10 Misunderstandings of Meditation

By Gabe Petersen

10 Misunderstandings of Meditation

Along my self-improvement journey, I have picked up a lot of things from different sources that have helped shape how I practice healthcare for myself - the medicine in this case being routines, habits, and practices and avoiding unnecessary substances (I can’t seem to get over coffee though). One of these helpful practices that I have learned to really enjoy is meditation. When bringing this up in conversation, I notice that mediation has almost a social taboo around it - similar to talking about religion or politics. I am disappointed by this because there are a lot of misunderstandings that have been propagated in our generations on what meditation is. I want to spread the word about the benefits and help people understand that it is merely a tool that everyone has access to in their mental workshop.

(Note: If you would like to skip this and go directly to the scientific evidence on the benefits of meditation, go to the last misconception at the end of this article)

There seem to be a lot of people that associate meditation with a certain social group. You know the stereotype: the hippy, granola-eating, van lyfe, harem pants, etc… Nothing against people who do that - I have been tempted to take a break from the usual life and experience a living-in-a-van down by the river journey for a year. Regardless of this perception of meditation, it might surprise you how many people meditate now and the trend of its growth. It is hard to gather data on who in the world has meditated in a given time frame, but they say approximately 14% of U.S. adults practiced meditation in 2017 compared to 4% in 2012.

Also more concerning, I have noticed that for people trying it for the first time, there are a lot of misconceptions people have. Unfortunately, when people expect things to happen and they don’t, then they will give up - and it is completely valid and logical to think that. When people are not able to see the positive results in other people that a practice has provided, it is harder to justify taking time out to practice anything. Similar to exercising, if we don’t see the benefits, why would we do it? It is up to us to remove misinformation that the unknown inherently creates. The most productive way is to help inform others that the experience is intended to be a unique and individual journey. This is so we can remove the generalizations on what the practice is or is not to others. Here are the misconceptions about meditations that I have noticed:

1. Meditation is Only a Spiritual Practice

Although the first written mention of meditation itself was mentioned in the Vedas, the earliest religious texts of Hinduism, the practice has been incorporated as a practice across most religions and as an agnostic ritual. Sufism, Taoism, Budhism, Christianity, Judaism and many others have practiced it for their spiritual benefit. The Greeks were an early example of a Western culture that incorporated meditation into their practices of introspection known as “Melete". These, along with the studies on the benefit of meditation, have helped shape the modern practice we know today in the West.

I have often heard from people that they don’t meditate because they are not very spiritual. On the flip side, I have also heard from people that they don’t meditate because they practice a certain religion and they feel that it would be against their religious practice to do so. We know that meditation has been used in this spiritual manner, but it doesn’t mean you have to incorporate this. The experience of meditation is only defined for you based on who you are. This sounds obvious, but it is important to distinguish that meditation is merely a tool rather than a result.

2. There is only one way to meditate

One thing I have learned from talking to others who meditate as a regular part of their practice is that the experience is almost unique to every individual. Some people like to focus on their breath, some people like to give themselves affirmations. Some people even want to practice more spiritual expeditions where they attempt to tap into their previous lives - for those that believe in reincarnation.

There are many different ways people choose to meditate, and they are all valid. I have noticed this in different guided meditations. I have learned that every person who guides you through meditation has a different idea of what meditation is to them. None of it is the same. In fact, you could almost compare it to a thumbprint of how our minds process information and as proof that we are all unique people. So no, there is not just one way to meditate, but an infinite amount of ways to meditate.

If you meditate already, and you disagree with anything in this article, you are absolutely correct.

3. You have to meditate in a particular position

Everyone pictures meditation as having to be cross-legged, hovering off the floor, and palms up with our thumb and pointer finger together. I have tried it this way (lacking the levitation because I haven’t figured it out yet) and it is so uncomfortable for me, so I just sit on my beanbag. You can meditate anywhere and everywhere you want. You can even have your eyes open, be doing a task, or do whatever you want.

4. “Meditation just doesn’t work for me” or “I am just not good at meditation”

I don’t mean to be accusatory in bringing up this misconception of sorts, but I want to share my opinion - from my own experience - on why some don’t think it is right for them. Often, when people start to meditate, either first timers or after a long time not meditating, meditation is often a very frustrating experience. We find it hard to sit still with our thoughts. This is a good signal though. I compare it to the experience of physical pain. In order to learn that fire is hot, we first might have to experience the pain of heat to really get it. Similar to meditation, we need to acknowledge and validate our thoughts in order to truly acknowledge our present self. I compare it to shedding off the old skin of the world’s BS that truly doesn’t benefit me or anyone by thinking about it. I have learned, for me, it is not healthy to ignore and distract myself from my own thoughts.

