Are you bad at meditating? So is everyone. The mind wanders because that is its job. Meditation is not quieting it, it is noticing you have gone and coming back.

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When I started, I thought meditation was sit down, be quiet, no thoughts, pure bliss. It lasted about 30 seconds. Then a teacher gave me the only instruction that ever worked: just sit and do nothing. His version had four letters. Your body knows how to breathe and your mind knows how to go quiet. The job is getting out of their way. Think of a snow globe. To settle the snow you do nothing, you just watch, and life will shake it up again anyway. Every time the mind wanders it is a happy accident, as Bob Ross would say. Smile, say thank you mind, and come back.

One thing to try: Get somewhere five minutes early and just sit in the car. Each time you catch the mind off in a story, smile, say thank you mind, and come back to what you can hear and feel. Five minutes, twice a day.

In this episode

• (0:03) Winnie the Pooh, and why meditation is doing nothing on purpose
• (1:19) The only instruction that ever worked: just sit and do nothing (his had four letters)
• (2:22) The snow globe. To settle the snow, you do nothing
• (3:45) You're being thought. What's your next thought going to be?
• (4:23) We're all terrible meditators, and why that is fine
• (5:47) Bob Ross and the happy accident
• (9:24) 178 podcasts and I've yet to find the one little thing that fixes everything
• (13:15) Calvin and Hobbes, do a bit more nothing, and five minutes in the car

With gratitude to

Jess, David, Angi, Jeroen, Jose and Jill, Helen, Tracey, Carol, Hayden, Sarafena, Cheryl and Strength from Within Yoga, and new monthly supporter Rowan

The companion meditation: Nothing to Get Right: A Peace Meditation With Little Instruction

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Thank you for listening.

Steven

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