How to Recover from Distractions in Meditation

These words of wisdom from Sharon Salzberg (again) teach us how to recover from distractions in meditation. I like the way she tells us to begin anew, as if we are beginning to meditation again for the first time.

So, beginning again: your attention will go somewhere eventually, one breath, two breaths, ten breaths later. It will go to the past, it will go to the future, judgment, speculation, somewhere. And that is an extraordinary moment when we realize we’ve been gone because that truly is an opportunity to be very different… we practice letting go, we practice starting over, we practice beginning again out of very great compassion and kindness. That’s actually quite radical.

—Sharon Salzberg

Buddha in Plum Village
Photo Jerome Freedman

I covered many of these distractions and solutions in my book, Seven Secrets to Stop Interruptions in Meditation: How to Concentrate and Focus on Your Meditation and Deal with Distractions. The book introduces the practices of mindfulness of breathing in a way that any beginner can benefit. Advanced meditation practitioners will also learn many new tricks to begin anew with their daily practice.

It teaches techniques that I learned many years ago from Swami Rama and Swami Veda Bharati as well as Father Eli. You may not even be able to detect that these techniques are not strictly Buddhist.

There are also guided meditations that you can find to accompany the book under the “Mindfulness” menu, the third one from the left under the banner. See, for example, First Mindfulness Meditation Practice.

A word of caution: Please don’t let distractions and interruptions in your meditation deter you from practicing every day. You can ease yourself into it by starting with a modest goal of only nine minutes a day.

What interruptions bother you the most in your meditation practice? How do you deal with them?

Seven Secrets to Stop Interruptions in Meditation

Seven Secrets to Stop Interruptions in Meditation How to Concentrate, Focus on Your Meditation and Deal with Distractions In the book, you will learn how to unlock your mind’s ability for reliable and consistent meditation explode your inspiration, creativity and problem-solving skills consistently generate better ideas and avoid making bad decisions. practice mindful meditation like you want withdraw yourself into yourself so that you can enter a deep state of meditation