“Three Ways Your Ego Stops Your Meditation” -Stress Therapy: S2 Ep 4

Showing up to meditate is hard enough. What's more maddening is sitting down, ready to go, and getting talked out of it anyway — by yourself. Cheri names the three tactics her ego uses: time, body, and environment.

The body one is the sneakiest, and she has proof. During a 40-day willpower challenge she gave up her nightly Halls cherry cough drop, and a few minutes in she came down with the worst sore throat of her life. It hurt. It was also completely fake. That's the same machinery telling you your knee hurts too much to sit today.

Environment is the one she wrestles with most: the sudden certainty you left the oven on, the fear you forgot to return an important call, and — her ego's cleverest move — a genuinely brilliant idea you have to get up and write down right now. Her meditation teacher had a good answer for that one.

Closes with a guided meditation using the mantra Aham Brahmasmi, plus the flower method for setting stray thoughts aside.