Five misconceptions about meditation
Sit back comfortably. Notice how your body is contacting the surface. Relax your shoulders. Gently close your eyes and bring your attention to breathing. Breathe in. Breathe out.
No. This is not for me. This practice is too difficult to understand.
This is taking up too much my time and there are no results.
You have to be a specific person for this to work for you.
Isn’t this a religious practice?
This is what I hear when I suggest meditation to the people around me when they ask for advice on how to deal with stress or anxiety. Meditation is not easy. Yes, it takes from your time and energy but many people are quick to judge it is not worth it. There are many misconceptions surrounding meditation and mindfulness that are making it difficult for people to approach the practice and progress in it. Here are some of them:
To meditate, you have to sit for a long time in the same position
In specific places like Ashrams and retreats, people might meditate for hours straight. However, long meditation is not suitable for most people and this assumption leads them into thinking they will never have the time to include it in their schedules, but there are different types of meditation, some taking no more than 15 minutes. People can now download apps for guided meditation. Headspace is one of them and it offers five, ten- or fifteen-minute sessions designed to help people adopt meditation as a healthy habit without giving up much of their time. Meditation also allows people to approach different positions of the body while meditating including sitting down, laying, or even standing straight.
Meditation is difficult to understand
This practice dates back from 1,500 BCE and it is complex as it deals with the inner levels of consciousness which is difficult to explain. This is why many people believe meditation is too difficult to understand. In its core, meditation allows the person to get to know their inner self, get comfortable with their thoughts and emotions and everything just grows from thereon. This practice, however, is more physical than people think and just like other physical activities, it is meant to be mastered with practice. The understanding comes from within and people tend to get more comfortable with meditation the more they practice it. The first and only step to breaking this misconception is to try meditation and be open to the idea of it. Everything else will follow.
It takes years to notice benefits
People are often put off by the idea of meditation because they believe it would take several years for them to see any benefits which makes them resistant to commit to the challenge. Commitment is vital when approaching a new practice and with enough enthusiasm, people might be surprised by how fast they can start seeing the difference. According to Sara Lazar and her colleagues from Harvard University meditation is capable of altering the structure of the human brain. In just two months of practicing, ‘’Meditation can increase the [function of the] hippocampus, form a brain network that supports diverse forms of self-projection including remembering the past, thinking about the future and conceiving the viewpoint of others.’’
Meditation means going into a trance and ignoring reality
It is common for people to think that meditation means sitting down with their legs crossed and their mouth saying ‘’Oommmm’’ until they transcend into mind blankness and bliss. In reality, meditation requires the full presence of the person’s mind, and people who meditate tend to be more aware of everything around them including sounds, movement, and even their thoughts. With practice, during meditation people tend to learn to just register everything around them but not giving it the chance to interrupt the session.
Meditation is a religious practice
There is a general misconception that meditation is practiced strictly by people who are religious and the practice requires the person to believe in a god. Meditation indeed has Buddhist and Hinduist roots and meditation is still practiced in those religions. However, nowadays with the more modern ways of meditation, people are free to practice it without believing in a god.
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Emanuela Kerencheva is a Sophomore student at AUBG majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications and Business Administration. She is a beginner mindfulness enthusiast.
