So here comes the conundrum. We know it’s good for us. Science corroborates. We may have even felt the benefit of meditating in our own lives (I know I have in a very big way). Why, then, aren’t more of us meditating regularly? Why do we find it so hard and what can we do to address those barriers? 

I recently polled my Instagram followers, asking them if they have a regular meditation practice and what gets in their way of practicing. In response, 37% said they did have a regular practice, which is higher than I expected. There were a lot of responses—many of them repeated by several people—as to what is acting as a barrier. Here is a sampling of what people said gets in their way of meditating: “anxiety, impatience, life, to-do list, it just doesn’t work for me, lack of time, falling asleep, all the thoughts of things undone.”