If you are finding meditation boring, then it is YOU who is experiencing the sensation of ‘boredom.’ It’s all about your expectations and subsequent feelings. And you are not alone as many people also experience boredom while meditating.
Boredom is a feeling that can be experienced not only while meditating but in many different circumstances. We can be bored at work, while listening to family and friends talking, when it’s raining heavily and we can’t go out to do what we wanted to, etc….
The point I want to make is that boredom, like all feelings, is a result of OUR internal process. We experience boredom when our thoughts about our current reality are not meeting the expectations we have for ‘something better.’
Why Is Meditation Boring?
You experience boredom when meditating if your desire for something more than you are experiencing is not being met! The simple act of sitting still and not engaging the senses is not meeting your mind’s desire for the stimuli it craves so it can feel satisfied. Your mind desires more…. However, if you stick with your practice, you can train your mind to become satisfied with fewer stimuli. You can slowly release the old patterns of unconscious thoughts that dominate your mental process and begin to BE more conscious in the experience of meditating.
We Are Programmed From A Young Age To Always Expect Stimulation
We have become human ‘DOING’S’ rather than human BEINGS! If we were content with just ‘being,’ we wouldn’t feel bored when meditating. Instead, we would become fully immersed in the process, as intended.
However, the sad reality is that from birth we are ‘overstimulated’ by the very process of just living life. It seems that kids these days are born almost attached to technology. They are constantly looking at screens, either their phone, computers, or a TV.
And technology is not the only issue. We are stuffed into formal education from an increasingly young age, enrolled in after-school activities, and then have the dreaded homework to do. Unfortunately, as adults, we are not much different.
It’s almost like we are being trained from a young age to experience life as an ‘outside of SELF-experience.’ And this means we have forgotten that we are much more than the events and circumstances that are happening to us and around us.
The more we rely on this outer world of events, people, and experiences for our satisfaction, the more we will suffer when they are not available…. we have inadvertently trained our minds to crave continuous stimuli….
And this becomes a problem for us when we tell our minds that for the next 20 minutes we are going to sit still and do nothing!
Ahhhh, meditation, the art of doing nothing…. Just what our busy minds NEED…. but because we only know how to be busy, it’s the last thing they want!
So, your busy, overstimulated, controlling ‘monkey mind’ considers meditation boring because it isn’t about the mind…. it’s about RELIEF from the constant mental activity of the mind!
When Will Meditating Begin To Feel Better?
Things cannot get any better until you release your self-judgment that meditation is boring and not working for you. This means that when you feel bored, you accept that you are feeling bored….
And it’s what you do once you realize that you ‘feel’ bored that will determine the future success of your practice.
By realizing that your feeling, (boredom) is a result of the thoughts you have been having, you can simply become a ‘witness’ (an observer) to those thoughts. And when you do, your thoughts will begin to lose their power over the direction your mind is taking.
Why?…. because you will come to understand that you are not your thoughts…. Your thoughts are just temporary, transitory, and forever changing! And you can begin to understand this by playing a game with yourself….
…. When feeling bored, ask yourself, am I these thoughts that have created this feeling of boredom? What was I before I had these thoughts? And if I began thinking happy thoughts now, would I be those thoughts, and would I still be bored?
The answer is of course that you are neither the bored nor happy feelings, just as you are neither the thoughts that are responsible for the way you are feeling. You are the ONE who is the observer of these transitory experiences……
…. and your experience/feelings change every time you change your thoughts…..
More Meditation Is Your Best Way Out Of Boredom
The best tool that you have available for creating your life experience to be as you want it to be is to master the process of meditation… it’s the process of overcoming the control your monkey mind has over your thoughts and therefore your feelings.
It’s important to understand that meditation is a path, a journey that we undertake that has no end…. a process that we use to come to know and understand our SELF in relation to the world in which we exist.
We are not our mind and we are not our body. They are just mediums through which we ‘experience’ the act/play/game of living in physical reality (which provides all the stimuli for our entertainment).
We are the eternal SELF, the ONE that witnesses the play of life, the experiencer of the drama, stress, love, heartbreak, triumphs, etc. We are not the things that are happening.
