Meditation proving difficult - does it improve over time?

meh_

Ive been trying to get about 10 mins morning and evening lately, which as a newbie is a bit of a stretch for me. However hard I try, and however much I manage to repeat the breath cycles, I cannot maintain the focus on the breath. I either lose the concentration entirely, or maintain the concentration on the breath, but then become all internally discursive about it - and how it feels different etc. Sometimes I maintain the focus, but my mind also thinks about something else. The more I fight it, the more it kicks back.

Any ideas on how to get around this, or does it simply improve with time and practice/ longer time spent on each session.

MindGate

Don't fight. Just sit. Its okay if you lose focus. There is no good or bad meditation. Just keep at it. Over time you should become more focused, but that doesn't really matter. As long as you do it, thats what matters. As long as you know what it is to be mindful, thats what matters.

Kunga

It helped me to learn that the moment you realize you're "not doing meditation" is exactly the moment that you are doing meditation. Because you've become aware of whats going on. I think the only way to fail at meditation is to just not sit still. And i've been struggling with that one too!

fivebells

Don't focus on the breath. Rest your attention on the breath. When it drops away from the breath, patiently bring it back.

nibbuti

Hi meh_. Good advise above. Also, think of returning your attention back on the breath as if training a muscle or catching a fragile bird.

jinzang

You've got the wrong idea of what makes meditation a success. It sounds to me like your meditation is being very successful.

Mountains

No two ways about it - it's hard sometimes. My biggest obstacle is my insane schedule. If I have to be up at 0445 in order to be in the OR by 0530, I'm *not* going to get up an extra half hour early to meditate (sorry, my sleep time is very valuable). And when I get home (which may be at 1500, or 2000, it all depends) and do all the stuff I have to do before getting up at 0445 again, there simply aren't enough hours in the day. But I do what I can, when I can.

Cloud

Just like anything it improves with practice. We usually go to great lengths to avoid exercising our brain, so it takes some work! After a while all you'll have to do is close your eyes and notice your breath and almost immediately you'll have focus, stillness. Don't give up.

Linc

Yup. If you're doing it twice a day you're already doing it once more a day than I manage to

Disney

It may take at least about 3-5 years to reduce the something else of your mind to more focus on the breath cycles, and to one single-mindedness, and then enter emptiness, blissful state, followed by emptiness of blissful state till complete enlightenment :wow: Buddha bless!

buddhajunkie

what technique are you using? Are you counting breaths? Are you noting, "in breath...out breath"? Walk us through your practice.

patbb

yes it improves over time.

concentration meditation is a skill.

you don't become a great race car driver overnight, and you can expect not to be that great after the first ten minutes you try to drive a car.
so the more you practice the more you improve.

when you can, go crazy and spend 1 hour, 10 times a day staring at a dot on the wall for a couple of days or weeks. see the drastic improvement clearly.

seeker242

>However hard I try, and however much I manage to repeat the breath cycles, I cannot maintain the focus on the breath.

No problem here because that's not the point of it anyway. The point is to come back to the breath after it goes away, because it WILL go away and there is nothing you can do to stop that. If you stop trying to stop it from going away, it becomes much easier.

nibbuti

when you can, go crazy and spend 1 hour, 10 times a day staring at a dot on the wall for a couple of days or weeks. see the drastic improvement clearly.

Alternatively, try to see the pixels here or other things as composed of 'dots'. :wow: :aol:

patbb

>However hard I try, and however much I manage to repeat the breath cycles, I cannot maintain the focus on the breath.

No problem here because that's not the point of it anyway. The point is to come back to the breath after it goes away, because it WILL go away and there is nothing you can do to stop that. If you stop trying to stop it from going away, it becomes much easier.

precisely.

if your attention does not go away, you are concentrated.
this is the goal.

but to get there, you must practice to focus (as a verb, not a state).
You do this by putting the attention back on the object every times it wander away.

imagine you have a overexcited puppy and you want him to remain in a box.
Puppy keeps climbing out of a box. and run around the house.
All you have to do is put the puppy back in the box (gently) every time he get out.
Eventually you get better at it and you catch the puppy sooner and sooner;
-you catch it right after he got out of the box, before he get a chance to run around the house.
- you catch it right after he start climbing the box.
- you catch it right when he start looking at the box a certain way, before he even start to climb the box.

And eventually, the puppy calm down and stay in the box for a while. you are now concentrated.

fedaalis

imagine you have a overexcited puppy and you want him to remain in a box.
Puppy keeps climbing out of a box. and run around the house.
All you have to do is put the puppy back in the box (gently) every time he get out.
Eventually you get better at it and you catch the puppy sooner and sooner;
-you catch it right after he got out of the box, before he get a chance to run around the house.
- you catch it right after he start climbing the box.
- you catch it right when he start looking at the box a certain way, before he even start to climb the box.

And eventually, the puppy calm down and stay in the box for a while. you are now concentrated.

I like that way of putting it:)

still_learning

What works for me when I don't think I'm meditating correctly is to tell myself the things that I AM doing right.

I might say (in my head), "...well, at least I'm sitting still, I can do that." Then, later I might say,"at least I'm being quiet." Then, later: "At least I'm breathing calmly, and I'm comfortable." Next thing I know, I'm meditating and focused.

Step by step works for me.

meh_

Thanks guys, and that puppy analogy really made it clearer for me, thankyou

Theswingisyellow

meh,
It gets a lot better with time. I know the first year for me seemed to be a struggle. Lots of good advice thus far. I would say drop your expectations of what it is supposed to be. It is your minds job to generate thoughts, don't be angry or annoyed with it. It's like a barking dog or a screaming 4 year old, that their nature. It's your minds nature to generate thoughts, pick apart and dissect. When it does, gently bring your focus back to your breath. Doing this over time increases your concentration, focus and mindfullness. It's mental training. The more you do this the more your mind will incline to that peace and your commentary will begin to drop on it's own accord. This is my experience with this.
With metta,
Todd

Sumaruff

not really improve. simply becomes less of a problem.

tess

Ive been trying to get about 10 mins morning and evening lately, which as a newbie is a bit of a stretch for me. However hard I try, and however much I manage to repeat the breath cycles, I cannot maintain the focus on the breath. I either lose the concentration entirely, or maintain the concentration on the breath, but then become all internally discursive about it - and how it feels different etc. Sometimes I maintain the focus, but my mind also thinks about something else. The more I fight it, the more it kicks back.

Any ideas on how to get around this, or does it simply improve with time and practice/ longer time spent on each session.

I am glad that I am not the only one.

:banghead:

tess

meh,
It's like a barking dog or a screaming 4 year old, that their nature. It's your minds nature to generate thoughts, pick apart and dissect. With metta,
Todd

Ajahn Brahm quoted his teacher who said:

It is not the dog which disturbs your mind but it is you who disturbs the sound of barking.

I only understand this in 10% but this sentence has showed me the direction I should move .

Floating_Abu

You've got the wrong idea of what makes meditation a success. It sounds to me like your meditation is being very successful.

What this one said.

person

Meditation is like exercise for your mind. If you wanted to get strong and be able to bench press 400 pounds you'd have to start with smaller amounts and work your way up. You wouldn't just put the weights at 400 pounds from the start and go "oh well, I guess this is too hard" and quit. Its the same way trying to develop concentration, each time your mind wanders and you bring it back its like doing a rep. Eventually your mind builds up strength and it becomes easier to hold your concentration. If you do the work the results will inevitably come.