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This is a thread to tell each other when you meditate. It might be helpful to have a place to check in. It can be difficult to stay on our ideal path. Speaking for myself, I need to do this. Resetting the compass: "I will walk a straight, perfect line everyday." Try as we might, to walk the straightforward 180 degrees, being off by a single degree daily we over time find ourselves going in circles. The act of meditation is the recalibration of the mind, so that one may continue the clearest way forward.
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Nov 2, 2020 19:09
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Being very busy this morning, I set my timer for 7 minutes, and meditated for 2. I could feel a sense of peeking through a foggy woods. The first step to meditation, is I think to get comfortable. I sit cross-legged on on the carpet. Close your eyes. I don't listen to music. 2 minutes doesn't sound like much, but it's better than 0. And it's hard, my mind was wanting to run off for about 1 minute and 30 seconds of it.
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Nov 4, 2020 15:51
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A very serious question, something I struggled with the few times I tried meditating. How do you keep yourself from falling asleep?
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Nov 4, 2020 17:02
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I belive this is how tea was originally invented as an everyday drink! It helped monks to stay awake while meditating. Muslim mystics did the same with coffee in Ethiopia many centuries later.
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Nov 4, 2020 20:48
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Yea, I do it within an hour of waking up. Meditation isn't some type of relaxing technique to help you get rest, even though it can be and thats ok too. But if you are sleepy, just realizing that, accepting it and observing the state of being sleepy, in theory that is how you do it.
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Nov 4, 2020 23:17
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I Meditated for 2 minutes this morning. I set my timer for 2minutes 30 seconds but didn't make it. I breathed deeply one time, nonvolitionally. I could feel the mind turning it's focus back to the body. I feel different right now. To get into the higher planes, look for 'The Mind inside of the Mind.' One time I was looking for the mind inside of the mind inside of the mind inside of the mind, and so on, and I went to such a high level it was almost scary. No, it was scary. I find it frightening sometimes.
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Nov 5, 2020 16:16
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Setting an alarm and forcing yourself to mediate for a certain length of time seems to go against the point of meditation IMO
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Nov 6, 2020 06:58
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A Typical Goon posted:Setting an alarm and forcing yourself to mediate for a certain length of time seems to go against the point of meditation IMO Ok do tell what the point is please
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Nov 6, 2020 08:00
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I don't know if this counts, and I'm sorry for intruding, but at work, when I have a quiet moment of nothing to do, I just stop, and sit, and close my eyes, and breathe. And it's nice. Normally at work I'm hyper energetic and try to help everyone and do a gazillion tasks all at once. But to just stop, and sit, and breathe, and not think, just for a moment.
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Nov 6, 2020 13:00
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Cheese Thief posted:Ok do tell what the point is please There is no point. The point is just to sit. It’s like dancing. When you dance there is no destination on the floor where you mean to end up, the point of the dancing is just to dance IronClaymore posted:I don't know if this counts, and I'm sorry for intruding, but at work, when I have a quiet moment of nothing to do, I just stop, and sit, and close my eyes, and breathe. I used to think meditation was just hooky Mumbo jumbo before I realized I had spent almost every shower of my life meditating without even trying to. Once I realized that my usual way to deal with anxiety or stress was to hop in the shower and chill it was like a little light went off in my head
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Nov 6, 2020 13:37
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A Typical Goon posted:There is no point. The point is just to sit. It’s like dancing. When you dance there is no destination on the floor where you mean to end up, the point of the dancing is just to dance I guess I got the wrong impression from your comment, it sounded like you were telling me I'm doing it wrong. I need to use a timer so I'm not late for work in the morning. I also have to make myself put time back or I'll put it off, for a year or more. I don't like alarms either so I understand. There are two sides to Meditation Mountain: Peace and tranquility on one side. On the other side is insight. So I'd contend there is a point to it. In one sense it is practicing for death.
