Challenges & How We Deal With Them

[MelliOBrien]

I think we can learn alot from eachothers experiences. So I'd love to know...What challenges do you face in your mindfulness practice? How do you deal with them?

[JonW]

Jon Kabat-Zinn says that mindfulness is simple but it's not easy.
For me, the only challenge lies in maintaining my daily practice. There are days when I don't feel like meditating. I don't give myself a hard time about that, but I do gently notice when my practice is slipping a bit.
The fact is that I'm acutely aware that, if I maintain my practice, my life is immeasurably happier and calmer.
Just that really.
Or, if you prefer, just this...

[Gareth]

There are days when I don't feel like meditating.

I see this all the time, and I find it quite strange because it has never, ever been a thing for me.

There are days when the nature of the day just doesn't lend itself to taking myself away for a period of time, but it's very rare.

I'm trying to think of a practice challenge, but I honestly can't think of one. I think I am just lucky and meditation seems so very natural to me. Sometimes, I'm interrupted by a child wanting it's nose wiping or similar, but to be honest, I find that just enriches the meditation.

[JonW]

There are days when I don't do "formal" sitting meditation. But I can be found at the beach or the park three or four times a day (with Banjo) where I engage with nature. Also I read voraciously and 90% of my reading is about mindfulness, meditation, Zen etc.
It's all a meditation for me these days.
My general mood might be best described as "quiet joy". Two years ago, pre-mindfulness, I would best have been described as "a coiled spring" with a mind like a chicken on a hotplate.
Thank you, mindfulness.

[MelliOBrien]

Thanks for your replies guys.

"Quiet Joy" - Jon, thats a wonderful description of what I have found as well. Then at times it can ramp up to an ecstatic sacred sense of connectedness with all life and a deep sense that everything is perfect as it is. In those times I have even fallen to my knee's and wept in joy. They have been the most wonderful moments of my life. Then at other times the quiet joy is there in the background even as I am going through outer turmoil. Quiet joy means wholeness is there even in the middle of anger or grief or stress.

I love being connected to people who are experiencing the same thing. It's really so nurturing.

Challenges for me in the practice - well I think it would be a similar one to many who practice. Finding a balance between concentrating to hard and being softened but alert - thats my major challenge. I like to think of the word 'vivid' as the ideal state of mindfulness for me - vivid attention which is relaxed but alert. Sometimes it can be a real balancing act maintaining vivid mindfulness and I slip away with the minds wanderings.

Then I gently but firmly come back as many times as needed!

[JonW]

"Quiet Joy...Then at times it can ramp up to an ecstatic sacred sense of connectedness with all life and a deep sense that everything is perfect as it is. In those times I have even fallen to my knee's and wept in joy. They have been the most wonderful moments of my life. Then at other times the quiet joy is there in the background even as I am going through outer turmoil. Quiet joy means wholeness is there even in the middle of anger or grief or stress."
This has been my experience in a nutshell. Immersing myself in the teachings of Nisargardatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi has definitely helped.
Good things,
Jon, Hove

[MelliOBrien]

Hi Jon,

Yes me too. I have been devouring all kinds of spiritual texts for the past 15 years and I must say they have had a profound effect. Notably Ramana and Nisargardatta too as well as Eckhart Tolle, Lao Tzu, Gaganji, The Bagavad Gita, Byron Katie, Alan Watts, Steve Taylor. Beautiful works!

Warmly, Melli