Meditation: A good nights sleep is critical to your mental health - if you find yourself lying awake, a little meditation before bed can help you find peaceful, refreshing sleep |
- A good nights sleep is critical to your mental health - if you find yourself lying awake, a little meditation before bed can help you find peaceful, refreshing sleep
- How deep can you go?
- No question here
- You are not your thoughts. Then what are you? Here's my opinion
- Becoming less assertive and controlling since taking up meditation
- Meditating during the pandemic has improved my life.
- Meditation is Awesome when Used With A Mantra
- 1year headspace free for the unmployed
- Since I woke up I was extremely irritated and annoyed by everything but then I did 15 minutes meditation and I feel way different now, why?
- Got a little frightened by how blank my mind became
- I found reassurance within myself during meditation
- How long into your meditation practice until living in the “present” became second nature for you?
- Hyper awareness to the point of discomfort.
- Meditation during an anxiety attack
- Heavy Heart Chakra?
- Stagnating due to current events
- Music in my head when trying to be mindful... is it bad?
- Feeling empty after meditation
- I kinda need a bit of help with this illogical thing i hold in my mind about myself
- Does meditation necessarily foster "progressive" ideologies?
- Physical Sensations During Deep Meditation
- If meditation is living in the present then isn't it misuse of our thinking power?
- I can only meditate while lying on my back on the bed
- I had an amazing meditation session that got me hooked. If you need another reason to meditate, I hope this is it!
| Posted: 05 Jun 2020 04:17 PM PDT Insomnia can have a hugely detrimental effect on your mental health, especially if you regularly miss sleep. When we lie awake at night, we can frequently have stressful thoughts that prevent us from relaxing enough to drop off - meditating before bedtime can help to accept and let go of these difficult thoughts and feelings. Reducing caffeine and screen time along with regular mindfulness practice can help you sleep peacefully and have happier days. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:42 AM PDT Hey guys, I've been meditating every day for nearly 2 years now, 30-40 mins a session. Every time I meditate after ~30 mins I am able to achieve a state that I call absolute clear presence - the mind is not racing, emotions disappear (both positive and negative) and my mind feels at absolute peace. As a result, solutions to the issues that bother me become crystal clear or I realise that issues are not worth bothering. This is usually accompanied by pressure in the forehead and temples. I happen to have went on a couple of psychedelic journeys, and this is the exact feeling that I get after the intense visual part of the trip is over and I start to return back to this world. I am wondering, is here anyone who manages to achieve similar states of consciousness through meditation? If yes, have you managed to go deeper? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2020 12:48 AM PDT I just wanna say how supportive this group is whenever I have a question it's like people rush to answer it. I'm learning a lot so thanks [link] [comments] |
| You are not your thoughts. Then what are you? Here's my opinion Posted: 05 Jun 2020 11:15 AM PDT You are, who you are, when you are mindful. When you're mindful and in the flow of the present moment, you aren't overthinking. You are just existing. I believe this is the real you. For example, I would say the 'real me' is when I'm enjoying myself, talking to others, exercising and in the flow of a creative project. That's when I'm mindful of the present moment. If you saw me during this time, you would think that I was a happy, positive, confident, social guy. Which honestly I do believe I am. If you saw me whilst I was deep in thought, you would have a different opinion of who I was. When I'm not mindful and I'm overthinking, I'm anxious, quite negative and critical, sometimes I'm terrified of other people, feeling like I'm in danger. But that's not me. That's just the thoughts that I have. If I held my thoughts as my identity, which I have done sometimes, I would be not as happy. But think about it, our thoughts cannot define us. Otherwise we would all be in prison. We all have some weird, messed up thoughts sometimes. That's because of the amount of information our brain has processed. ALL of the things we have seen, and heard and read over our lives are stored in there. And of course over the years, we have seen some messed up, negative things. So obviously we are going to have some of those thoughts. But we are not our thoughts. We are who we are, when we are mindful. Being mindful just means that you are concentrating on the present moment. Sometimes it feels like you are actually putting in effort to concentrate, and other times it just comes naturally. For me, it comes naturally when I am with other people. I'm often an overthinker when I'm by myself. And that honestly has created some massive problems for me over the years. Massive problems. The only time I have ever felt like I was truly depressed, was when I was associating myself with my thoughts. It was only when I read 'your thoughts do not define you' that it all changed and made sense. Of course your thoughts don't define you. What defines you is who you actually are. What are your core values? Who do you love and who loves you? That's who we are. Quick note, I highly recommend taking the time to sit down and identifying your core values. It seems weird to say it out loud or write it down but once you do that, its like its real. Here are my core values that I identified a few months ago, and honestly, I INSTANTLY felt much better. My core values:
I have never seen a more instant boost to my happiness and life direction than taking the time to identify these values, not just kind of think about them in my head but really writing them down. 10 Minutes, and it was like I was a new person with a set of guidelines to help me navigate the choices in life. Take care [link] [comments] |
