In a recent Five Bullet Friday newsletter, author Tim Ferriss noted rather nonchalantly that meditation had “diminishing returns” lately and he had started trying some other things instead. Trying new things is always a good idea. But what stuck with me is how his meditation practice had stalled out, something I had seen coming for a while. So this is for you, Tim Tim, and for anyone else who has found their interest in meditation waning.
Why Your Meditation Practice Stalls Out – The Workout Effect
When you first decide to start working out, you probably tried lots of different types of workouts. Eventually, you found a workout routine that you liked. For a while, your new favorite workout routine gives you great results. Results keep you interested. And interest keeps you consistent. Life is good. But imagine that you lift the same amount of weight using the same set of moves, every workout. It will work well for a while, but eventually your workouts will produce those diminishing returns that Tim refers to.
Meditation is a workout for the mind. If you do the same style of meditation over and over, you will see results at first, and then eventually, diminishing returns. Your body is meant to evolve to heavier, more complex, or faster capabilities and SO IS YOUR MIND. As an example, Tim Ferriss was a fan of transcendental meditation. It’s a great place to begin. If you are new to meditation, transcendental (mantra focused) meditation will be a little challenging but easy enough to be consistent with. It’s the perfect recipe for success. You will see significant results for a long while. And then, the mind becomes bored. It is no longer challenging. And therefore it is no longer interesting. Your consistency falters, life distracts you and there you are feeling like meditation doesn’t do much for you anymore.
And yet, your soul seeks that feeling that effective meditation used to give you.
The Answer – Up Your Game
Meditation practice, much like your physical workouts, is meant to evolve. There is a natural evolutionary process to your meditation practice based on what you focus on during the practice, and it goes like this:
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The room or situation (mindfulness)
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Objects (candle, mandala, etc)
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Ambient sounds or music
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Words, phrases or mantras
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Somatic or body-based focus
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Energy focus
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Consciousness focus
These last three: somatic, energy and consciousness practices each break down into many varied and interesting practices, depending on where the individual student wants to take it.
So the answer is to up your game. Evolve your practice by trying a more challenging form of meditation. But periodically, just like with your workouts, revisit an earlier method to keep all your meditation muscles strong, flexible and capable. Too many hard core days in a row can lead to burnout. A well rounded meditation practice will mix up challenging days with moderate days and easy days, just like your physical workouts, while having an overall evolution forward.
So for someone like Tim Ferriss, who was previously using transcendental meditation, I would recommend starting back to meditation practice by having one short session focused on an object for about 15 minutes, seeing what comes up for you. The next day, try a somatic meditation of about 30 minutes using a body scan technique. The third day, go for a 40-50 minute session focused on body scan working up to sensing the dantians. Then, back to mantra based meditation for one day. From there, it would depend on how the previous meditations made you feel. What gave you the specific results you were looking for?
If you are stalled out in your meditation practice, try backing up to something easier for a day, and then ramping it up to something more challenging for a couple of days, keeping track of the effects. Evolving forward with breaks and variety is the key.
As always, let me know how it goes and how I can help.
