“Well, that’s just sitting on a cushion isn’t it? Just common sense. Anyone can do that. Why would we need to employ someone to do that?”

These are the words of a senior manager I spoke to about adopting a mindfulness meditation as part the company’s wellness programme. I had been asked to suggest cost-effective and innovative approaches for dealing with employee stress at a time when staff morale was low and staff sickness was rising monthly. I was taken aback by the dismissive response. I had couched the pitch in modern language, had presented empirical research findings of the efficacy of mindfulness for reducing stress in the workplace and had finished by listing a number of large corporations who use mindfulness for similar ends. I had not expected it to be an easy sell and I thought I had prepared for the inevitable scepticism with enough scientific evidence to satisfy the most cynical of individuals, but alas no.

Why such a response? Mindfulness, it would seem, is everywhere at the moment. Articles abound in the serious press, it is featured on the BBC, both on television and radio and there are endless documentaries and talks on the likes of Ted and YouTube. It permeates the mainstream to such a degree that it has even been lampooned on the latest series of gangster comedy-drama “Lillyhammer”. Surely then people must know what mindfulness is and understand it?

Well, in my experience, not really. The TV ribbing and the attitude of the manager quoted above point to a wider problem that mindfulness faces. In reality many people may have heard of it but do not understand it, seeing it as easy, self-indulgent and a perfect target for satire. And this is the crux of the misunderstanding. It often boils down (once you get past the scepticism, references to hippies and the other such off-target clichés) the fact that people do not understand how difficult “just sitting on a cushion” can be and what the mind will do when one attempts to do this.

Not convinced? Still scratching your head and thinking “really, what can be so difficult?” Just try this little experiment – it will only take a minute.

Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Take a seat, preferably on a cushion on the floor, but for now any surface that will bear your weight will suffice. If possible (unless you have back problems) ensure that you are seated away from any back support so that your spine is self-supporting. Close your eyes, and for a minute just concentrate on the breath as it enters and leaves your body. For a whole minute just focus with a sense of curiosity on the breath alone, simply coming and going………..not as easy as it sounds is it? Within seconds you probably noticed that the mind wanted to do anything but stay focused on the breath. There is nothing wrong here, this is what minds do. You are not failing or being rubbish at meditation, you are just being introduced to how difficult it actually is to let the mind rest without the need to do something, to search for distraction, to fill ever second with something that is not what is happening in this very second.
It is being alone with ourselves in the present that we are uncomfortable with.

Why would we be? Our whole culture is geared towards constant entertainment, striving, games, phones, food, stuff, stuff and stuff. You’re a long time dead they say, but without stopping to pause you will miss many of the actual moments of the one life you get, the one life you are living. It can be uncomfortable stopping and getting to know the workings of our mind. We may need to confront fears and difficulties we have ignored and buried under a plethora of thinking and, well, stuff but speaking from personal experience, the positives far outweigh the negatives.