Meditation, not so easy for me

Never an easy thing to do at all. I did listen to a therapist on the radio one night who said we should only meditate for short periods at a time. Mainly because we tend to think more in the silence it brings with it. That can make us think of bad things. They do use meditation to find the root cause of a lot of problems these days. They know when a person meditates the things they will probably think of most of all is their own issues. Would be a bit like a guided meditation, only after 5 minutes you would be asked are you thinking anything at all? So listening to this therapist it was very clear that these so called 30 minute sessions don't do us any good at all. They will simply bombard us with a lot of negative junk. How true all this is I can't say. But as it came from a therapist, there might be some truth behind it.

As for myself and meditation? My mind would stray. I prefer music. Were it doesn't matter if the mind does stray or not. You are simply giving the body a few minutes off. The songs can distract the mind. Case of finding the right kind of music. Somebody once told me to listen to Jack Johnson. The man has many chilled out albums.. Real beach music. But slow. As I live in Ireland I had never heard of him before. Not exactly a big name over this side of the World. Have all his albums now. He is my relaxing man. As all other forms of guided meditations and the likes never worked for me at all.

I use an app called Headspace. There’s a free version but you can also purchase it but it gives you the option of guided meditations from like 3 minutes up to 20 for some. I find my mind strays but with the guided mediation I find it a little easier to recognize when my thoughts wander from the breathing. Also like Cuchculan mentioned, music helps just the same for me. A set of headphones and off we go.

I think you are missing the overall purpose of meditating. Everyone's brain makes noise when they meditate the purpose is actually to pull yourself away from the thoughts and back to your breathing. Even monks who have practiced meditation for decades still experience thoughts during.

Meditation will teach you how to be unattached from your thoughts. It's just practice of being in your body while your thoughts play their tricks. Eventually after a lot of practice you will take this skill into other parts of your life and find that you are calmer and more accepting of thoughts that would usually cause you to have anxiety.

Just keep turning your attention back to your breathing and the sensation of being in your own body. Don't put pressure to be thoughtless during meditation, that is a perfectionist goal that is unattainable.

If you want to measure whether you are benefiting from the meditation get a way to monitor your heart rate. Check your heart rate after you meditate for at least 10 minutes. If you are effectively relaxing your BPM should drop below your normal resting rate. Mine typically goes down to 54 bpm which is usually the same rate I get to when I sleep. I use my Fitbit watch for this purpose and it works great.