If you’re bad at focusing on stuff, you must be bad at meditating, right? If it’s already a struggle to power through work or school material, wouldn’t it be even harder to power through meditation, which is like, focusing on the breath for 10 minutes or something?

As a meditation instructor, I often come across the interesting notion that meditators exist in a perpetual state of serenity, Zen-like calmness, and unwavering relaxation. This is interesting because it is simply not true.

The one reason why meditation doesn’t work for you may be simple - it’s because you’re not a monk, but trying to meditate like one. Simply put, the meditation practices that were designed to benefit a monk may not be the practices that benefit us.