Because of the pressure, busyness, and stress of daily living, most people have lost contact with this aspect of their essential being…… Meditation is a path that will enable you to re-establish contact with your SELF. However, your mind doesn’t want to let go of the drama and excitement of all the external stimuli just yet….
…. So, your mind will do anything to try to convince you that meditation doesn’t work, is boring, is a waste of time, etc. and this is why you feel agitated, bored, and restless.
However, if you continue, gradually, you will find the inner peace you are seeking…. The opposite is also true: You lose when you give in to your mind and stop meditating for whatever reason.
It’s Important For Your Growth, Happiness, And Success That You Don’t Give In To Your Programmed Habitual Mind!
If you let your habitual mind control you now, it will continue to control you and therefore your outcomes in life forevermore.
If you are reading this, it’s obvious you have reached a point in life where you realize that allowing your habitual monkey mind to continue to dominate your thoughts, and therefore feelings and actions, is not the best way forward for you.
It’s time to take control and consciously create the better life you desire for yourself and your loved ones…. and it all begins by assuming more control over your thought processes.
The first step is to let your monkey mind know that it is no longer in control and that from now on, your mind is ‘just a tool’ that you will use to begin assuming more conscious control over the direction your life is taking.
And it all begins by meditating….. When you do your best to separate yourself from your mental, emotional, and physical experiences….. and when these things are not occupying your thoughts, you naturally attain a peaceful state (and you realize that it is your mind that has been the sole source of your discomfort!)
What Can You Do About The Discomfort You Have Been Feeling?
When you feel bored, you can become curious and ask yourself questions, including: 
What is this feeling of boredom?
What does it mean to be bored?
Where is this boredom located?
Allow the responses to come and just notice them with interest but do not become attached to the answers. You will find that they are quite changeable.
The interesting thing about this process is that you cannot be bored when your mind is tuned to ‘inquiring.’ Your interest, (with detachment), will alter your thoughts which means the feeling of boredom will no longer be present.
However, it is sure to rise again, and again… but who cares…. You can just continue to explore it to death! But do it with ease, relaxed contemplation, and just allow things to unfold without attachment.
It helps to remind yourself that boredom is just a feeling and that you are not your feelings….. your feelings are just transitory experiences based on the thoughts you are having.
Eventually, the issue of being bored while meditating will no longer arise. And in your practice, you will become oblivious to your body, mind, and emotional state, as the awareness of time and space just dissolve away…..
Are There Any Good Ways To Distract My Mind Away from Boredom?
– Guided meditation tracks work for many people. By keeping your attention on the process being described in the audio, your mind will be occupied, involved, and hopefully interested in the process, and therefore not bored.
Zen 12 (my positive review can be found here) have meditation tracks infused with binaural beats which quickly and easily ‘entrain’ your brainwaves into deep meditative states. You can get a free trial of their products HERE.
– Hypnosis is also very successful for many people. The best hypnosis tracks are also infused with brainwave entrainment technology to entrain your brainwaves to be easily receptive to the positive ‘hypnotic suggestions.’ This means, once again, you can reach deep meditative states and reprogram your subconscious mind quickly and easily to work positively for you… instead of being negative (like bored.)
Hypnosis Live is a program I have used with great success to train my brain toward positive, success, relaxation, and ease. All aspects of our lives can be successfully reprogrammed, and this includes the ability to meditate better. You can download some free hypnosis tracks from Hypnosis Live HERE and check out my positive product review HERE.
Hopefully, You Got The Main Takeaway From This Post:
When we sit in stillness and silence to meditate, our habitual mind reveals itself to us.
The thoughts and tendencies we have most often pop up because our mind doesn’t want to be ignored.
If we feel bored, we tend to think that it is the process of meditating that is boring.
However, it is just the thoughts we are having that lead us to the conclusion that meditation is boring…. We are relating to the experience in ‘a boring way.’ That’s all! There’s nothing serious going on here…..
So, it’s our mind (because of the thoughts it’s having) that creates the feeling, not what we are actually doing…..
.… and if you change your thoughts, you will change your experience!
