Snippets from a Meditation Course - Weeks 3 Through 10

#163

What happens when you lose the motivation to meditate? 

That used to happen frequently, now it's more exciting than boring, since I've spent so much time analyzing the why. Weeks 3 through 10 covered a variety of topics. One of them was the loss of motivation as a common obstacle. When you first begin to meditate, it is new, strange, exciting, and promises extraordinary benefits. Later, meditation may seem like an unpleasant chore.

The primary antidote to this is finding inspiration all around you. Read meditation books, listen to others' experiences after they have meditated for a while. Dive deeper into all the benefits that meditation provides - for the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Find a group to meditate with, the buddy system usually works well for such things. To iterate learnings from the first week, maintain a meditation notebook and look through your experience with meditation to re-inspire yourself. 

There are other ways to get back on track too - force yourself to sit in a meditative posture. Before starting the session, stretch your neck up and down, sideways, and in a circular motion. Stretch your arms, rotate your wrists, force a smile, and massage your face. You'll notice you've gained a tad bit of energy to begin meditating. If it's the other way round where you're too excited to calmly sit and meditate, take deep breaths and exhale with your mouth as slowly as possible. Do this a couple of times to relax your mind and muscles.