The Five Hindrances are aspects of mind that can hide or cover over what’s real in experience. They create obstacles to our concentration and attention. Energetically, they interrupt our sense of balance. They show up for everyone on the cushion and in daily life.

As we saw with the hindrances of Attachment and Aversion, we can get thrown around between grasping too hard and hating too strongly. We miss the fact that they actually both of these aspects exist and our job is to find equanimity or balance between them. The Hindrances obscure reality and profoundly affect our mental clarity primarily when we forget that they are impermanent and come and go.

In meditation, the hindrance of sloth affects our physical energy and vitality. This is where we feel heavy, weary or weak and struggle to activate our energy. Torpor affects our mental energy. We know is mostly as cloudy or foggy thinking or when our mind wanders.

However, with mindfulness practice we can see that the problem is not that there isn’t available energy. As soon as conditions change, as they certainly will, energy will be at the ready. With awareness we can open the truth of the changing winds and regain balance.