Find it difficult to meditate? Don’t worry, I’m right there with you!

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with meditation for as long as I can remember. I was first introduced to the practice a few years ago by my mum who started to read up about its incredible health benefits. She gained an interest by following well-respected spiritual teachers who did guided meditations and since then has been meditating twice a day, every day, morning and evening and is completely in love with the practice.

Me? Well I’ve been a little further behind…

Out of everyone in my family, I definitely would say I have the most overactive mind. It’s what I have to thank for my ability to be a dreamer; it fuels my creativity and my passion.

However, being an over-thinker has its shortcomings; it’s also what makes it difficult for me to switch off, to get to sleep in a timely fashion, and to seamlessly meditate.

When I first started to meditate, I’d go through the same stages: think too deeply, allow my mind to wander, shuffle… and then in many cases get irritable and give up.

The Challenge for the Overactive Mind

It’s a catch-22.

Those with an overactive mind who are busy and easily stressed are often those who would do best to meditate the most. Yet these people find it the hardest to do the practice because their mind is so active, ruminating on all the things they have to do, with meditating being just another thing to add to their never ending to-do lists.

Here’s my top 5 tips on learning how to meditate when you have an overactive mind:

1. Schedule in time to mediate. Don’t let it fall to the bottom of your list, instead make it a priority. Schedule it in just as you would a meeting; once you accept that meditation is a fundamental part of your routine it will start to become a habit that you stick to.
2. Remove any distractions from the room that you use to meditate. This includes laptops, phones and also informing any members in your house not to disturb you for the duration of your meditation session.
3. Opt for guided meditation. Meditation is all about being present. One brilliant type of meditation to help beginners calm the overactive mind and give you something to focus on is following a guided meditation. This is something that has helped me the most. At the start of the meditation, the teacher guides you by telling you to relax each part of your body, starting with your toes to your ankles, neck and eyelids. By bringing an awareness to each body part it really helps you to become conscious as to how much of your body is tense, as you begin to allow permission for the tension to melt away.
4. Start small. For a beginner who has nothing but an abundance of thoughts, the notion of taking a chunk out of your day to meditate can meet some resistance at first. Therefore, start small, simply setting aside 5 – 10 minutes will be enough for you to start to reap the benefits without causing you to worry about time wasting.
5. Let your thoughts pass you by. This is the most difficult thing for the overactive mind. Try not to follow any judgments or seeds of thought; simply let the thoughts come to you and observe. Don’t attach emotions or questions to them. ‘True meditation is about being fully present with everything that is including discomfort and challenges. It is not an escape from life.’

“Persistence”, my mum would say, “and you will get better at it”.

My response has always been, “maybe it’s not for everyone, we are all different after all”.

Whilst meditating is still a challenge, I will say that over the years I do feel like I’ve gotten somewhat better at meditating. I surrender to the state of relaxation and actually find myself craving that soothing voice of the meditation teacher guiding my practice. There is a lot to be said about a little persistence.