5 Myths About Meditation That Will Ruin Your Mindfulness

I’ve been meditating for over six years now.

Along the way, with its countless ups and downs, I heard many weird things about one of the oldest mindfulness practices . During this time, I met many people who said they couldn’t make meditation part of their daily routine.

They were all wrong. Why?

Because there are certain myths about meditation, that need debunking.

Meditation must be long to be effective

Save yourself some time.

Before I started meditating, I believed it was something for a Himalayan monk, but nothing for an average Joe like you and me. I believed you’d need to sit still for hours at a time.

I was wrong , as so many still are. Meditation doesn’t require you to sit still for hours. To be precise: it doesn’t even require sitting still, but I’ll come to that later.

Meditation requires you to be mindful.

You can do this within 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 2 hours, or even 8 hours. Currently, I’m meditating for 10 minutes every single morning. My goal is to get to 30 minutes every morning.

But you can (and should) start with a single minute. Set a timer, sit down, close your eyes, and focus for 60 seconds on your breathing. Repeat this for a couple of days.

You’ll see how you’ll feel better.

Meditation doesn’t require a certain timeframe to be effective. Instead, it requires consistency.

You must clear your mind completely when meditating

I’ve been doing this wrong for months .

When I started meditating, I thought I needed to think about nothing. And because I couldn’t achieve it, I felt like a complete loser.

This feeling added up, making it even more difficult to meditate the next time. Months passed, in which I asked myself what I was doing there, sitting down in the morning, unable to clear my mind.

But I was wrong all along.

Only when I spoke to other people with a meditating habit, did I realize it was never about clearing your mind. But always about being mindful , of what comes to your mind.

Be smarter from the start. Don’t think you need to clear your mind when meditating. Instead, focus on your breathing and let thoughts arise and pass.

Be mindful of what you think.

Meditation is a religious practice

Again, I’ve been guilty of that.

When I was younger, I thought meditation was just a different form of prayer. I’m not baptized, which means I went to church more often as a tourist than as a faithful believer. That’s why linking meditation to religion made me wonder if it could ever be a fit.

It took my Ethics teacher, who explained that it was never about religion, but about us being more mindful.

Meditation isn’t about religion.

You don’t even need to be or become part of something to meditate. You don’t need to pay money to meditate (not even to buy fancy cushions or whatnot). You just need to meditate.

Meditation isn’t religious, but you can practice it religiously.

Good meditators never feel restless or distracted

Around the time I started meditating, I had a girlfriend.

My back then father-in-law had a friend, who had done it all. He aced high school, his bachelor’s, and his master’s became a renowned engineer working overseas in South America.

Only to quit just after he had turned 40, learned meditation and yoga, and pursued a different, more mindful path in life.

I was torn between admiring his courage and thinking he was stupid. Back then, I was all into my dual-study program, thinking I’d be pursuing a big career .

Either way, I was mesmerized.

He had such a calm way of speaking, it seemed like with every word wisdom poured out of him. It was awesome and because I just started meditating, I thought this could be what you’ll achieve when you reach Grandmaster Senior Special Level.

But then, one day, we had a barbecue at my girlfriend’s house. He had a beer (which he usually declined) and all of a sudden, he was rambling about his full schedule. Just like every average dude would.

No, he didn’t go full berserk, but I realized that besides his advanced ability in terms of meditation, he’s just a human being, after all.

Long story short: even good meditators feel stressed and distracted because they’re only human beings. But they feel way less stressed than the average person does, and their level of resilience is higher. Which makes meditation still worth it.

Don’t meditate to avoid any stress. Meditate to handle stress better .

There is only one right way to meditate

Oh boy.

Again, I don’t blame you, for thinking this. I was thinking like that, too .

But once you understand what meditation is all about, you know you can make almost anything a meditative practice. No, I’m not kidding.

Meditation was never about sitting still, closing your eyes, and focusing only on your breathing. It was about being in this given moment.

This means that you can make almost anything a meditation

• Being mindful while washing your dishes? Check.
• Being mindful while walking through a park? Check.
• Being mindful while swimming in a lake? Check.

Meditation is closer than you think.

It has many faces. Some of which you like, some of which you don’t. For me, sitting still with closed eyes works, so as looking at large quantities of water.

But you do you .

Choose whatever meditation works best for you.

Meditation is still a mystery to many people. However, it doesn’t have to be if you realize:

• it doesn’t need to be hours long
• you don’t have to empty your mind
• it’s not religious
• you won’t cut distraction or stress out of your life, but you’ll reduce it
• there are many ways to meditate

Thanks for reading.

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