Can Meditation Be Skipped In Certain Cases?

[Sleepwalker]

I really almost never had any resistance doing my daily meditation (I'm meditating more than a year now), but to be honest I had a few "cheat days". Here's why.

 What with the days when you really can't meditate, when something is preventing you. For example, there are only a few hours in my day when I get to be really alone to meditate. That's early in the morning, when my parents go to work and my brother is sleeping :''''''D After that short window of peace I have to go to school, and when I come back home, I have a full house again. -.- I don't have anywhere to go at home. what I mean with that is, I don't have any quiet room where I could meditate even when everyone's home, because I live in a very small flat where I can hear when somebody moves, talks, or even whispers, no matter where the person is in the flat. Now, the problem is very obvious here, because this daily schedule gets messed up very easily, for example when my brother gets up earlier and interrupts me. It ain't just that, there are plenty more things that sometimes prevent me from meditating, most of the times because I don't get to be alone that day or because of the noise. 

I usually have at least one or two "cheat days" a month, and those are the days when I really don't know what to do, when it's not possible for me to ensure the peace and alone time necessary for meditating.

Now, I want to ask you.. Is this a problem? I mean, is the effect of my meditation decreased in some way if I have those cheat days? Am I doing this for nothing, does the meditation have no effect if it's not done daily? I'd appreciate some insight  

[jjer94]

Leo would say do it daily if you want the full effects, and I'd agree with that... for the most part.

If you're really truly into meditation, you'd find a way to do it despite your circumstances. Maybe there's a park near your flat where you can do it on a bench, or some field where you can sit in the grass. There are more options than you think. 

Don't worry about missing days of meditation. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it.  

And while you're at this crossroads, maybe now would be a good time to reflect over what you've gotten out of meditation and why you're doing it. Are you doing it for stress reduction? Relaxation? Health benefits? Or are you doing it for enlightenment work? Just stuff to consider.

[Sleepwalker]

Yes, I'm serious about my meditation   I do it for all of the reasons you just mentioned. Mostly for stress reduction. I'm doing it for more than a year now (30 min every day) and I assume that I'm mentally and emotionally more stable than I was a year ago, but to be honest, I find that shift to be so incremental that I'm sometimes not even sure that anything changed at all. Maybe it's because of the cheat days  However, I'm aware that the results from meditation require some time to come, therefore I don't want to be outcome dependent here. But I admit that I'm not sure about what I can expect after a year of meditation. Maybe I should have gained an obvious result in that time, I don't know  but for everyone it's different..

From now on, I will meditate every day like my life depends on it. In the bathroom if there's no other way :''''D and I'll buy some earplugs against noise.

 

[drelamore]

It's true that after a while you stop noticing the benefits of change you make in your life because of habit.

It happened when i first began meditating that i didn't do meditation for 10 days and i felt worse than before when it was a habit.

Also, when i started again, i had a better understanding of how it should be done and why i should do it everyday, so don't worry too much about slacking off, it could be a necessity for your personal growth 

[jjer94]

1 hour ago, MelanieWalker said:

Yes, I'm serious about my meditation   I do it for all of the reasons you just mentioned. Mostly for stress reduction. I'm doing it for more than a year now (30 min every day) and I assume that I'm mentally and emotionally more stable than I was a year ago, but to be honest, I find that shift to be so incremental that I'm sometimes not even sure that anything changed at all. Maybe it's because of the cheat days  However, I'm aware that the results from meditation require some time to come, therefore I don't want to be outcome dependent here. But I admit that I'm not sure about what I can expect after a year of meditation. Maybe I should have gained an obvious result in that time, I don't know  but for everyone it's different..

From now on, I will meditate every day like my life depends on it. In the bathroom if there's no other way :''''D and I'll buy some earplugs against noise.

 

I doubt it's because of the cheat days. Let me give you an analogy... 

The hydra. You've heard of that mythical beast, haven't you? It's ferocious, gets in your face, and is hard to kill because it has multiple heads. You can try slicing its heads off with a dagger, but they grow back if you stop slicing them off. That's pretty frustrating! The only way to kill the hydra is by stabbing it in the heart with your awesome sword.

The hydra is who you think you are, the ego. Its heads are the thought-stories you weave day-in and day-out. 

Meditation is the equivalent of the dagger. While you can temporarily maim the hydra, its heads will just grow back, and the thought-stories will return. You've been meditating for a year now, and you've noticed little progress towards mental stability. That's probably because you've only been chopping the heads off and forgot about that awesome sword you have....

What's the awesome sword? Awareness. The process of becoming aware is the process of understanding you, the character, Melanie. What are her desires? Why does she desire that? Why is she so angry at the moment? Is she afraid? What agenda is she trying to accomplish with this particular emotion? By understanding yourself through the sword of awareness, you will stab the hydra in the heart and the heads will start dying naturally. Awareness is not trying to fix Melanie; it's just trying to understand Melanie and what makes her tick. 

I suggest you supplement meditation with awareness. Practice it all the time, on and off the cushion; life is your meditation now. Life is your spiritual practice. Any time you feel emotional pain is an opportunity to learn more about Melanie, and in the process, kill more and more of the hydra. 

If you want more of a how-to on how to practice awareness, I suggest reading the book Awareness by Tony de Mello.

All the best, Melanie!

P.S. You don't need earplugs or a quiet space for meditation. 

[Leo Gura]

Excuses!!!

If I can meditate for 800 days straight, so can you.

Noise is not an impediment to meditation. You can meditate while watching TV.

[Sleepwalker]

I didn't know that I can meditate with noise  Thank you!

@jjer94 Cool analogy. Thanks, this was very helpful  I'll try practicing mindfulness.

[JeffR1]

I often like to practice walking meditation; down the street, in the forest, on the beach - wherever really! Agree also that noise is not an issue - the silence is within. 

[Markus]

You can meditate with any sensory phenomena. So yes, the noise definitely shouldn't be an excuse not to. Silence has its benefits and drawbacks like anything else. 

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, MelanieWalker said:

I didn't know that I can meditate with noise  Thank you!

@jjer94 Cool analogy. Thanks, this was very helpful  I'll try practicing mindfulness.

A good homework assignment for you is to go meditate for 30 minutes in a very noisy area.