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Nov 6, 2020 15:21
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I a little bit apologize for my poorly conceived thread. It serves this purpose: If you have a goal to set aside time for meditation/contemplation, then to tell each other here is a way to stay motivated. I know OPs are supposed to be well thought out, but I'm not trying to sell the idea to anyone. I just sat on the floor for 5 minutes with my eyes closed. I breathed deeply several times. Some methods teach controlled breathing, I do not practice that. I think the breath should be natural. In meditation, you are the observer. You watch the body do what it does without controlling it's function. Above I stated that meditation is in a sense practicing for death. That sounds intense and overblown, but let me explain at least 1 profound experience. It was the night before my finals, years of college came down to a single test that would determine everything. The night before I sat in meditation, before bed. I didn't move my body, my body craved to move but I wouldn't move at all. I started getting very nervous, it felt like I was dying, that I lost the function of my body. My eyes behind my eyelids began REM, rapidly moving in circles as if I was in a deep sleep, but being fully awake and conscious. I was scared, I was saw lights, referred to as a nimmita by the Thai monks. I retreated from the light out of fear. But then I remembered what love meant. I approached the light again in this state but contemplated the idea of love. At that moment something happened, I felt a huge rush, some type of chemical was released in my brain. I think I had a near death experience. This has happened only that one time, but I'll never forget it. [edit] I have to edit my posts or it reads real bad. I always forget to proofread or read back what I wrote before hitting submit and the stuff i write is always real bad at first go . Cheese Thief fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Nov 12, 2020 |
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Nov 12, 2020 22:57
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A Typical Goon posted:Setting an alarm and forcing yourself to mediate for a certain length of time seems to go against the point of meditation IMO Depends on the style or goal of meditation. For some meditation is an attention training excersice and it's helpful to use a timer to set aside a block of time.
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Nov 15, 2020 10:34
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massive spider posted:Depends on the style or goal of meditation. For some meditation is an attention training excersice and it's helpful to use a timer to set aside a block of time. Hey thanks for posting. If you go into a Monk's temple, there is a set length of time the meditation begins and ends, after which the monk taps a bell. The head monk later discussed organizing a retreat of specifically 'no bells.' Because he says with 'no bells' you get a 'no bell peace prize.' He was a funny monk.
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Nov 15, 2020 13:55
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My partner really likes the Calm app, which was recommended by a friend, however it costs ~$90 a year. Is there a good alternative that offers the same type of service?
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Nov 20, 2020 12:00
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Professor Shark posted:My partner really likes the Calm app, which was recommended by a friend, however it costs ~$90 a year. Is there a good alternative that offers the same type of service? There’s a lot of free YouTube meditations. Insight timer you can do all the tracking stuff if that’s what you’re going for.
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Nov 20, 2020 12:03
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All you do is be in a quiet place and close your eyes while watching your breath. Look for Ajahn Brahm's Guided Meditation if you want. Selling mediation for $90 I think is unethical, the knowledge is priceless. As I havent updated, Ive been bad and distracted.
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Nov 20, 2020 12:25
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So, I have been giving meditation a try the last few days because there is quite a bit of stress in my life right now. A lot of it is positive stress, but some negative as well and I have been noticing myself to start to fray at the edges. Anyways. I have always had a problem filtering out distractions and random noise while concentrating and as it turns out that gets even harder while meditating. I kept finding myself fixating on stuff like bird calls the strange electrical hissing some chargers make that is usually barely audible and only at the edge of my perception but which becomes almost world filling when you try to ignore it. So, yeah. I assume that is something that gets better with practice but for now it was a somewhat frustrating experience.