| Becoming less assertive and controlling since taking up meditation Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:16 PM PDT I've been meditating almost daily now for a few months. I've noticed that I've become less assertive and controlling in my life and I've stopped getting as angry when things go wrong. Has anyone else experienced this? What are your thoughts? [link] [comments] |
| Meditating during the pandemic has improved my life. Posted: 05 Jun 2020 12:23 PM PDT Hey r/meditation! First and foremost, first time caller, long time listener. The last 4 months have been insane -- COVID, riots, earthquakes and who knows what more to come. It is incredibly important to stay sane and connected with your inner self. My meditating journey has started just a month ago and it turned me upside down. Lowering my anxiety, making me feel better and making me more productive. In my first week of meditation I figured out that I need to indulge myself into something more. Meditating made me feel connected with myself and so I've decided to try the meditating & writing combo. I'd like to share with you my latest blog post which addresses meditation and mindfulness. Keep in mind that I don't want this to come-of as some sort of self-promotion but I'd really love to hear the feedback of this community. And as a bonus, I've tried a new meditation app which I found on ProductHunt and it's completely free so huge props to the Medito Foundation who has launched a cost-free meditating app. I'm looking forward to your feedback and criticism! https://wasitworthit.site/daily-meditation-and-mindfulness/ Peace! [link] [comments] |
| Meditation is Awesome when Used With A Mantra Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:51 PM PDT I have been meditating for several years from 5 minutes to 60 minutes. When I really needed it, my regular meditation style of sitting there quietly didn't work for me. Thinking back, has meditation ever worked for me, or have I just been doing it because everyone else does it. I was getting anxiety issues and having issues sleeping due to Covid Lockdown NYC - waking up in the middle of the night - sweating, nightmares. I tried to calm myself and go walk around during the day. When I did my regular meditation, the stress and anxiety was still there. My regular meditation consists of the following: I sit in a chair (setting my timer for 5 to 10 minutes) I close my eyes. When a thought comes up, I usually go with it. Then when I remember my mind should be blank, I let it go and come back. I either end up dozing off or get antsy and look at my timer. All this time, I am taking deep breathes in and out usually 4 count inhale and 7 count exhale. I read about mantra online and that someone had to teach you to do it. I didn't have time for that. I needed to get rid of my anxiety and nightmare right away. With some Googling, I saw some Mantra words online. I just went ahead and made up my own mantra. As soon as I added my mantra wording, I was able to do 10 minutes meditation easily and wow, I was relaxed and relieved. I immediately did it for 20 minutes using a timer, and the results was even more pronounced. I went to bed that night and woke up feeling refreshed. The nightmare had gone. I was relaxed and no longer stressed. In fact I had a smile on my face. I was grinning so much its like someone is holding my cheeks back. It's been two weeks and I have been consistently doing the mediation 20 minutes upon rising and before sleep. Occasionally, I'll do it for 7 minutes once or twice during the day when I have time. I am now more focused. More relaxed. No anxiety. I started reading one hour a day - I recently finished reading 260 page book in 3 hours. I had the book for over 3 years and I have picked up the book many times to read it, but never got past the first 20 pages. I am working on my third book with the same amount of pages. My mantra is: Siiiiiwoooojjjjiiiiaaaaa I say the mantra when I am exhaling slowly. I just sit normally, nothing out of the ordinary. Like the above and add the mantra. I tried to teach my kids this new tweak with the meditation, but they have no interest. By the way, I have undiagnosed ADHD. My kids have ADHD. I can tell you I have never been so focused. I set my timer for 22 minutes so I can get a full 20 minutes. Love to hear your results if you ever use this. [link] [comments] |
| 1year headspace free for the unmployed Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:14 PM PDT Head over to headspace.com and redeem 1 year sub for free if your unemployed. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2020 05:10 AM PDT Sat on a chair found it very unfomfortable but then put a small pillow on my lower back but my upper back is still free. Made big difference so I could focus more on meditatin, think ill continue with that tecnique because sitting down crosslegged is a big nono for me , didn't take the time just sat down and was still very annoyed and irritated in the start but I became calm fast just after a few minutes. [link] [comments] |
| Got a little frightened by how blank my mind became Posted: 05 Jun 2020 11:19 PM PDT Hi, so I've been interested in meditation and practiced very irregularly to not at all for a fee years. The past month or so I've been getting in 15 minutes or so before bed just to make it a habit. So today I got pretty disturbed to the point where I opened my eyes. I'm studying Vipassana and am not entirely sure I have the hang of it yet. I pretty much focus on my breath and feel what sensations I feel. When I start branching off into a thought process or over focusing on a sensation, I point out to myself what kinda thought or sensation popped up and maybe a brief idea of the cause, then focus on my breathe again, being kind to myself because I'm just a human with human thoughts and feelings. Tonight's session started treading water that made me concerned that I was TOO focused. What I mean is my mind started going actually blank. All I could see or think about was my breathe. I was almost sure I was nothing but my breathe. I started getting disturbed and worried I'd somehow stop my heart beat because my mind reminded me of something I had read before about a long time meditator being able to control his heartbeat (or stop it for a few moments?). While it's probably no big deal, I ended up opening my eyes for a moment then getting back to it. A lot of thoughts and feelings about sharing this would pop up and I started having trouble focusing for the rest of the session. Not beating myself up about it, but really wanted to share and see if you guys had any thoughts or similar experiences. I'm someone who used to be very caught up and obsessed with my self image that I numbed everything out that'd go against it, so experiencing what felt like being nothing was disturbing. [link] [comments] |
