A few days back, I had some trouble as I was meditating: my mind started to wander.
First I started thinking about work. What I did, what I have to do which I hadn't done... which naturally led to the thoughts about my career, my dreams, my aspirations... wait a minute, where am I again?
Back to the breath.
A couple of breaths later, again my mind wandered off... I can't remember what else I was thinking of.
This repeated itself a couple of times, and I started to wonder what was going on: I wasn't tired (which is my usual reason for being unable to stay with the breath), but neither was I super restless... my body was also quite calm. So what is the cause for this inability to stay with the breath?
I realized I was bored. Bored with the breath. My mind didn't want to focus on the breath, because it was bored as hell. Yes, it was fault finding. But fault-finding about a fault-finding doesn't help: it just stirs shit up in your head, which makes it worse.
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There are various ways to overcome boredom, but I think there are two fundamental ways:
- Do something different:
You can try a different meditation method or subject. For instance, if you usually do breath meditation, you can try metta meditation instead. Or if you usually focus on the breath, you can try visualising a kasina (a coloured disc). Or try walking meditation. You could also take a break, before going back to meditate.
- Stick to the same thing, but change how you perceive it:
More important than what you focus on or what you do, it's often important to ask yourself how you're doing it. More likely than not, if you're bored, it's because you're not valuing the thing you're focusing on.
Ajahn Brahm said to me once: it's hard to focus on the breath but somehow no guy seems to have difficulty focusing on the TV! Why does our mind wander when we focus on the breath, but not when the World Cup is on telly? It's because we don't value the breath as much as TV programmes. When you place more value on the meditation subject, it becomes much easier for your mind to stay on the meditation subject.
One simple way to do so is to just focus on one breath at a time. This is something that I heard from some friends (Rong Hui and Yin Hwa), who quoted Chade Meng from Google sharing this at a Singapore event. I decided to try this method, and it worked.
Imagine that each breath is your last, or tell yourself "just this breath": it becomes a lot easier to stay with the breath, if you focus on one breath at a time. (Note: you don't have to force yourself to breathe intentionally or forcefully, but just observe it.)
Instead of telling yourself "I'm going to meditate for fifteen/twenty/sixty minutes", it's a lot easier to just focus on each breath at one time.
Just like the old joke ("how do you eat an elephant?" Answer: one bite at a time), except you're less likely to get indigestion by meditating one breath at a time.
First I started thinking about work. What I did, what I have to do which I hadn't done... which naturally led to the thoughts about my career, my dreams, my aspirations... wait a minute, where am I again?
Back to the breath.
A couple of breaths later, again my mind wandered off... I can't remember what else I was thinking of.
This repeated itself a couple of times, and I started to wonder what was going on: I wasn't tired (which is my usual reason for being unable to stay with the breath), but neither was I super restless... my body was also quite calm. So what is the cause for this inability to stay with the breath?
I realized I was bored. Bored with the breath. My mind didn't want to focus on the breath, because it was bored as hell. Yes, it was fault finding. But fault-finding about a fault-finding doesn't help: it just stirs shit up in your head, which makes it worse.
---
There are various ways to overcome boredom, but I think there are two fundamental ways:
- Do something different:
You can try a different meditation method or subject. For instance, if you usually do breath meditation, you can try metta meditation instead. Or if you usually focus on the breath, you can try visualising a kasina (a coloured disc). Or try walking meditation. You could also take a break, before going back to meditate.
- Stick to the same thing, but change how you perceive it:
More important than what you focus on or what you do, it's often important to ask yourself how you're doing it. More likely than not, if you're bored, it's because you're not valuing the thing you're focusing on.
Ajahn Brahm said to me once: it's hard to focus on the breath but somehow no guy seems to have difficulty focusing on the TV! Why does our mind wander when we focus on the breath, but not when the World Cup is on telly? It's because we don't value the breath as much as TV programmes. When you place more value on the meditation subject, it becomes much easier for your mind to stay on the meditation subject.
One simple way to do so is to just focus on one breath at a time. This is something that I heard from some friends (Rong Hui and Yin Hwa), who quoted Chade Meng from Google sharing this at a Singapore event. I decided to try this method, and it worked.
Imagine that each breath is your last, or tell yourself "just this breath": it becomes a lot easier to stay with the breath, if you focus on one breath at a time. (Note: you don't have to force yourself to breathe intentionally or forcefully, but just observe it.)
Instead of telling yourself "I'm going to meditate for fifteen/twenty/sixty minutes", it's a lot easier to just focus on each breath at one time.
Just like the old joke ("how do you eat an elephant?" Answer: one bite at a time), except you're less likely to get indigestion by meditating one breath at a time.
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