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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Meditation
 
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eSporks
Jun 10, 2011

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.
The timer is awesome for handling ADHD and interruptive thoughts. You learn to set them aside, and that things can wait, the thoughts don't have to be engaged with immediately.


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.

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.
As someone else mentioned, you can chose to focus on the sound. Try to really listen and examine it. This works for any other disruptive sensations, I do it frequently with an itch. Instead of trying to ignore the itch, just examine it. Where is it? Has it moved? What does it feel like? Is it right in the skin, or below it? Is it annoying, why? What happens if you don't itch it, does it go away or get stronger?

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

* # ¿ Aug 3, 2021 21:32
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eSporks
Jun 10, 2011

 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.

* # ¿ Sep 10, 2021 05:03
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Meditation