No matter how seasoned a meditator you are, obstacles are as inevitable in our inner journeys as they are with anything in life. Sometimes they’re simple, one-time hiccups. At other times, they can be long-held habits keeping us from achieving optimal results. Recently, as I’ve been focusing on some difficult challenges, I’ve found myself bumping into a few of these obstacles. I’d like to review some common problems that arise during my meditation adventures, to hopefully prevent you from falling into similar habits.

Not listening

Sometimes, we stop listening to our natural intuition that’s trying to offer guidance. Becoming too stuck in our meditation habits, or expecting our experience to go a certain way, can shut down our ability to receive information. This is a major detriment to any meditation experience. A playful attitude and relaxed openness to receive truly helps us find the guidance we seek. Closing ourselves off and not listening to our intuition invites getting stuck in a rut, distanced from any real experience. We may begin to meditate “because we have to” or because it’s part of our routine as opposed to working towards a particular goal.

Becoming too stuck in our meditation habits, or expecting our experience to go a certain way, can shut down our ability to receive information.

Not allowing fluidity

In the same vein as above, sometimes when we stop listening, we lose the fluidity of our practice. We follow the same steps into the same meditation and allow it to become a routine (habitual, unconscious) thing. I encourage you to shake up your practice and keep it interesting! That’s what makes a journey so encouraging and worthwhile—the lessons learned along the way. The more you keep it rote and structured, the less room you leave for natural fluidity and the rewards that come with it.

I cannot emphasize enough how imperative it is to be true to yourself on your journey.

Losing motivation

Keeping your meditation too structured can drain motivation to keep up with your practice, which can in turn deplete your confidence in attaining fruitful results. No one wants that! So, try to keep your meditations flexible and catered to how you are feeling at the time. This is why the Expand app is so crucial, in my opinion. It has an exercise for every situation so you can quickly and easily change up your routine and keep yourself motivated based on your current needs.

Not being true to yourself

I cannot emphasize enough how imperative it is to be true to yourself on your journey. Not recognizing what works best for you can throw your whole routine out of whack. For instance, we might do an exercise or try to force ourselves to experience something a certain way because it worked for someone else. But comparing your journey to someone else’s is a sure-fire way to have a superficial experience. Please be true to yourself in your meditation, however that looks to you, and reap your personal rewards.

All in all, frequent meditation offers so many benefits, but the more we meditate, the easier it can be to hit certain obstacles or fall into certain traps. By understanding them, we can learn to avoid them and stay true to our own goals.