Sometimes, meditation can absolutely suck. Sometimes, it can be so frustrating that we think we are bad at meditation because we are somehow “bad” with our own brains and how we manage our thoughts. We might have this feeling that we should somehow “be better”. Sometimes, we think that meditation is not for us because we don’t notice any immediate effects. A lot of times, other things give us way more stimulating, happy effects compared to meditation, so our brain tries to steer us away from it. I am here to tell you that it is impossible to be bad (or good) at meditation. You can’t be bad at practicing something, because it’s just not related to skill. Just know, that you are valid and are not any less for thinking this way because everyone experiences this.

5. Meditation is only a way to relax by means of escapism or distraction.

I am guessing this is a very common thought. “Am I just doing this to avoid something in my life?” I often wonder about it still. Taking from the previous point, I mentioned that a big part of meditation is acknowledging our own thoughts. When I actually try to meditate with a result in mind, I am realizing that I am trying to just escape from the thoughts that I have. When I expect this to happen, more and more thoughts overtake my mind very quickly. It is similar to when someone says “Don’t think of an elephant!”

Imagine then trying super hard to escape from that thought of this hypothetical elephant. The more effort you put into not thinking about the elephant, the more elephants will pop up and dance around in your mind. Maybe even they will start to talk to each other and you might even imagine an elephant town bustling with elephants in their gigantic elephant cars and getting elephant road rage.

In order to not think about something, we must first face it head-on. In order to get over fears, we must face them and accept their validity. Anything that occupies space in our big ol’ brains we have to experience in order to leave it behind. Meditation can be a means to accomplish this. With it, I feel like I have the tools to choose what thoughts I want to associate with in my present state and what thoughts I merely want to observe. In this way, we are facing ourselves in our truest selves, and I would consider it the opposite of escapism.

6. Meditation should only be done alone

I recently just learned about this, but there are a lot of in-person meditation groups out there. I have only meditated a couple of times with others, and I feel like it can help give you this feeling of support and validation. Also, some people don’t like guided meditations in general, but I think they are sometimes pretty cool. It’s a different feel from your usual practice, and like my previous point, maybe you can pick up something you enjoy that you will incorporate into your practice. Some guided meditations I honestly find annoying, but it’s all a process of figuring out what benefits your mind the most.

7. Meditation will give you psychic or superhuman powers

I don’t think this is possible, unfortunately. Maybe if you meditate while being simultaneously involved in a nuclear futuristic scientific accident, you could become a superhero like Charles Xavier or Doctor Strange or something…

8. Meditation is easy or hard

I feel like meditation cannot be assigned a difficulty level because the perceived difficulty is so variable each time you do it. I find that every time I meditate, it is almost a different experience each time. Sometimes, it is extremely challenging and I am just swept up off the ground by the hurricane of my own ideas and thoughts. Sometimes, it is super easy and euphoric and I don’t have to apply much focus to experience total stillness.

This is probably my favorite benefit of meditation though: It forces you to pay attention to yourself. If you have a bad time meditating, you might be in a stressed-out state, be having a terrible day, or you just might not be in a good headspace. By going thru meditation though, you are allowing your brain to figure out why you feel that way.

9. Meditation takes a long time

You can spend a few seconds practicing meditation or you can spend multiple days. Up to you on that one. Don’t pay attention to anyone that says you should do it a specific way. The only times I do a long meditation is because I legitimately want to and I am not pressuring myself to “do better”. In any capacity you choose, people often recommend you practice every day to make it part of your overall wellness routine.

10. Meditation has no proven benefits

According to studies, meditation has been proven to exhibit these benefits:

This summarized resource page is also an amazing resource for summarizing and linking studies that study meditation and its benefits.

Hopefully, this provided you with some good insight into meditation and helps get the word out on it more. Instead of defining what meditation is, I hope that these points will reduce the definition to a more simplistic view and provide a bit of benefit to some. I hope you feel persuaded to meditate more but also feel like you can do whatever you want.

“If you seek tranquillity, do less. Or (more accurately) do what’s essential — what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?” But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well. To eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow.”

- Marcus Aurelius