I find that my mind wanders a lot during meditation, and it’s hard not to follow my thoughts. Am I doing something wrong?
Answer:
This is a common experience, even for the most seasoned meditators. Many of us experience our minds wandering during meditation, and it can be very difficult not to follow our thoughts.
In response to a wandering mind, many of us conclude that we aren’t meditating, or aren’t meditating correctly. This is probably the greatest source of frustration and discouragement I encounter among meditators.
But a wandering mind is not a problem in the way most of us imagine it to be. And it doesn’t mean you can’t make progress with your meditation practice.
Think about this: The moment you realize that you have gotten absorbed in your thoughts, you’re actually no longer lost in thought. As soon as you realize “Oh, I’ve just been lost in a daydream,” you’ve stopped being lost in a daydream. In other words, the fact that you’ve noticed it means that you’ve woken back up. You had simply slipped off into a metaphorical sleep, but now you’re back.
So every time you realize that you’ve gotten lost in a stream of thought, you can just continue with the practice right where you left off. Just keep meditating as though you’d never gotten lost. Don’t make a problem out of it. Don’t draw any conclusions about the fact that you’ve gotten lost in thought. Don’t assume that it means “you’re not doing it right” or that you’re not taking your meditation seriously. You don’t need to do any of that. Just notice what’s happening, refocus, and keep going.
This approach is different from what a lot of us do. Onecommon response to getting lost in thought is to get overly involved in what we’re thinking about. Then we keep going down the rabbit hole. If we’re thinking about a difficult project at work, for example, we try to solve the problem before moving on. Then it goes on from there, and we end up being distracted the whole time. It’s a completely different response than simply realizing you’re lost in thought, and refocusing.
A lot of people think that if they’ve been distracted a lot during their meditation, then they weren’t really doing it. That’s not true. Even if your practice is punctuated by periods when you weren’t focused, it doesn’t matter. Every time you were present, you were meditating.
Let’s pretend that we had an instrument that would allow us to scientifically measure every time you were lost in thought. And let’s say that during a 30-minute session, this instrument indicated that you were meditating for a total of 17 minutes, and for the other 13 minutes you were lost in your thoughts. That’s actually not too bad. Even though you were distracted for 13 out of 30 minutes, you were actually meditating for the other 17. And even better, every time you had the chance to re-focus and become present, you did it. You didn’t give up. That’s good. It means you didn’t actually fail at all.
So, if you can consistently refocus each time you get lost, no matter how often it happens, you’ll find that your focus begins to improve. Every time you get lost, add a little more focus and intensity. Tell yourself, “I’m really going to stay focused and present this time.” With practice, you might be able to steadily increase the percentage of time you’re actually meditating.
But even if you don’t, and you keep getting distracted, you’re still getting in some good, solid meditation. And, if you can approach this in the way I’m describing here, you won’t be giving yourself any room to conclude that you’re failing. You won’t be making a problem out of it or struggling with yourself over it. You’ll be content with the fact that even though you spent some of the time lost in thought, you meditated as much as you could.
This approach strengthens your intention, your resolve, and your confidence that you can meditate, because you simply kept going, in spite of all the distraction. You didn’t give up. And that kind of resolve is ultimately more important to your awakening than whether or not you stayed perfectly focused throughout a given meditation session.
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Again and again easy and simple language that encourages people on the trail, good job, congrats to you Craig
Thank you for the time and intention put into this article! I started to meditate daily and lost motivation due to feeling inept at the experience. This really helps to shift my perspective.
That’s good to hear Craig. However I frequently have days when I can barely hold my attention on my breathing for 30 seconds before my mind wanders (usually for several minutes). So out of a 20 minute meditation I might only clock up 3 minutes of actual meditation. The question is: am I getting any benefit from that? And can I do anything to improve my attention span?
I have been meditating for almost 3 years and still haven’t reached my intention of being focused.
I wish I could.
Thank you very grateful for this article.
This has ever been a problem for me, each time I want stay focused that is when, I will start having a wandering thought. In between, I suddenly remembered that I was meditating on some.
This article is going to be a great supporter.
Thanks again.
Thank you for addressing this issue. I’ve been meditating for 6 years. Mind wanders often. I wondered if I was getting anything out of it besides relaxing and being calm afterwards.
I won’t worry about it after reading your newsletter on this. I’ll keep meditating using your suggestion..
I often am completely blank as if sleeping soundly whilst meditating. I do not hear the music or voice if a guided meditation.
I have been told that going deep is when spirit works on you. Is this true or am i being falsely reassured by my Medium teacher?
Maybe not false. When you are deeply immersed in your consciousness, you dive beyond thoughts and emotions, but also beyond your senses. Like in a sleep without dreams, but a conscious one.
Encouraging and practical help . I have found it helpful. Thank you Craig.
I am having trouble distinguishing between this type of mediation and breath meditation (Vipassana) –in both, you notice, but do not allow yourself to be captured by stray thoughts as they arise in consciousness. Is going back to the breath all that different than trying to go deeper into awareness ?
Meher Baba had said exactly the same way of handling distractions by thoughts while meditating. He had said just ignore the thinking and revert back to the meditation as soon as you realise that you are getting diverted. He says he will help us to annihilate the mind .