If you are a parent, a student, or a hard-working single person, you may feel that meditation is impossible. You need privacy. You need the right setting. You need time. You need the world to leave you alone for a short while.

If you share your life with others, the situation can be difficult. Children, roommates or lovers will inevitably ask: “What are you doing?” If you tell them you are meditating, they may ask why you would bother to do such a thing. What do you hope to gain? Does it work? Don’t you feel silly?

Suddenly you are so busy justifying yourself, you do not have the ability to do what you want to do. The people in your life can make you feel self-conscious and anxious. Not a good recipe for meditation. You can’t put your mind at rest when you are worried about how you appear to others.

What then, can you do?

Integrate meditation into your daily life. Become a “covert” meditator if your situation so requires. Don’t feel obligated to let others know what you are doing. Even if you can only scrape out a few short minutes for yourself, make that time belong to you. Connect to your core self.