Yes you can. Meditation is about how you keep your mind, not your body. Try some of the alternative postures mentioned on the Meditation Postures section and see what works for you.

People often say this because they expect meditation to be a certain way or think thoughts are meant to stop (read the next point). This also occurs because the meditation isn’t what they think or expect it to be so they presume they can’t do it. Everyone can meditate because its part of our real nature and is how the mind actually works. It is like how water is wet. It is the nature of water to be wet, likewise it is the nature of the mind to be mindful (meditation). Try to just sit and be mindful of thoughts that are critical or criticizing how you are meditating. Meditation is something that takes practice and improves over time so don’t expect it to be a certain way straight away.

You aren’t doing anything wrong. You can’t control thought or stop them, just like you can’t control or stop clouds in the sky. Imagine the mind is like a pond of water. If you attempt to control the mind, its like sticking your hand into the pond and moving it around to try and catch a fish, you stir up the dirt on the bottom of the water and it just gets muddier and cloudier. The mind is just like this. By returning to your breath over and over again it is like removing your hand from the water; the water settles down on its own and becomes clearer without you having to do anything. So don’t attempt to stop thoughts or control them, just return to your breath and focus on being mindful. The thoughts will settle down on their own as your meditation develops. This can take time so be patient and stick at it. If you find a teacher who tells you to stop the thought or control the thoughts I’d recommend finding a new teacher. I’ve written a good series on this topic which is definitely worth reading called - Quietening the Inner Chatter. 

This is very normal especially when you start. Although it doesn’t feel like it, its a sign that the meditation is actually working. You are becoming aware of how agitated you actually are. And just because you’ve always been like this it doesn’t mean you have to continue to be like this, its just not healthy and not a nice way to live life. Typically our unhealthy mental states manifest things like anger, frustration, anxiety, stress, and so on. Just because we’ve experienced these for long periods in our life doesn’t mean it is who we are, it just means we’ve been dwelling in these unhealthy states for a long period of time. As you meditate more you’ll come to understand who you really are and these types of behaviours will subside. In normal life we often try to cover nervous energy up by constantly being busy, listening to music, watching TV, over-socialising, medicating (alcohol or drugs) or doing anything we can to not have to “be” with this energy. I was a very hyper person in my youth and my first year of meditation was based around just trying to sit and be comfortable with this nervous energy. It takes some time for this nervous and anxious energy to calm down but eventually it will. Just try to sit for as long as you can. If you have a lot of this energy you may not be able to sit for the full 20-30 minutes, it just becomes unbearable – you may even sweat and shake. You have two options, take a short break for about 1 minute and then sit back down and finish your meditation time or end the meditation and try again the next day. I’d recommend the first option, try to sit with this energy for as long as you possibly can. Its doing you a lot of good and eventually it will calm down. Be patient. If you chose to abort the meditation for the day make yourself the promise you’ll come back the next day and try again.

There are differing schools of thought around this, some say open, some say closed, some say partially closed but not fully (soft gaze). Feel free to experiment and see what works for you. My experience has taught me that closed is best. Sight itself is a lot of sensory information and tends to overload and distract the mind and doesn’t allow for your meditation to develop as well. Until you’ve developed considerably leave your eyes closed, and then later experiment with them open or partially open (soft gaze). There are different benefits to eyes open, closed or partially closed but closed to start off with is best. If you get drowsy then you can open your eyes or partially open them (soft gaze) so that you stay alert and mindful and then close them again later once you’re mind is being aware. There are a few more pointers on the Meditation Postures page.

Don’t worry about it. Again, meditation is about how you keep your mind, not your body. There are several other options available to you (mentioned above in the postures section) so try one of those. Very few people can actually do the lotus position.

While silent environments helps the mind to settle, noise is a part of life and you’ll always find there are noises that occur when you meditate. Again, meditation is about how you keep your mind, not how to you keep or change everything around you. Your meditation is a microcosm for how you react and behave in the rest of your life. Notice your reaction to the noise (anger, frustration, non-acceptance, annoyance) and then return the practice of focusing on your breath. Use that experience and the noise as a tool in your meditation to understand yourself further and try to relax and accept the noise that is there. If the noise is constant (like a ticking clock) then sit through it for now and next time find a different place to meditate. If that’s not possible then just continue to sit and focus on accepting the noise as a part of life. There are always things we don’t like that we try to change that we can’t, this is no different. In time you’ll come to accept the sound and as you meditation develops sounds will pass through the mind untouched like a cloud passing through the sky.

As your meditation develops there will come a time that you feel you may want to stop counting. It may take a quite a few years of regular practice to get to this point. Typically if you can’t maintain a steady unwavering mindfulness for a long period of time (several minutes) then its best to keep counting to 10 as a practice. If you can maintain the count and mindfulness with one-pointedness for a period of time you’ll be starting to enter into some of the more sublime states of mind. As the mind becomes more refined eventually the counting will become a hindrance and you’ll drop it to progress further. By this stage you’ll be starting to enter into deep Samadhi or theJhanas and will be a well experienced meditator. You’ll typically come to recognise this yourself when the time is right. There are two great small free books here by Ajahn Brahmavamso called The Basic Method of Meditation and following on from that, The Jhanas, that talk about these stages of development and are well worth the read. Feel free to experiment and try stopping counting if you like but you’ll quickly find the mind wandering listlessly if you don’t use counting as a means of focusing the mind, which isn’t good meditation practice.