple certifications in meditation and personal empowerment chatted about some unfortunate meditation myths that keep people from this beneficial practice.
Six excuses and myths about meditation that hold people back
1. 'It takes up too much time in my day'
Meditation is like any practice; it takes practice. You don't sit in meditation for an hour successfully your first time. And long meditations are not the goal anyway. Refreshing the mind is the goal, so even a minute can be enough of a reset, refresh, and recharge.
You can sit in your car before going into work, or go to the bathroom and just take some deep breaths. You can do this on a break or anytime. That moment of alone time is what matters for micro recharging.
2. 'I literally cannot empty my mind'
An empty head is not the goal of meditation. The goal is to sit with yourself and observe your thoughts and be able to let them break themselves down. Trying to empty the mind for a lot of people is anxiety-inducing since it becomes one more thing to do, one more skill they don't have, and another impossible chase.
Sitting and observing your thoughts while not being attached to them or controlling them, lets them play out and conclude. When thoughts can break themselves down, we become more relaxed. That is the goal of meditation.
3. 'I tried meditation and it didn't work'
Meditation has been around for a long time. The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra lists 112 meditation techniques, so there's a wealth of styles to choose from and find one more suitable for an individual. Experiment and explore to see what might work.
Transcendental styles of meditation can be a rigid practice and turn some people off from meditation. However, like any discipline-building exercise, meditation needs to be something you look forward to because of its benefits. Like going to the gym, you might not like the exer-cycle, but that rowing machine is your best friend.
4. 'I don't have a real mantra, and I don't know how to get one'
Repeating a sound or a phrase is only one of the many styles of meditation you can choose to practice. Some people find repetition of sound helps distract their mind from controlling thought, as well as gaining relaxation from the rhythmic vibration of the voiced sounds.
Assigned phrases, secret words, and sacred vibrations are all details that could be seen as distractions from the work of meditation by other people. Again, it is about finding a style that best benefits your personality.
5. 'I cannot stand silence for more than a few minutes'
So one myth about meditation is you must have a mantra, and a mantra is voiced. It seems odd to have another myth about silence. But that is the thing with misinformation, it cares nothing about consistency or logic.
Silence is not the key here. Meditation depends on consistency, and consistency is far more beneficial than imposed silence. Music, words, phrases, vibrational frequencies, and the sounds of nature have all been successfully used by meditators.
6. 'Meditation is only for hippies and woo-woo people'
Who even thinks this anymore?! Yes, the cultural shift of the 1960s lent more exposure to mediation as a practice. Yet, meditation came to settler America in 1893 in the form of "a groundbreaking speech to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in which Swami Vivekananda introduced Hinduism to America and called for religious tolerance and an end to fanaticism." Though meditation practices have existed in the Americas long before colonialism.
Later, the Beatles and the Hippies made mediation go pop. But by the 1980s, mediation had become studied and analyzed by researchers from various fields. Today, mediation is seen as an alternative to pharmaceutical treatment of some conditions, and a practice every human can benefit from once they find the style that first them best.
Will Curtis is YourTango's expert editor. Will has over 14 years of experience as an editor covering relationships, spirituality, and human interest topics.
