Meditation Questions – how do I deal with distractions?

There are lots of books and CDs available to help us learn to meditate, and there are many guided meditations available digitally. It seems to me, however, that people often don’t get very far because of the common instruction to ‘find a time when you are sure you won’t be disturbed.’ For those of us with families, there is often no time at all when we won’t be disturbed. So it is easy to feel that our lives just won’t support a regular meditation habit.

As well as this, I am very often asked how to deal with noise distractions when we are meditating. Few of us live in silent houses; even if there is no-one else there watching television or arguing, traffic will pass and workmen will sometimes dig up the road. How can we enjoy still silent space with all this busy noisiness going on around us?

My answer is always that distractions do not need to be a problem. First of all, if you are concerned you might be disturbed, you can practise Mind Calm, the method that I teach, anyway. Even if your three year-old only allows you two minutes of a seated meditation, that is two minutes more than you would have had if you hadn’t started at all. And if the disturbance goes away, you can start again. If it doesn’t, well, there is always another time.

As for ambient noise, in Mind Calm we learn to deal with that in just the same way as we deal with thoughts that pass through our minds. If we notice a noise, then that is a thought, but we can let the thought pass and stay present. If we notice the thought again and again, we come back to being gently alert again and again. It really is as simple as it sounds!

Furthermore, we can actually use the sounds we hear, or a noisy background, to contrast with our own inner stillness and silence. Recently I was leading a Mind Calm workshop and there were helicopters circling overhead while we were meditating in silence. We were able to notice how, just by allowing the noise to be what it was and experiencing our own silence in contrast, such an intrusion could even be beneficial. Of course, we would hope not to have helicopters too often though!

And then there is my own example of meditating on a busy Underground train. One of the most beautiful Mind Calm sittings I have ever experienced was while I was travelling to London during my training as a Mind Calm Coach. I found that the noise, the movement and all the people around me made me more conscious than I had ever been before of my own inner stillness. It was a truly wonderful experience.

So, if you ever put off meditating because of concerns that you will be disturbed or distracted, don’t let it stop you any more! And if you would like to find out how we practise dealing with everyday noisy distractions in Mind Calm, come to one of my workshops and I will show you how. Although the venues are always very special and calm, they are rarely completely silent and this is a good thing because when you go home you will be meditating in the real world. When we hear people talking, traffic passing or music playing, we use it as an opportunity to practise staying in awareness and letting our thoughts pass. Come and join us and you will see that it really works.