You Know You Should Meditate, So Why Don't You?

Not very long ago, the only people who practiced meditation regularly were Hindus and Buddhists, mostly in ashrams and monasteries. Then, Westerners who were influenced by those traditions but did not adopt the religious labels took up meditation forms as spiritual practices. When scientific studies documented the benefits of meditation, it went secular: physicians recommended it to patients, corporations and hospitals created meditation rooms and psychologists prescribed it for anxiety and stress reduction. Then Christians and Jews adapted Eastern procedures -- replacing Sanskrit mantras with words and phrases from their own traditions, for instance -- and unlocked the vaults of their mystical past. Now, if you say you meditate for 20 minutes before breakfast every morning, no one will bat an eye. I assure you that in 1968, when I started meditating, people looked at me as though I was poking needles into a voodoo doll.

You would think that this stamp of approval would make meditating as common as stopping at Starbucks for a caffeine fix. Instead, for a great many people, it's more like cutting down on carbs: they know it would be good for them, but they don't get around to doing it.

Why don't they? There are many reasons, of course, but in my experience two stand out. (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post