What it means when your meditation practice feels...meh (and what to do)
You learned to meditate. You finally mastered the habit of doing it every day and now…you’re feeling a little bored by it. Or maybe you’re feeling like your practice just kind of happens and there isn’t much for you to ‘do’ any more. The big spectrum of different experiences you once had has settled down, and now you just get on with it, each experience not feeling all that different to the last.
The questions that usually come with this are, ‘have I worn out my mantra?’ ‘have I just gotten as far as I’m going to get with this practice?’ ‘Have I forgotten how to do it?’
In the early days of meditation, we’re usually very aware of what’s going on with our practice. We’re hyper conscious of whether or not we’re doing it correctly and whether we’re having the ‘right’ experiences. With time and practice, all of this fades away. Like anything we do regularly, meditation becomes something we can do without much thought or effort required. As most Vedic meditators will agree, the technique is actually very easy once you get the hang of it, but actually maintaining a daily practice is where the challenges can really lie!
Each time we meditate, we drop into a state that I call Being. Being is your deepest inner nature. It’s essentially you without your thoughts, or your simplest form of awareness; the non-changing witnessing capability that lies beyond the fluctuations of your mind, personality and experience. A completely engrossed experience of Being is known as transcendence – it’s when we’ve bypassed the thinking level of the mind completely, and we’re resting in a state of pure awareness. There are no thoughts or mental activity, just pure silence. When we get our first taste of Being, it’s usually a pretty big ‘woah!’ moment. It feels blissful, relaxing and super lovely. Over time, as we continue to be effortless with our mantra, we gradually experience more and more of this. We still have the thought-filled meditations too, naturally, as we process our stresses but alongside those, we’ll notice more stillness and quiet in our meditations too.
As we have all of these experiences (and ALL of them are essential!) of processing stress and re-establishing ourselves in Being, we begin to integrate a more expanded state of consciousness into our daily lives. As this new state becomes your default, it no longer feels dramatically different or in contrast to your usual experience – you’ve normalised a new state of Being. So your meditations can start to feel like the colours are no longer contrasting pops of blue and red, and now a more blended shade of purple. This is good! It’s one of the ultimate signs that your practice is working and it’s having the outcome that we had intended – one of normalising a more expanded state of consciousness.
Growth happens in layers and stages, so it’s not a case that this happens once and you’re done. You’ll notice your practice is constantly shifting and changing as you integrate new and even more expanded states of consciousness. Every time you sit to meditate this is happening. Sometimes you’ll move through phases of intensely active meditations as you process lots of old stress, tension and fatigue, and other times you’ll move through periods of deep blissfulness and stillness within your practice. Then there will be those times that is seems nothing much is happening at all. Each of these are good. They’re the normal ebbs and flows of your practice. It will morph, shift and change as you do – as you grow, expand your consciousness and connect more deeply to the vast and incredible truth of who and what you are.
So, strictly speaking, there’s nothing you need to do here, except continue on as you have, staying easy with it all, and remember that actually, it’s working just as it should, and this is yet another opportunity to relax, let go and let it flow.
If, on the other hand, you’re finding the routine of sitting down at the same time twice each day a little monotonous, here are a couple of simple shake ups you can try to invigorate your relationship to your practice again if the act of sitting to do it is feeling a little automatic.
Challenge yourself to meditate in a different location or time of day. If you usually meditate sitting up in bed, try going for a walk and meditating in the park. If you normally meditate at 5:30 pm, experiment with a lunchtime session.
Add a new technique to your routine. It can be as simple as a body-feeling exercise or a breath technique, or you might start practicing a 2-minute journal ling session at the end of your meditation.
Get your advanced mantra. Sometimes the plateaus we feel and the itch we get for ‘more’ is a sign that it’s a good opportunity to evolve your practice. Get in touch with me or your teacher to chat more about this.