Category Archive: Struggle

On Living To Forget

A short while back I received an email with this very curt question:  ‘I read your book. Interesting. One question. Why do you talk so much about how hard meditation is?’ Aside from… Continue reading

Coping With Insomnia

The following question about insomnia came through the other day, and I wondered why I’ve never addressed it before. So here it is: ‘Hi Roger … I’ve suffered from insomnia for the last… Continue reading

Can Positive Thinking Work as Powerfully as Meditation?

This was another Quora question, which prompted my following reply. There’s a problem with positive thinking – and that is, your mind is not an idiot. It knows all of you, both positive… Continue reading

Routine

‘The big things that come our way are the fruit of seeds planted in the daily routine of our work.’– William Feather One of the biggest problems people have with meditation is it… Continue reading

Practicing Mindfulness

‘Mindfulness isn’t difficult. We just need to remember to do it.’ – Sharon Salzberg Mindfulness gets a lot of media attention these days. Everybody’s talking about it, books have been written about it,… Continue reading

Windmill Stumblebum … and Other Creatures

Sorry I’ve been absent for so long, but I’ve been writing a book, and considering most of the 100 or so posts on this blog answer most questions I receive, I took a… Continue reading

It’s Not Wrong to Feel.

To all my regular readers, I’ve been away for a couple of months because my eyes were developing cataracts and I had to have an operation. It’s an amazing thing, for the world… Continue reading

Siddhârtha’s Gift – The Middle Way

Essentially, the path through meditation requires balance. Take the act of meditating for example – for sure, we need to apply effort – but if we use too much effort we create tension… Continue reading

Attention and Awareness

The Monkey in Our Mind The aspect of mind we’re working with in meditation is our meddlesome, hyperactive and mischievous attention – the part of the mind we were nagged about all through childhood, all… Continue reading

Meditation the Journey

” The things that trouble our spirits are within us already. In meditation, we must face them, accept them, and set them aside one by one. Cristopher Bennett I was thumbing through a popular tabloid news… Continue reading

Meditation – Gym for the Mind

  Lakshmi commented: “I am new to meditation and I went in with the delusion that at the end of the 20 minute I will emerge with a halo around my head and… Continue reading

Dealing With Emotions

Hi Roger, I have a question that I haven’t yet seen on your site. If other people might be interested, I’m wondering if you can kindly indulge me in the following. During my… Continue reading

Neuroplasticity and Meditation

Neuroplasticity is a subject very pertinent to meditation – particularly meditation as consistent practice. Because rest assured, for all the difficulties you might experience as you meditate, and no matter how hopeless you… Continue reading

Facing What Disturbs You

  Following is a question concerning an unusual condition that keeps repeating each time Jacques meditates: “Hi Roger, I liked your book but I got a big problem meditating. I have given it… Continue reading

Feeling Before Thinking – Always

As much as I’ve covered this subject in numerous posts, people still consider compulsive thinking to be the main obstacle when they meditate. And its completely understandable. After all, in a culture such… Continue reading

Feeling Comes Before Thinking

As much as I have covered this subject in numerous posts, I keep hearing meditators complain about thinking. ‘I cant stop thinking,’ seems to be the main complaint, and obstacle in almost everybody’s… Continue reading

Why Does Meditation Make Me Angry

A meditation audio course participant asks:“Hi Roger, I’m finding when I meditate I get really angry. I remember things that have happened and I get angry and I don’t know what to do. Can… Continue reading

Surfing the Storm of Our Self

I received this question from an audio course user, and it reminded me of a very important point to be made, so here goes: “Hi Roger … been using your audio course and… Continue reading

Acceptance is Everything

An audio course participant wrote: ‘Hi, I’ve just begun meditating and I’m finding it quite a hellish experience. I can’t seem to find the calm I imagine should be happening. I end up sitting… Continue reading

Clearing Away The Crud

Hi Roger, Sometimes when I’m meditating and my mind is running away with itself and I find myself sitting with my mind all over the place. But I’ve noticed during these times, though… Continue reading

Expansiveness is the Lifeblood of Meditation

A question came the the other day that made me think. It was about a very common problem to do with uncomfortable tightening of the breath each time the practitioner meditates.  I won’t… Continue reading

Acceptance is the Beginning of Release.

In the two decades I’ve been teaching meditation, the common thread that runs through the motivations of most of the people I’ve taught, is they want to be released in some way. Whether released from a sense… Continue reading

Accepting the Battle

In most of the emails I’ve received about the variety of problems people have when they meditate, I’ve noticed a common thread. Whether it’s restless mind or restless body or an attention that… Continue reading