When anyone isn't able to do something and then they start trying to learn how to do it they will suck at it at first.

Meditation is no different.

This isn't about meditation, it's about unwinding the need for instant gratification, which is really hard, because it's a kind of addiction. Lots of people get trapped in addictions and never escape.

You're not alone in the struggle, the struggle is real and universal. The answer is patience, acceptance and sacrifice. These will make meditation easier and meditation will make them easier - a positive feedback loop. However it's a 1% better every day thing, progress at first will be slow but it will compound. Do it every day for a year and look back and your growth will be vast.

It's also about habits. Meditation is a good habit, and will help you grow. Everyone has bad habits that are holding them back. Trying to change too many habits at once is unsustainable, except for maybe when the entire life is reset (new home, new job, new friends, etc.) but that's risky in itself.

Some bad habits will make learning meditation a little harder. Learning meditation will make dropping those habits a little easier.

Whatever you do, be kind and patience with yourself and just try and keep with it. Just 1% better every day. Fall down and get back up. It's worth it.

> It's frustratingly difficult to even get through the first lesson in which you are supposed to focus on your breath and minimize the wandering of your mind.

There’s the problem: trying to control your thoughts. Thoughts will come and you shouldn’t beat yourself up when they do. Be patient, keep practicing, and you’ll get better at focusing.

Alternatively consider something like box breathing. I use the iBreathe app and find that works better for me than meditation.

Stopped mistaking my thoughts and opinions with reality.

Result: 90% reduction of agony.

Meditation method: remembering the sense of “I am-ness” in every waking moment, stop thinking whenever possible, focus on senses whenever I remember. When: always, unless I forget.

I'm sorry this seems terribly HN of me to not answer your question and go on a tangent, but consider a retreat. If you want to give it a serious try, it's night and day compared to doing it at home for 20 minutes a day, especially in the beginning when nothing makes sense and it's hard to know which direction progress even is.

The first time I did a Vipassana retreat many years ago it really showed me that "oh, right, the mind can get into a veeery different state if given the right environment".

Some might say it's an artificial environment you can't replicate at home, and I agree, but by getting much further in such a dense time, it provided a better anchor for me to know what I'm even trying to achieve in my 20 minutes at home.

But it can be very intense, it's possible it would be too much for someone that isn't in an appropriate mindspace.

I'm a very unserious meditator, but when I sit down I at least know when I'm doing "right concentration" or not, so it's possible to have a direction.

I'm speaking very vaguely, but, you know... it comes with the territory.

Short answer - stress word started feeling like a joke