Most people report the hardest thing about meditation is setting aside the time to do it. A close second is probably distractions – things we see as interrupting or interfering with our meditation practice.
What are some things that might be distractions for you during meditation?
- Pets: Your dog or cat might ignore you all day—until you sit down to meditate.
- People: Claims on your attention by children or partners while you are trying to meditate.
- The Mind: A stressful day or challenging situation that has you postponing your practice until things settle down.
- Temperature: The space being too cold or too hot.
- Your Phone: Calls coming in, text messages dinging or vibrating.
- Your Thoughts: If you are not used to sitting in “silence”, it can be quite freaky to notice all the activity going on up there.
- Noises/Sounds: People outside talking, laughing, mowing, and leaf blowing; people in the room with you who are snoring, coughing, wiggling around.
- Body Sensations: That itch, full bladder, twinge in knee, growling stomach.
- Emotions/Feelings: The boredom, irritation, anger, sadness that may surface.
Some of these, we can do something about. We can turn off the phone, let our significant other know they have the kids for 20 minutes, or find a time and place to meditate where we are less likely to be interrupted. And all the other stuff, we can learn to accept – or at least incline toward them with acceptance.
Tara Brach, in her book Radical Acceptance, really brings us back to the essence of mindfulness practice with this: It doesn’t matter what is happening. What matters is how we are relating to the experience
That said, for many of us, distractions leave us feeling a bit frustrated and questioning how we can possibly stay focused during meditation with so much going on. It is important to know that everyone gets distracted during meditation — even people who’ve been meditating for years. So, if you find yourself feeling frustrated or angry about distractions that arise during meditation, gently remind yourself that each moment of distraction is an invitation to meditate.
In general, any frustration or anger we feel about something likely stems from wanting things to be other than they are. We have lots of thoughts rolling around in our head about how things should be and how we want or expect them to be, right? And we especially notice this when we sit down to meditate! But, here’s the thing. Most of us do not meditate to become a great meditator. We meditate to move through life with a bit more ease.
So, when distractions arise during meditation, you have just been given a gift. You have been given the opportunity to see your habitual thought and behavior patterns – these pervasive preferences and reactions through which we filter everything! These patterns alter the way we meet the moment and ultimately affect how we move through life. Each distraction offers you an opportunity to release that tight grasp on needing things to be different than they are in this moment.
Over time, these things we call distractions, will no longer be distractions. Yes, they will still be there; life and the noise of life still go on. But the way we relate to them will change. Instead of pulling us from our practice, they will become part of our practice. They will become something that can help deepen our meditation practice rather than take us away from it.
Sarah McLean, in her book The Power of Attention, explains it this way. A vital part of developing a deep meditation practice is cultivating awareness of attention. At the same time, we are also building sensitivity to distraction. In other words, we will start to notice all the different ways we get distracted in meditation. Oddly, while we are cultivating an awareness of where our attention is, what we become aware of is that our attention is all over the place!
The upside to this is we humans can track where our attention is pointing, moment by moment. In addition to knowing when our attention is focused on the object of our meditation (breath, sound, mantra), we also notice when the mind wanders and to what it has wandered. This is the normal cycle of attention that occurs during meditation. At the end of each cycle, we get to choose to reorient our attention back to the focus of the meditation. Over and over again!
Basically, when we meditate, we are tracking where our attention is pointing moment by moment. If you are meditating with your focus on the sensations of breathing, most of your attention is absorbed in that. But not all of it. There is also some modicum of attention that is making sure that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing – paying attention to the breath. So, when you meditate, you will either be focused on the breath or noticing that your attention has wandered to something else. From this vantagepoint, there really are no distractions. There is just the sensation or object that you have decided to focus on and then there is everything else.
If you are focused on the desired object? Good. Keep going. If your attention has moved to something else? Good. Bring your attention back to the desired object. In either case, attention or distraction, you are still cultivating the power of awareness. From this perspective, nothing is a distraction. It is all just fuel to cultivate your awareness.
Channeling Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hahn, ideally, we land at a place where there are no longer any distractions anywhere in the world. There are only things that help to deepen our meditation practice – things that deepen our experience of life.
And, after all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
Janet
Sources & Resources:
The Power of Attention: Awaken to Love and Its Unlimited Potential with Meditation by Sarah McLean;
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach