Meditation’s not necessarily going to be easy or pleasant. You may find that you’re sitting with a chaotic mind, or that you’re falling asleep, or that you have physical discomfort. And there can be a tendency to label those times as “bad” meditations.
If that happens to you, I have two sayings that you might find useful:
- “Any meditation you can walk away from is a good meditation.”
- “The only bad meditation is the one you didn’t do.”
It’s the doing of the practice that’s the main thing; whether or not there was pleasure present isn’t that important.
Ironically, though, the less you worry about whether your meditation is pleasant or not and the more you just get on with doing it, the more likely it is that your meditation will be pleasurable. Life’s funny that way.
Just do it. It may not be easy, but it changes you in ways that make your life more meaningful, rich, connected, and (at times at least) joyful.