Pop quiz: What do eating healthy, exercising regularly, and meditating have in common? Answer: Mention any of these three things around another person and watch them turn into a human excuse factory. If you haven’t heard any good excuses lately, you should try to get someone you know to start meditating. Here are three of the most common ones I encounter, and why they’re nothing more than excuses.

“It’s a Bunch of Nonsense” 

It’s funny; we supposedly are living in the most progressive time in human history, yet this is still one of the most common excuses I hear people using to get out of meditating. “Isn’t that just a bunch of bull?,” “does it really work?,” “isn’t it just a waste of time?” It doesn’t matter how many ways you rephrase this expression, they’re all saying the same thing: meditation is nonsense — i.e., “I don’t believe it works.”

A couple decades ago this was a fine excuse for the common skeptic. After all, back then no one could prove that meditation did work. But these days, there’s just so much scientific evidence proving that it does work, you run the risk of sounding ignorant if you think it’s just a bunch of phooey.

“I Don’t Have the Time”

“I don’t have the time” is still probably the number one excuse used by everyone from soccer moms to CEOs. Apparently no one has the time to meditate because, you know, it takes hours upon hours of practice each day to master it… False. It only takes a few minutes to practice meditation if that’s all you have time for. If you fall into the “I don’t have time camp,” I encourage you to review some more of my blog posts and online training videos because I share many tips on how you can squeeze mindfulness meditation into a hectic schedule.

“It Doesn’t Work On Me”

This might not be the most common excuse, but it is certainly the most laughably absurd excuse, and probably the one people believe the most — of themselves, at least. First and foremost, meditation is not hypnosis. Often time, people have a belief that “it doesn’t work on me” excuse.

What saying “meditation doesn’t work on me” is really like, is like saying, “exercise doesn’t work on me.” I would say, “Can you imagine if someone said that to you?”, but I’m pretty sure some people do claim to be impervious to the effects of jogging. Hopefully, you get the picture, though. Meditation will “work” on everyone just the same as long as you put forth the effort and give it an honest chance. If you discredit it before you even start, you’re probably not going to get much out of it.

Note: Specifically, with regards to medical issues, always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the Web site.