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Nov 20, 2020 16:52
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Mistaken Identity posted:So, I have been giving meditation a try the last few days because there is quite a bit of stress in my life right now. A lot of it is positive stress, but some negative as well and I have been noticing myself to start to fray at the edges. Nothing wrong with listening to the birds sing during meditation 
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Nov 21, 2020 04:01
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I started a dedicated meditation practice about 18 months ago following a 10-day Vipassana course (https://www.dhamma.org if anyone's curious). The Vipassana people recommend sitting for two hours a day: one soon after getting up and one soon before going to bed. I'm not always able to devote that amount of time, but I've been doing at least 30 minutes in a single sit each day or 60 when I can. I've found meditation to be the single best method of regulating my mood and mental state of any I have tried. It's not magic, and it's not significantly similar to psychedelic states (which I do think can be useful in their own way). It's just time set aside each day to observe what's going on inside my mind and body without reacting to it, which in turn makes me much better able to avoid impulsively reacting to the stimuli I encounter in my normal daily life. It's also great practice for my ability to focus and maintain my attention.Professor Shark posted:My partner really likes the Calm app, which was recommended by a friend, however it costs ~$90 a year. Is there a good alternative that offers the same type of service? As SpaceSDoorGunner mentioned, Insight Timer offers a great customizable timer and tracker for free. It's all I use for my sits. You can set up various chimes to go off at any point within your session (for example, to mark the end of your warm up time, to alert you you're halfway done, that it's time to switch from one type of meditation to another, etc.). If the main thing you're paying for is lessons, then I'd advise looking elsewhere. The course I did was 100% free, though because of the pandemic they're not doing any residential courses right now. But you can easily find plenty of guides online. Although it's a slightly different method than the one I learned at my course, I like the way the first two chapters of this guide by a Buddhist monk explain sitting meditation; that link includes video instructions as well. Others might disagree, but my own recommendation is that after you learn a method of meditation you find useful, you practice unguided - at least the majority of the time - rather than following one after another of the many guided sequences offered by apps like Calm or Headspace. Meditation is about learning to control your own attention and observe yourself. It is of course useful and necessary to begin with someone instructing you until you understand how to do it, but there comes a point where you shouldn't be overly reliant on someone else telling you what to do, waiting for their next set of directions. Mistaken Identity posted:So, I have been giving meditation a try the last few days because there is quite a bit of stress in my life right now. A lot of it is positive stress, but some negative as well and I have been noticing myself to start to fray at the edges. Stop trying to ignore it. If a bird call or electrical hissing starts to overwhelm your perception while you meditate, then observe the bird call or the hissing. Notice the quality of the sound: is it sharp, dull, fast, slow, etc.? Notice what if any sensations it causes elsewhere in your body: Does it make you feel a certain way? Does it trigger a physical reaction, and if so where and what? The sound is what you're experiencing at that precise moment, so choose to become interested in the sound and in the effects it has on you. If you're able, take another step back and observe yourself in the act of observing the sound, noticing the qualities of the experience of observation. Don't fight any experience you have while meditating; just calmly and attentively witness it without judging it as good or bad. Quick edit to add to the above: The suggestion to observe the interrupting sound might not apply if the type of meditation you're practicing calls for you to focus your attention on something else, such as watching your breath or scanning your body. In that case, instead of wrestling with yourself to ignore the sound, briefly allow yourself to acknowledge that it's present and then resume focusing your attention on your intended object. Don't try to pretend it isn't there (because it is, and that's OK). Whenever it overwhelms your focus, as soon as you realize it has done so, gently remind yourself to redirect your attention. "Gently" is a key word, there: don't become angry with yourself for being distracted, and don't resent the source of the sound for interrupting your meditation. Those harsh reactions will disrupt your practice far more than the sound itself. Observe that the sound is present, allow it to be present, and get back to the task at hand. Hic Sunt Dracones fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Nov 22, 2020 |
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Nov 22, 2020 07:14
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Has anyone gotten into the “Wim Hof” method? It seems since his son took over managing his business everything is expensive as hell. I’ve done the breathing exercises, it’s pretty much that that and gentle cold exposure every day right? Butter Activities fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Nov 23, 2020 |
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Nov 23, 2020 07:27
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I truly appreciate sharing in this thread. This is a subject I deem a serious topic, I hold in reverance. I have been bad, not engaging. It has been a very difficult month, personally I believe if I had been meditating upon wakening that life would be better. Maintaining routines is how I expect to keep the right path. I am not knowledgable enough to share in great detail, methods towards insight/peace, but again I am thankful for the earnest postings.
