It eventually worked for you - great. That doesn't prove that it will eventually work for everyone.

At some point, when something is not working, you have to write off the sunk cost. In many cases, there's no obvious threshold as to when you make that decision, and it's easy to think that maybe, if you'd just held out a little longer, been a bit more determined, you could have made it work. But you have to make a call, without knowing for certain either way. And it can be the right call, even if, with perfect information, you'd have made the other choice.

So, while I'm sure lots of the people saying "you should just have tried harder" are doing so with complete good will, it's not helpful. You don't know, for another random person on the internet:

* how much work they put in

* what other burdens they were carrying

* what other needs and responsibilities they could use that time and energy on

* how their mind is different to your mind

etc, etc. In short, you don't have most of the information needed to make that decision for them, and you don't have any call to judge them for it.

I'll be honest, both these things are true:

It works extremely well, and I don't do it as consistently as I should, precisely because it's actually kind of hard work and the reward is uncertain and delayed (though it can also be enjoyable at the time sometimes).

So I'm also in the boat where I don't get the benefits I could get, I get it. Making it a routine is legitimately hard.

I just find it hard to believe that it wouldn't be beneficial to most people if they stuck with it, because so many human problems are caused by fixating on the past and future and ignoring the present.

I can't experience what it's like to be someone else, but based on what other people say and do, most people seem to be experiencing similar problems to me in this regard.

Having said that: if you have any kind of mental health condition like depersonalisation, derealisation etc, you should consult a medical professional before starting any kind of meditation programme.

These are powerful techniques that can be dangerous if used inappropriately by the wrong person