There are four main roadblocks to meditation:
1. Sleep
This is one of the most common obstacles. We lead busy lives and sleep deprivation is common. It is natural to fall asleep in such circumstances. You must make sure that you are well rested with adequate sleep. Also meditate at least 3 hours after a meal. Meditate after a bath or wash your hands, feet, and face with cold water. Do not meditate when excessively tired. Start initially with a short meditation session of 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Distraction
It is not unusual to feel distracted with a constant flow of thoughts. One feels difficult to sit still and focus the mind. If this happens the best course is to do a round of relaxing yoga practice followed by 10 minutes of breathing exercise to elongate your breath. This should allow you to feel relaxed and centered and allow you to focus your mind. Avoid stimulants like tea or coffee, and excessive spicy or sugary food.
3. Dullness
In some instances the mind does not feel sleepy or distracted but instead it feels dull. A round of energetic yoga practice before meditation should help in such circumstances. Sometimes dullness may be a result of suppressed feelings and you may have to persist with your meditation practice to allow it to work itself out. It may also help to share your feelings with somebody or write them on paper. Devotion and submission to a Divine power also helps.
4. Tasting Tranquility
This is a very subtle form of obstacle to achieving deeper meditation. Sometimes we get a taste of tranquility or some higher conscious experience. We then either remained trapped at this level or we want to try and replicate this experience. The best way to meditate is to do it with complete and total submission and free yourself from all expectations. Treat all experiences as gifts or blessings and avoid forming any kind of mental model to frame your experience into words.
Wayne Dyer once said, “I am a human being, not a human doing.” Meditation is something that allows us to go from doing to being. This article shows how to remove roadblocks to meditation and return to become human beings.
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Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah. This is based on an article by Swāmi Paramārthānanda and has been modified and adapted by the author.