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Dec 5, 2020 06:11
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massive spider posted:Depends on the style or goal of meditation. For some meditation is an attention training excersice and it's helpful to use a timer to set aside a block of time. Mistaken Identity posted:So, I have been giving meditation a try the last few days because there is quite a bit of stress in my life right now. A lot of it is positive stress, but some negative as well and I have been noticing myself to start to fray at the edges. You can also choose to keep bringing your attention back to your breath or mantra if you use one, whatever works. I also want to vouch for insight timer, but also throw in for headspace. Headspace was worth it for me, and I love their teaching method. They cover a lot of different styles, breath focus, mantras, noting, visualization, body scanning, walking. The best part though is that each course contains about 20 sessions. In the first lesson it's heavily guided, but the voice over gets more and more minimal until all you have is a start and stop. It's a really efficient way to learn, and it preps you to be able to meditate without guidance. EDIT: Headspace also integrates some daily exercises into some of its meditations, like anchoring a feeling of calm to your breath during your meditation. Then, 3x throughout the day stopping to count 10 breaths. It's such a great way to bring an instant calming effect and relieve stress. eSporks fucked around with this message at 06:00 on Aug 4, 2021 |
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Aug 3, 2021 21:32
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I don't subscribe go any spiritual aspects of meditation but use it sometimes as a means of controlling my subconscious. I dont know if what I do is proper meditation or whatever but heres what I do sometimes when my mind is racing. I simply try to focus on and "snip" or cut, or let loose one train of thought at a time. I picture it like tugging a bit of hair loose and cutting it at its base. As I go I "reach" deeper back into my subconscious, find a train of thought and then actively try to let it go. Keep doing this and I end up feeling a lot more clear headed. Maybe this will help someone, maybe not. My wife states that she is completely unable to "think about nothing" or slow her thoughts so maybe it doesn't work for everyone.
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Sep 5, 2021 14:57
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https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations Been using these for almost a decade off and on. There is now an app too and the cost is only in your well spent time.
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Sep 6, 2021 02:10
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Abongination posted:I don't subscribe go any spiritual aspects of meditation but use it sometimes as a means of controlling my subconscious. Focused Attention meditation is good too! If she's into it have her throw on some headphones and just focus on some good music to the exclusion of everything else. I find a timer helps immensely.
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Sep 10, 2021 03:32
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I saw someone online recommend this song for a focused attention meditation and it works really well. https://youtu.be/VXIqXaX1blY Throughout the whole 8 minutes is a repetitive 3 notes in the background while the rest of it changes. It's nice to focus on those three notes and try not to lose them.
