In this video, Nick Kemp explores the often misunderstood challenges of meditation and how it relates to the concept of flow. If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to meditate, you’re not alone! Nick shares his personal insights and experiences from studying flow, ikigai, and time spent at a Chan Buddhist Centre, where meditation felt more like focused work than floating bliss.
Meditation isn't always a pleasant experience
Nick: So it is fascinating, all these concepts like flow and meditation and studying ikigai has made me realise I really need to understand these concepts. And so flow is a good example. I think everyone has this idea that flow is something that you can ease into.
And sometimes I think you can, but it's defined by having a certain skill set to meet a certain challenge. So it shouldn't be too easy, and it shouldn't be too hard. So I think the same is for meditation, we have some idea of it, but some people think it's floating into bliss, where you described it as, it's almost like work, like it is hard to try to meditate.
I spent time at a Chan Buddhist Centre, so a Chinese Zen Buddhist Centre. And yeah, it was like, do I want to go tonight? It's not like it's really enjoyable, it's like, I've got to try and calm my mind and sit still and breathe quietly and control my thoughts. So it's not always pleasant, it's quite challenging.
Kiku: Yeah, in a way, it's easier to stay in your normal kind of mind where you have thoughts all the time. It's very hard to stop them.