How to Overcome All Daily Meditation and Yoga Obstacles – Survey Results
Meditation Solutions
How to Do Daily Yoga and Meditation
Last week we ran the survey, What Are Your Major Obstacles to a Daily Meditation and Yoga Practice? And boy did the results come in fast and furious. There was a clear winner and many strong contenders as well. In the table below you can see the results and following that I address these problems and propose solutions to help you overcome them as well.
Establishing a long-term, consistent daily meditation and yoga practice is one of the most important things you can do, as it not only helps you develop personally, but is the key to achieving the purpose of human birth – Self / God Realization. It help you find joy, peace, wisdom and compassion.
The results below don’t add up to 100%, as more than one response was allowed. So the percentage is calculated against the total number of responses.
| Value | Count | Percent % |
|---|---|---|
| Procrastinate Too Much | 38 | 40.86% |
| Too Lazy | 32 | 34.41% |
| No Time / Too Busy | 28 | 30.11% |
| I Do My Practice Everyday / No Problems | 20 | 21.51% |
| Don’t Know How To / Don’t Have Guidance | 17 | 18.28% |
| It’s Too Hard / Not Enough Willpower | 17 | 18.28% |
| Results Come Too Slowly | 12 | 12.90% |
| Not Healthy Enough | 8 | 8.60% |
| Not Interested, Not Inspired or Not Motivated Enough | 5 | 5.38% |
| Meditation / Yoga is too Weird | 1 | 1.08% |
Solutions to Problems Above:
Below I will point out various articles and techniques which tackle the issues that readers have indicated above as obstacles to a regular meditation and yoga practice.
Solutions to Procrastination, Willpower and Laziness:
The article 5 Keys to Stop Procrastination will be very useful to help not just with this issue of procrastination, but also to help with many of the other problems readers have indicated above. Specially the techniques will help the Too Lazy, Too Hard and Not Inspired groups as well.
In that article, I discuss techniques to developing energy, willpower and helping with the ability to execute things right away.
Another interesting series for those who need to break the habit of procrastination and implement things at the right time, is the following 2 part series – Spiritual Time Management.
Help for the Too Busy to Meditate Group:
This group is of particular interest to me, because this problem trips me up from time to time as well. Although I have discussed this issue before, I am keen on finding ways to simplify life so that there is more time for spiritual work and I plan to write more about my experiments with this in the future. The following articles already online will help though.
An article which discusses the importance of making leisure time so one can evolve spiritually and explains the role that money can play in that effort is Money Money Money and the Path to Enlightenment. But, one other article I want to point out which will also help and is not so obvious is How Much Time Should You Meditate for Daily?
The reason for pointing out this second article, is that sometimes you may just be too ambitious with how much you want to do, and thus set goals that are unrealistic. Setting such lofty goals and not being able to achieve them then leads to discouragement and is counter productive. So if you are busy, do less. But try hard to do it every day. If you can just get it started, it will build on it’s own.
Finally the following article has been very useful to many readers in these categories: The Golden Rule to Stop Excuses and Start Meditation Now.
Learn How to Meditate Daily and Learn Yoga:
This one I can really help with as there are lots of techniques and articles on the website to guide you on how to get your daily practice started. Here are the 2 best places to start learning yoga and meditation if you are just beginning. Of course, these programs are free of charge so do take advantage of them.
Learn How to Meditation | Beginner’s Meditation Class
Also very helpful will be the following 2 articles which teach you how to meditate and teach you basic yoga poses.
Basic Yoga Poses | Beginner’s Yoga Poses
Meditation Results Come Too Slowly Problem:
Yes the results of meditation practice are gentle and I have explained in the past that such a practice is difficult in our quick results, immediate gratification society – No Short Cuts to Enlightenment.
But let me impress upon you that although you may not notice it, meditation is changing you profoundly day by day, and if you keep up with the practice, one day you will simply be amazed at the wonderful transformation that has taken place within you.