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Sep 10, 2021 05:03
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Hot yoga might be a good way to start out learning meditation, since at the end when you're all sweaty and tired you relax in corpse pose for a few minutes. Your muscles feel a lot different after putting them to their stretchy limits especially in a hot as hell room, which should help you "distract" yourself in the way meditation is supposed to distract you. When I was a yoga instructor, I'd guide people into meditation at the end of class in our compact hot room at 102 fahrenheit. I'd tell people to relax on their back and slowly tell them to focus on each muscle one at a time: "you might feel your wrists becoming more heavy... now your elbows... into your shoulders", blah blah, some hypnosis-esque talk to get people into a state of mind where they're thinking about what they're feeling right now rather than their past or future. Then I'd let them relax there as I'd go around and give brief shoulder massages to people that appear to not be fully relaxed. This helped people let go and become absorbed in their meditation. One time this one cutie in class looked a bit tense so I went over with the usual routine to get her to relax. I figured out the reason for the lack of relaxation when the stink hit my nostrils. The queef stench released by her salami sphincter relaxation wafted through the room at a slow-moving-disaster’s pace. I was patient zero since I was in closest proximity to the blast radius. The heat of the room magnified the intensity of the deadly scent. It took time to travel and I could see everyone tense up row by row as the cloud of evil hit them one by one. It started with a wiggle of the nose. Then a gag of the throat. Each individual went from a great sense of relaxation into fierce tension. I was impressed. They were still in the now. They were focusing on how they were feeling at that very moment instead of worrying about their past or future. It was the greatest display of meditation I'd ever seen. I usually stay after meditation to wake people up and do the whole namaste speech, but this time I told everyone to relax another 5 minutes as I escaped the gas tomb so I could save my nose. The stink stuck in the room no matter how many times we sprayed everything down. We would usually spritz some lemon lavender scent all over after class for any sweat smells, but the doom smell brought forth by the wind-relieving relaxation couldn’t be masked. It endured for weeks until I finally gave up and turned in my notice to the owner so that my nose wouldn’t have to suffer in that room anymore. Later, the owner told me they never got the stink smell out and that the building had to be destroyed.   
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Mar 15, 2023 18:34
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I started using the Waking Up app earlier this year, and found it to really work for me. It made an immediate impact on my sense of wellbeing and helpd with my propensity for anxiety. A few months later and I'm still using it. Harris cuts through a lot of BS and really explains things lucidly, plus his voice is very relaxing. Would definitely recommend it.
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Apr 24, 2023 17:20
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:I started using the Waking Up app earlier this year, and found it to really work for me. It made an immediate impact on my sense of wellbeing and helpd with my propensity for anxiety. A few months later and I'm still using it. Harris cuts through a lot of BS and really explains things lucidly, plus his voice is very relaxing. Would definitely recommend it. I tried the week trial and thought it was excellent. It's a shame it's so expensive. I am going to try 'calm'.
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May 7, 2023 21:33
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Jippa posted:I tried the week trial and thought it was excellent. It's a shame it's so expensive. Can't you just email them and get a free subscription?
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May 7, 2023 22:35
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I use the Plum Village app, which is filled with guided meditations of various lengths as well as a silent meditation timer that you can have bells sound throughout. There is also a bell you can set to go off to remind you to be mindful. And its free. Its from a Zen Buddhist group of course but since they are largely responsible for popularizing mindfulness meditation in the west (through the writings of founder Thich Nhat Han, who died last year), I find little to no overt religiosity in the meditations. You have other menus to select dharma talks if you are so inclined. Speaking personally (agnostic), I even find those not so much preaching a religion as spelling out common sense.
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May 8, 2023 03:18
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duckdealer posted:Can't you just email them and get a free subscription? I thought you were taking the piss to start with but you are right. Amazing, thanks.
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May 8, 2023 07:08
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I still don't know how to meditate. All I really know is to "focus on your breathing and clear your mind". Well, my mind doesn't clear. I just sit there, breathing deeply and deliberately, thinking my regular thoughts, and then I get bored and do something else. What else can I do? How do I meditate?
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May 19, 2023 21:01
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It can take a bit of work to learn how to do this. It's a skill. Like, as comparison, a painter needs to learn how to see different types of light and shadows in order to paint realistically. We look at objects all the time, but we don't always look at objects the way a painter does. We sit down quietly all the time, but we don't always sit down quietly the way a meditator does. It's hard to diagnose exactly what might be getting in your way. When you try to meditate, do you feel anxious? One thing that helped me was to set a timer. Make it 5 or 10 minutes at first. When you set the timer, start by speaking these words in your head: "This time is set aside for me. There is nothing else I need to do other than be here, right now." Then i would begin with a simple relaxation exercise. Relax the hands. Relax the shoulders. Relax your throat. Relax your tongue in your mouth. Relax your jaw. Relax your face. Relax your eyes. Relax your whole body. Take a deeeep breath in. Take a slowwww breath out. Breathe in again and smile. Now you are here. As for focusing on your breath, I find that just paying attention to the sensation of air passing through your nose--that particular feeling of the air brushing through you--is really easy to slip into. If you find that your breath is not a useful object of focus, you can find something else to focus on. I think external stimuli can be great. If you are by flowing water, focus on the fwoooooshhh of the waves. If you can hear traffic, focus on the fwoossshhhh of the passing cars. A mantra can help, if you are receptive to repeating mantras.
