I have heard many people say that they don't meditate regularly because it gets boring or it's too hard. I want to address those concerns in this piece.
First, a reminder is that meditation involves the intention to bring curiosity and openness to whatever you are noticing, and this includes the mind that is noticing whatever you are focusing on. This alone means that you are not likely to get bored unless the sensations of each breath are exactly the same as the last and your mind is otherwise still!
Second, the goal of meditation is to develop wisdom, including being kind and compassionate. A quieter mind is a byproduct of this process. However, getting the mind to stop is not what meditation is about. A totally quiet mind is not necessarily a wise mind.
Let us consider some examples.
It's too noisy
You might 'take a step back' and let the noises come to you.
You might go wide angle and be curious about all the noises you hear now.
You might zoom in on a specific noise, for example, lawnmower— what are all the sounds the lawnmower makes, Construction work— What does an electric saw make, hammering, other noises? If you are meditating in the morning, there are often bird calls you might notice.
Your mind is restless
There are several options.
One is to change your focus to breath, body, or loving-kindness.
Another is to count your breaths from 1 to 10 and start over when you get to 10. If you forget where you are, smile and start over. After all there is nothing to achieve or accomplish.
Another is to explore what restlessness feels or how the body is affected by restlessness.
You’re just not into it this morning
Can you be into just this next breath with curiosity and openness? If so, how about the next breath? The next breath?
When you breathe in, feel the life-giving oxygen entering your body.
When you breathe out, feel the natural relaxation on the exhalation.
Do you notice any relaxation or ease in your body as a result?
Pain in your body
Focus on the area that is uncomfortable.
Temporally let go of wanting it to go away and be curious:
What are all the sensations you notice there?
How big is the area of this discomfort?
What shape is it: like a line, a circle, an oval, irregular, etc.
Two images that people find helpful
Imagine a waterfall suddenly roaring because of rain in higher elevations and it is falling on your head, clobbering you. Now imagine standing behind the waterfall. You’re not getting clobbered by it anymore, though you get some splash. It's the same with thoughts when they feel like a waterfall. Stand back and just observe them mindfully—curious and open. Relate to them as thoughts, not your thoughts but just thoughts. Let go of the story of the thoughts and focus on the energy of the thoughts and their effect on your body. For example, angry thoughts land differently on the body than anxious thoughts or sad thoughts.
Another image people find helpful is to see your thoughts as clouds passing by. Occasionally, during a day with big white clouds, I will pick a small wisp of a cloud and watch it until it dissolves. This is a wonderful reminder that our thoughts are like clouds. They may last a while, but eventually they dissolve.
Two metaphors that can be helpful.
If you like dancing, meditation is like dancing--different rhythms, different effects on your body and your heart.
If you like backpacking, meditation is like backpacking. The scenery is always changing. Sometimes you go uphill and sometimes downhill. Sometimes the pace is steady, sometimes not.
Regardless of whatever image or metaphor helps you, the primary idea is to bring yourself to witness mode with respect to the thoughts.
Not having unrealistic expectations
Ajahn Chah once spoke about the tasks of a monk while meditating, and that sounded pretty rigorous, pretty hard, And then he said that if a monk could do this 10% of the time, that would be great! A well-known author on parenting gives great advice and she has two kids. She confesses that she follows her advice only about 30% of the time. The rest of the time she reverts to what her parents did. So it's not about perfection.
It took me many years to get to this point. My guess is that meditation teachers told me something like what I just wrote, but I couldn't hear it. Now I can and it is pretty easy to meditate every day--virtually never boring or hard.
Another perspective
Thich Nhat Hanh, a wonderful Vietnamese meditation teacher said "Whatever you do mindfully is meditation."
Two notes:
1. Sometimes, if you are very stressed, it can be helpful to have a meditation where the mind is quiet. In that case, you can select a focus, e.g., breath, body, mantra, etc. Whenever you find your mind has wandered, smile and gently bring your attention back to your focus.
2. There are many practices for working with a mind that is not calm. I have described only a few here.