meditation is easiest when you feel like you have no where else to be (or nothing else to think about). For that reason, it’s also hardest when it’s not part of a routine practice. As long as you feel like you are engaging something out of the ordinary, you are limited in how far you can go with your practice.
Sitting
The instructors poorly teach sitting ettiquete. They tell you to sit through the pain, advise you on a position, but what they fail to cover is how as westerners, alot of aren’t familiar with the feeling of sitting properly in the first place. When you barbell squat with a lot of weight, you might use a belt to do the work of engaging your core. Engaging your core is extremely important as you come back up in a slightly bent over position. Similarly, when meditating, you are trying to maintain an upright position, so you need to engage your core AND your back, otherwise you will find parts of your body become sore, even after the meditation (especially for hour long sittings).
Ideas
- Engage your core and back before getting comfortable.
- If you become uncomfortable during a meditation, try lightly engaging these areas
- As you meditate deeper, you may naturally adopt an engaged position that is simultaneously perfectly relaxed. In a non-meditative state this may feel like your entire body on a needle, but as you get deeper it feels perfectly natural
- Use two additional cushions: one under each leg. These will probably hurt regardless depending on your flexibility, but they do get better over time.