How to suck at meditation

Meditation means different things to different people. To relax, to become focused, to become still, to awaken, to become less.. whatever. But to get whatever you want out of your meditation practice, you have to know what you're doing when you sit, even if what you're doing is nothing. And when we start to meditate, there's this little voice inside that has expectations, that thinks "my meditation should be this way" or "why isn't it working" or "man, I am great at this!"

These are all obstacles to starting where you are. And where you are when you start meditating is that you suck at it. So the first step in developing your meditation practice is to learn to suck at it. To learn to be okay, to forgive yourself, to accept what comes up. This is really hard. Sucking at meditation may be the hardest step in the process of learning to meditate.

It may seem a little bit odd that I put it this way, but the reason I do is that every time I say this, it produces a laugh, and that's the state of mind that helps the most. If we can laugh at ourselves, if we don't take ourselves too seriously, then it can be okay that we suck at meditation. And that joyful acceptance of what is arising in this moment in meditation is where the practice starts.