Dan Harris

So restlessness, I often experience.

I don't know if you ever saw, since we're making Gen X references, The Princess Bride, where they have this torture device that just makes you feel, like, gross.

That, for me, is restlessness, this ants in the pants, or as my Jewish grandmother would have said, spielkes, spielkes.

that that's another problem that can emerge in meditation.

Another is doubt.

It's often described as kind of the most insidious.

And now, doubt is not to be confused with a healthy skepticism.

Oh, let's not take everything the teachers say as a commandment or inarguably true.

That's just healthy skepticism, which I would encourage as a journalist, and one of the reasons why I like the Buddha is he encouraged skepticism.

Doubt is more paralytic, a kind of analysis paralysis.

I'm so wrapped up in questioning whether I'm doing this right that I am befogged and stuck.

And I know there's a fifth hindrance that I've missed.

Sloth, yeah, how could I miss that?

Sloth and torpor, sleepiness, which, again, is a huge, has historically been a huge problem for me.

I think there are many ways to work with this.

Jeff listed before, you know, standing up.

It's totally fine if during this or any other meditation you're overcome with fatigue, stand up.

Or...

One of my favorite techniques for sloth and torpor is don't fight it.

It's okay.