If I had to guess at the part of class that most people feel least sure about, I’d say it’s the meditation. Asana, most people can get on board with – you can feel it working. But ask someone to sit still and “meditate,” and a familiar pattern often follows: a car goes past outside, someone coughs, your mind starts making a shopping list, and five minutes later you’re wondering what the point of any of this was.
If that’s you, I want to start by saying: that’s not you doing it wrong. That’s just what minds do.
Why It Feels Hard
We’re not used to sitting still and doing, apparently, nothing. Most of the rest of life is full of input – phones, conversations, things to look at, things to respond to. So, when you sit down and the input stops, your mind doesn’t stop too. It tends to get louder, at least at first, because it’s no longer being drowned out by everything else.
The car outside, the cough, the shopping list – none of that is a sign that meditation “isn’t working.” In a way, it’s the opposite. You’re noticing your mind doing what it always does; you just don’t usually notice, because you’re busy.
Where It Fits in Yoga
It’s worth saying why this is even part of a yoga class at all, because I think that’s often missing.
The physical practice – the poses, the breath, the strength and flexibility – isn’t really separate from this. In a lot of ways, it’s preparation for it. A body that’s been moved, stretched and settled is a body that can sit still more comfortably. The breathwork we do isn’t just for relaxation in the moment; it’s also training your attention, in smaller doses, for exactly the kind of stillness that meditation asks for. By the time we get to a few quiet minutes at the end, your body and breath have often already done some of the work – even if your mind hasn’t quite caught up yet.
If asana feels like “the real practice” and meditation feels like an add-on, it might help to flip that around slightly: the whole class is building toward those few quiet minutes, even when it doesn’t feel like it.
What Meditation Actually Is (And isn’t)
Meditation isn’t about emptying your mind, or achieving some particular feeling, or doing it “right.” At its simplest, it’s about giving your attention somewhere to rest – often the breath – and noticing, gently, when it’s wandered off and bringing it back. That’s it. That’s the whole practice.
The wandering off isn’t a failure. It’s actually most of what meditation is – noticing, and returning, over and over. Some days that happens a hundred times in five minutes. Other days it’s quieter. Neither is better or worse; it’s just what’s happening that day.
A Few Small Things That Help
If outside noise is particularly distracting, it can help to let it become part of the practice rather than fighting it – a car going past is just sound, the same as your breath is just sound. You don’t have to chase it away; you can let it arrive and pass, the same way a thought does.
If your mind feels uninterested or restless, that’s worth noticing too, rather than pushing through it. Sometimes a few minutes is genuinely enough – meditation isn’t measured in how long you can sit, but in the quality of attention you bring, however briefly.
And if it still feels like “not for you” some days – that’s fine too. Turn up to the next class and see how it feels then. Like everything else in yoga, this isn’t something you arrive at once and keep forever; it’s something you come back to, again and again, for as long as it’s useful.
For the ideas and tradition behind meditation practice, the Philosophy section goes deeper. If you’re curious about yoga as a way of living beyond the mat, Spiritual Living is worth exploring.
If you’d like to build a steadier practice through the breath, The Living Breath is a course in pranayama that lays a wonderful foundation for meditation.