You sit down. You close your eyes. Within seconds the visitors arrive. A to-do list. A worry. The cat. A song you haven’t heard in thirty years. You think nothing is happening. I’m doing this wrong. I’m wasting my time.

You’re not.

I’ve meditated for 35 years, and rambunctious meditation busters still show up almost every morning. I’ve learned that distractions aren’t the opposite of meditation. They are part of it. Every time you notice a thought and let it pass, you are meditating. Every time you come back, you are meditating.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, who brought mindfulness into mainstream medicine, teaches that meditation isn’t about emptying the mind or reaching some special state. It’s about paying attention, without judgment, to whatever shows up. As he puts it, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

A friend who has meditated for 18 years wrote to me recently about noticing the qualities alive in the space of meditation: silence, stillness, light, vibration, flow, sound. They aren’t the same each day, or even within a single sitting. My friend called it fascinating. It is.

Rumi wrote, “This being human is a guest house.” Each morning brings someone new. Joy, sorrow, meanness, a flash of awareness. He advises welcoming them all and treating each one with honor. Even the dark visitors may be clearing space for something new.

So let the distractions in. Sit still and watch them cross in front of you and circle around you. Don’t chase them. Don’t fight them. Welcome them onto your practice for peace, clarity, and self-awareness.

If you’re new to meditation, start with five minutes. When a thought arrives, silently say “thinking,” and return to your breath. That’s it.

Nothing is wasted. Not the busy mind, not the restless body, not the morning you think you got nothing.

You showed up. You sat down. You noticed.

That is meditation.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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Take a look at this also – Meditation is Mobile.

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