I’ve been practicing simple breathing meditation for about four years. I do some each day. My mind is chaotic – habitually. Pema Chodron states that meditation is not necessarily practiced in order to cultivate a clean, clear, relaxed mind (although that can be a side-effect), but to learn to sit with ourselves, to be “steadfast” with ourselves – through our neurosis and our wisdom. To learn to watch ourselves and our patterns. She instructs us to non-judgementally label our thoughts as they arise: “thinking” – to touch it gently, like popping a bubble…and then to come back to the breathing. It is interesting how when we are sitting with ourselves, at a most fundamental state, with our breath, how uncomfortable it can be. The teachings tell us to just stay. Stay when we want to get up. Stay when we want to check the clock or make a sandwich. Stay with ourselves. Be with ourselves. In time, accept ourselves.