There is only one rule I try to follow in my mediation practice – just don’t get up. I set one parameter for myself when I sit down and that is how long I would like it to last.  It doesn’t matter what that number is.  It doesn’t matter what happens in my head or my body during that time.  All that matters is, don’t get up.  That’s it.  Over time, what I have found is that it is a great muscle-builder to resist distraction.

These days, when there is profit to be made in grabbing our attention, to have the discipline to resist impulse is a gift.

Distraction is only one of the temptations to get up and give up.  The other seems to be an unrealistic sense of what it means to be “good at” meditation, or how you know whether or not it is working.

As with most things, I find the simplest answer is the best.  You are good at mediation if you meditate.  That’s it.  The idea that you aren’t good at it or it isn’t working if you mind doesn’t go blank is just as much a fiction as any other advertisement for a perfect body, perfect family, perfect home, perfect life.  Just sit there.  That is enough.