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May 19, 2023 21:26
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Cephas has excellent advice. Body scanning/relax and the breath sensation in the nose is perfect; you can use your abdomen[diaphragm?] rising and falling as well. Your breaths don't all have to be the same either, it's okay to take a long breath or short breath or mix it up. When your deep in the meditation you may be alarmed [but it is no cause for] at how little you're actually breathing. I would like to add to the external objects; I prefer something that's static or relatively unchanging. Something that works well for me is fire or a candle flame, focus on just one section: the tip of the flame or deep in the hottest region. Other simple things: water in a cup, a piece or section of monocolored paper, a cork drink coaster. Be able to visualize this image in your mind perfectly / know the object intimately so you don't have to study it, and keep it to noninteresting things to prevent your mind wandering & daydreaming [like don't use a hot wheels car]. Come back to this image when you mind wanders, it will and that's okay, you'll get better.
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May 20, 2023 04:09
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All of this is excellent advice. To your specific comment about "your mind doesn't clear", that is ok. You are noticing your mind isn't clear, so you are meditating correctly! This fellow has an extended seminar talk on how to meditate that I can't find with a quick search, but this video will likely cover the same ground. He too had a hard time learning to meditate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thcEuMDWxoI
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May 21, 2023 05:48
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:I still don't know how to meditate. All I really know is to "focus on your breathing and clear your mind". Well, my mind doesn't clear. I just sit there, breathing deeply and deliberately, thinking my regular thoughts, and then I get bored and do something else. It takes practice. I'd say don't actively try and clear your mind, so much as let that come as consequence of being mindful. Try and concentrate on your breath - don't control the breath, just let it come, and notice it. Allow your mind to notice whatever it notices (sounds, feelings etc) as things that are occurring in your consciousness. Not things that you are doing, or that others are doing, just points in consciousness. When a regular thought comes in, treat that as simply another thing that has occurred in your conscious state; notice it, without judgement or frustration, and let it dissolve away. Again, it takes practice, but it does work and does get easier. The Waking Up app I recommended upthread takes you through this really well.
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May 24, 2023 15:38
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I take a slightly different approach to meditation than the cross-legged silent breath counting. I feel like I meditate for just a moment here, a moment there. I'll take a big breath and just relax my body and just take in all my senses, mindfully experiencing moments through the day. What does this exact moment feel like? *checks in with skin* It's warm today. Feels a little humid, I wonder if it might rain again. *breaths deep through nose* There's the scent of fresh cut grass in the air *what do the ears have* and the rumble of a mower in the distance, almost completely drown out by Kashmir blasting from the speakers. *somatic awareness check* Oh, I'm sitting in an awkward position and am getting tight in my back. I'm thirsty. I'm not hungry, I want to eat, but I'm not hungry. Once I "check in" I experience a period where there is less chatter overall and I can have thoughts just exist with out having judgments about them which, in turn, makes it easier for me to make better decisions and make them with more confidence. Here's a 2 minute video that what finally got me to an "ah ha" moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6pMbRiSBPs So I meditate while I play guitar, while I walk my dog, while I sip my coffee, while I rip a bowl.
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Jun 3, 2023 09:41
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I've found Tara Brach has some nice guided meditations where she guides you through the relaxing and the breathing and probably most importantly the non-judging of yourself. I almost fell off my chair once I came so close to nodding off.
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Jun 3, 2023 11:23
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