10 Reasons Not to Meditate

Instead of feeling bad about not meditating, why not just confirm that it’s not for you once and for all? Here are 10 reasons why you can kick the cushion to the curb, tag your photos #dontneedmeditation, and do something better with your time.

10. All of Your Relationships are Harmonious

You hold no grudges and no resentments. Every interaction is honest, open, and clear. If maybe that's not totally true, a compassion meditation practice is a great place to identify tight spots in the heart and mind, unravel old wounds, and clear fresh ones before they stick.

9. You Are Never Distracted

You have never read several pages and wonder what the heck you just read. You never sit down to work and end up watching cat videos. If you do, you're not alone. Mindful meditation practices invite us to play with focusing our attention, and therefore become more aware of when our mind has wandered. This self-witnessing, sometimes referred to as meta-awareness, improves our skill of drawing our attention back to the task at hand.

8. All of Your Life Has Meaning and Purpose

Not just your primary work, but engagement in all of life’s seemingly mundane tasks, like dishes and laundry, feels integrated into your being. The path of the bodhisattva and the meditations designed to cultivate bodhicitta, awakened mind, directly hook us up to the very powerful call to assist in relieving suffering for all beings.

7. Your Action, Speech, and Thoughts Match

You do what you say, and you say what you think. There are no inconsistencies between the three. A meditation practice helps us be aware of where we are out of alignment in ourselves and what steps we might need to take to reduce the inefficiencies of not being on the same team internally.

6. You Never Feel Anxious

You are never caught in a storm of high-level stress, obsessing about every detail, and so overwhelmed you feel like you cannot breath. Meditation has been clinically proven to help create a sense of peace and ease even in the face of very real difficulties.

Practice: Yoga for Anxiety

5. You Are Never Depressed

You never find yourself barely able to function without clear cause. Certain meditation techniques that assist in loosening our fixed concrete identity can help change the story of who we are, especially reducing our conviction that we are alone.

4. You Always Get a Good Night’s Sleep

You barely remember lying in bed for more than a few moments because you fall asleep so quickly. You wake-up refreshed and ready for the day. Not the case? Think of meditation like a dog park where your mind has a chance to run wild a little before coming to rest. Establishing a routine bedtime meditation practice where your mind can go free-range before you try to sleep works wonders.

3. Your Posture Is Impeccable

Your back is never tired at the end of the day. You have no special needs to support your lumbar spine, and you’ve never experienced neck tension. A seated meditation practice will help tone and strengthen the small little postural muscles of your spine. Learning how to balance your skull properly will reduce the workload on the neck and upper back. Tuning into the subtler energies and currents of your central channel will connect you to a deep support system.

2. You Are Easily Creative

New and big ideas come naturally. Your mind's ability to connect the unconnected is easy and clear. If this feels far-fetched, the practices meditation have continually proven to assist in freeing up the tight spots in the mind that might be keeping us from seeing the big picture.

1. Patience Is Your Thing

All of your friends, coworkers, and family members will agree that you have infinite patience. You don’t rush or hurry anyone along, and you don’t even mind traffic. You're alone on this one! Patience is considered to be one of the greatest virtues in most spiritual practices. Sitting down and practicing being with yourself is one of the most effective methods of strengthening this muscle.

Breath Awareness Meditation