And of course no one ever says this. It's always presented as a "if you do it the right way, and do it enough, then it just works", which is definitely bullshit and even starts to trigger my cult response.
After a month and a half of intensive study that made no difference whatsoever, I'm pretty much done. The marginal benefits don't at all seem worth the extreme effort.
This is absolutely fine, I think of the hundreds of people I taught, I would say 5-10% simply didn’t not catch on at all, no matter my angle of teaching. In those cases I would focus on relaxation above all, like you already gathered yourself.
That said the different pathways to the experience you would call deep meditation is very diverse, and sometimes it’s also a phase/station of life people need to be in. In old texts these things are often described as different temperaments, so I doubt it’s a new thing :D
After a month and a half of intensive study that made no difference whatsoever, I'm pretty much done. The marginal benefits don't at all seem worth the extreme effort.
Now I just write instead. It's far more relaxing.