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Working with Distractions and Difficulties

by Philip L. Jones

Insight meditation is a practice of opening up to your experience, a practice of opening your heart and seeing more clearly what is true in your life. It begins with being open to and compassionate towards yourself.

As you develop some concentration, you maybegin to notice thoughts or feelings or sensations that pull your attention away from your object of meditation. The practice is to be mindful, aware, of these “distractions.”

Try to meet these “distractions” and “difficulties” with kindness, without judging them as good or bad. However, you may find yourself wanting to avoid certain thoughts, feelings or sensations, or you may find yourself wanting to hang onto them. Simply be aware of the desire to avoid or to cling, meeting those judgments with kindness as well.

Try to avoid getting caught in the content of thoughts around the experience. One way of doing this is to recognize that they are simply thoughts or that one is hearing or that a sensation has a particular quality such as sharpness. Try to maintain this mindful quality of awareness about the “distraction” and when it loses intensity, return your attention to the breath.

Being mindful of and noting whether an experience is pleasant, neutral or unpleasant can also be helpful in getting disentangled from it and seeing it more clearly. In your practice, you may develop your mindfulness further by noting whether your experiences have a pleasant, neutral or unpleasant quality.

As you allow yourself to see these thoughts, feelings or sensations, and your responses to them, you will find that you don’t have to be driven by habits of avoidance or clinging which have developed as a result ofyour life experiences.You will develop more freedom and flexibility in how you respond to your life.