Here is Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki explaining this aspect of meditation to his students:
Shunryu Suzuki Speaks on Enlightenment and Meditation Practice
Even better than the article above is perhaps this talk by Master Suzuki which directly addresses the question of results and effort:
Effortless Effort in Zen Teachings – Shunryu Suzuki
The above addresses the gentle blossoming of goodness due to a daily meditation practice. Now as far as daily yoga practice is concerned, the results are of course much faster from a physical point of view and quite obvious after just a few weeks. There are plenty of testimonials to this on the website and I am sure you have read many of those already 
.
Inspiration for Daily Meditation and Yoga Practice:
The articles below regarding the enormous health and other benefits of meditation and yoga should really fuel your motivation to establish a strong daily practice. But, below in the “Learn from Others” section there are 2 additional items which I feel would be very helpful in getting you to meditate, so check those out as well.
Top 10 Profound Benefits of Meditation
Top 10 Health Benefits of Yoga
Learn from Others:
For more inspiration I want to point you towards another survey that we ran here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga which asked readers what was The Biggest Mistake They Have Made in Their Life. The #1 answer was “They Delayed Their Spiritual Practice”. Yes that was #1, so when I run this survey again in 10 years, let that not be your response .
Looking closely at the survey you will also see that there are many (21%) who have indicated that they have successfully established a daily meditation and yoga practice. So if they can do it, why not you? If you are here reading this, that means you have been blessed with an interest in spirituality and invited by the Universe to join the party. The doors are open and we are all waiting for you .
It is lame, but i fall in the first category – Procrastinate Too Much. I practice Yoga every day, but it is “only’ the asanas, as the still silent meditation is just, well, mm… nothing wrong with it – it is me – Mr.Procrastinate – and obviously. i’m not alone… (40%. Good to have company :) )
anyway, thanks a lot for the “5 key plan..” I’m all over it now. Hope it works for me, cause my girlfriend promised that if I meditate EVERY DAY, she can do it also …
Nothing better then helping another person simply by providing an example. Wish it was that easy, ah!?
thanks
Yep, it’s all about procrastination/laziness/wanting results yesterday.
Thank you for this! It’s incredibly helpful. I’ve been looking for new ways to get over the “same” old bumps. :-)
Lisa
Yoga Thailand
Yep, it’s all about procrastination/laziness/wanting results yesterday.
Thank you for this! It’s incredibly helpful. I’ve been looking for new ways to get over the “same” old bumps. :-)
Lisa
Anmol Nice Article Keep Going…
Do You Know ..? Meditation is not contemplation. Meditation is not concentration. Meditation is a state of being. It is a state of awareness. Meditation is not about doing something; rather it is about doing nothing. So Check out more Intresting techniques and Guidene about Maditation only at [Gurumaa.com]
for busy people there is one answer, and this must actually apply to averybody, meditation in action, u must be aware of every moment of your life, sure this is not easy but in time u will develope this skill, this is the goal of all meditation – mindfullness in in every days life.
Beginner,
So true isn’t it? But not very easy to do if you are a perfectionist or like to do things “exactly right” (aka Your way) before moving on…
In our household – Anmol is always saying “If you can at least do it 75% do it.. stop procrastinating” and I am “Oh it has to be perfect so I will start it only when I can do it the way I want to….” which in the end means I don’t start !!! LOL
So Yes – this article works for me too !!!
All the best,
Trupti
Hi Anmol,
Well your blog post is very insightful and a must read for people i feel . Yes meditation has inumerable benefits , it not only heals the body but also heal the mind . Thank you for sharing this .
Here’s a site called http://a2zyoga.com/ it has got all the information about yoga and it’s benefits. You may have a look at this link too which says about yoga benefits –
http://www.a2zyoga.com/benefits-yoga.php
Hi Anmol,
I read the 5 Keys to Stop Procrastination article and when I was reading about the “golden rule” that is not to try do things perfectly I realized that you were right. :) If I less “care” things will just go on their way and all will be good. Thanks for reminding! :)