8 Reasons Why Mindfulness Doesn’t Work for Most People
Today I will be talking about a few reasons due to which mindfulness doesn’t work for a lot of people. In the past few posts I have been talking about mindfulness and since I am well aware that many people find it impossible to make use of this method, here I will be making a list of the common hindrances that one may find in this path which makes people think that they cannot practice this form of meditation.
I have been practicing mindfulness for a very long time and I have been writing posts on it since the beginning of this blog. I have discovered that there are a lot of mental barriers which makes it difficult for us to practice this technique and I have received many emails from my readers which gave me a better idea about why many people fail to make proper use of the mindfulness exercises.
Here are the common reasons due to which people fail in practicing mindfulness meditation:-
1 – They Don’t Understand It
One of the biggest problems I experience while explaining mindfulness to someone is that people usually fail to understand the mindfulness technique and they form their own notions about it. In most cases, I recommend some programs or books to them but even after going through the books they still don’t get what they have to do exactly. I remember once I recommended the book by Eckhart Tolle “The Power of Now” to one of my readers and she replied that she had already tried it and it is not possible for her to live like a dead thing.
That is crazy because mindfulness is about living in the moment and that lady had this weird idea that practicing mindfulness makes you inactive.
2 – I Can’t Do It
This is what I hear a lot of times when I write posts on mindfulness. People believe that they are not capable of practicing something like this and they stop trying just because they have failed a few times. The problem with us is that our mind finds a way to escape from such things as it challenges our ego.
Getting lost in thoughts and bringing oneself back into the “now” moment is a part of this whole process but, unfortunately many people don’t understand it and they quit too soon.
3 – It Is Too Difficult
Mindfulness is the most basic and simplest form of meditation, yet people think that it is too difficult. That belief alone is what causes them to fail in doing it properly. All you have to do is to watch your thoughts and observe your feelings without getting involved in it but our mind tends to complicate this process by telling us that we are not doing it correctly and that is what makes it difficult for people to practice mindfulness.
4 – Intention
Before you practice mindfulness you must be aware of your intention behind using this method and what you expect from this process decides whether you will be a successful mindfulness practitioner or not.
Mindfulness is an essential tool that you can use to achieve the peace of mind in all kinds of situations. It improves your clarity of mind and thus helps you to make better decisions in life. Mindfulness also gets you closer to your higher self which leads you to take actions to achieve what you truly want in your life. But people make a mistake of expecting a lot more than just peace of mind from such methods from the very beginning and they get discouraged when they don’t see those results.
5 – Priority
Anything that you do in your life requires persistence which only comes from the importance that you give to that particular task. If your emotional well-being is not your first priority in your life, then you will lack the determination that is needed to achieve success with a practice like mindfulness meditation.
6 – Boring
I remember a video of Eckhart where he explained this particular fact by saying “mind does not find the spiritual practices interesting because “interesting” is a “mental thing”. When you are watching the activities of your mind, your ego finds it intimidating and starts to come up with as many reasons as possible to stop you from doing it. “This is not interesting” is a common excuse that your mind will use to distract you but you will have to be alert and observe this boredom as well just like any other thought.
7 – Discipline
Lack of discipline is one of the main causes due to which we fail to make use of any particular method that is good for our physical or mental health. Even if it is a few minutes during the day, you need to develop a habit of following the decided schedule regularly. You must understand the importance of this meditation well enough that you keep on finding time to do it a couple of times during your day.
8 – Consistency
It does not matter if you have practiced mindfulness meditation or any other spiritual method for years, if you don’t treat every new day like the first day of your practice you will not be progressive. Mindfulness has to become your second nature and for that you will have to be consistent with the method as much as possible. If anywhere down the lane you develop a belief that you are already good at it then your mind will succeed to trap you into the prison once again and all your efforts will become futile unless you realize that your spiritual journey begins from the starting point in every moment.
If you are just beginning to use mindfulness methods or you are too busy to find time for it, then I recommend you to use the “7 Minutes Mindfulness Program” that uses short guided meditation audios to help you practice mindfulness even when you are following a very busy schedule.
I have used the term “ego” a few times in this post and since every individual have their own definition of that word, here’s a video from Eckhart Tolle where he explains this better:-
I hope you liked this post. I would love to hear your views about this, so please do leave me a comment in the box below.
You can send your emails using the contact page, I will be more than happy to help you with any of your issues.
If this post was useful to you then please spread the word by sharing it on your online social networks.
