The classroom was quiet. College students sat in a circle, eyes closed. Several legs jittered up and down. A few sat still as stones. This was week three of our English class and I’d decided that as a group, these students were so anxious as to be nearly unteachable. I’d find myself repeating the same basic things over and over. So, I decided to teach them to meditate.

We started off short, a few minutes guided practice. This week, I dropped them into a few slightly longer pockets of silence, so they could see their streams of thoughts and practice letting go; seeing that they could stop their minds from hijacking their attention and bring it back to their object for practice, the breath. I kept my awareness open to the vibe in the room, seeing how long they could go without it being too much.

I rang the bell three times and asked everyone to go to their notebooks and write down anything they noticed about their experience. The sound of pencils moving across paper filled the room. One young woman emitted a series of significant sighs.

When I asked, “Who wants to read first,” the sigher shot me a pointed look.

She read. “I CAN’T DO THIS! My mind is ALL OVER THE PLACE  I FEEL CRAZY! I’M THINKING THIS AND THAT. OH MY GOD! And, what about homework? How will I get my project done? And work! I have to go to work after this and I get home late and…” she sighed again and looked up at me. “This is stupid.” She said. “I can’t do it.”

I told her that she already was in fact doing it, but that she was just subject to two of the biggest myths about meditation. One: Meditation is hard. Two: it’s supposed to be something special, a sort of spa experience for the mind. She rolled her eyes.

Bhante Gunaratana, one of the world’s greatest meditation teachers said that when we first start meditating and notice how extraordinarily busy our minds are, we may feel a little crazy. But he said, it’s okay. We’ve made it this far. And it’s never too late to begin meditation. The Buddha said that we start from wherever we are. Once we start meditating, we know this truth and can begin to work with it.

We can do it. It only feels hard if we think meditation’s supposed to be something special. But when we let go of that and practice at just noticing what’s going on in the mind, in the heart and in the body, we will have embarked on one of life’s greatest adventures, that is, self discovery and awakening. We are developing awareness. We can begin finally, to see reality clearly.

So, I invite you to try it. Right now. Read this, then close your eyes. Bring your awareness to the physical sensations of your breath coming in and going out. When thoughts come, acknowledge them, label them silently if you like (thinking, thinking) then let them go. Come back to the breath over and again. When you feel ready, open your eyes. Pause now and note how you feel physically, mentally , emotionally. Know that you can pause like this, for a few breaths any time. You can start over, in every moment, you can begin again.