| I found reassurance within myself during meditation Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:08 PM PDT The first few thoughts I had this morning were leading me to negativity. I recently got into a fight with someone special to me, which has been putting me in a bad mood the past few days. Along with that, I've been worried about finding a job in the midst of the current pandemic. I proceeded with my meditation, and at first my brain kept wandering and following the path that lead to bad thoughts. Then I noticed the shift slowly taking place. Despite the bad thoughts I was having, I was able to dettach from them. The bad thoughts slowly transformed into happy ones, and then all of the sudden, it's like my brain somehow generated a message for me: "You're in a pretty okay place right now." After a few minutes of stillness, i managed to let go of all that worry and sadness. I started feeling hopeful and filled with gratitude! [link] [comments] |
| How long into your meditation practice until living in the “present” became second nature for you? Posted: 05 Jun 2020 09:01 PM PDT I am fairly new to meditation and am making an honest effort to focus on "the now" throughout the day & have found it's kind of challenging. As of now I might go like in spirts where I'm really present, then I'll have to reel myself back in from time to time when my thoughts overload or I go back to my old ways of auto-pilot. Advice? Is this daily battle common at first? [link] [comments] |
| Hyper awareness to the point of discomfort. Posted: 05 Jun 2020 12:16 PM PDT One of the unfortunate side effects of my mindfulness practices is that I become hyper aware of little things that I wasn't previously conscious of. Like for example, doing body scans has made it so that I'm aware of the fabric of my clothing on my skin and feeling that constantly and being aware of it is quite distressing and uncomfortable. I really don't know what to do at this point. I've tried focusing on my breathing but I still feel the discomfort. It's like when I try calming down by slowly breathing it just reminds me of all the problems I'm trying to escape from. [link] [comments] |
| Meditation during an anxiety attack Posted: 06 Jun 2020 01:55 AM PDT So I battle with GAD and depression. Through the whole quarantine both have heightened a lot. I've been really getting into meditative practice and seems to help me. When I'm having a good day and low anxiety, I'm able to get very relaxed and clear my mind. Focus on the breath for a good amount of time. But when having a heightened anxiety day, it's very hard to meditate. Almost impossible to focus. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2020 01:31 AM PDT I tend to feel like I have a heavy weight on my chest when I meditate lately. Anyone know why this might be? Is it a normal thing to feel? [link] [comments] |
| Stagnating due to current events Posted: 05 Jun 2020 04:36 PM PDT Hey guys. With everything going on in the world right now, I've been finding it impossible to stay present in even a 10 minute guided meditation session (done with Insight Timer most of the time). I was on a roll for a while during quarantine weirdly enough, but now everything is just too much. I realize that true peace comes from within, but it just seems so far away right now. Meditation has truly saved me in a lot of ways. I don't want to dread doing it because I feel like my progress has slipped away and it's disheartening. Any suggestions would be super duper welcomed. Thank you all for your continued great conversations. [link] [comments] |
| Music in my head when trying to be mindful... is it bad? Posted: 05 Jun 2020 03:36 PM PDT Hey all, I've started my journey with meditation (Headspace) few weeks ago. I feel like I recently "got it", and I've tried to be mindful as often as I can. Recently I've been waking up, meditating and after proceeding to doing my daily tasks I would start singing to myself in my head or whistling out loud. As I understand, you're supposed to be present in the moment, but when I'm singing in my head/whistling I am concentrating on the song and the tune. This makes me feel good but is it bad or counterproductive to mindfulness? Should I stop it like any other time my mind wanders off? I tried to search for answers here but people have this problem when meditating. For me it can occur at any time of the day. Thanks a lot for your help :) [link] [comments] |
| Feeling empty after meditation Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:08 PM PDT You might have seen my previous post asking about meditating without guidance. I have managed to do it with calm monk music for nearly 20 minutes. I felt very calm, my body stopped moving completely, no itching etc. I have let the strange thoughts flow through and tried to focus on the feelings which they evoked, instead of the words themselves. I have started seeing strange pulsating shapes on my eyelids and once I opened my eyes I realised that I felt completely empty, void of judgement or emotion for the first few minutes. I couldnt look at my phone or focus on a text. My thoughts didnt seem to have a narrative voice either, just like the feelings I was focusing on during the meditation. To me it felt like a higher state of being I managed to grasp for a fleeting moment and then it all went back to normal. Has anyone experienced something similar? What was it? [link] [comments] |
| I kinda need a bit of help with this illogical thing i hold in my mind about myself Posted: 06 Jun 2020 01:05 AM PDT so, I don't think I'm a good person. But logically i am. I can honestly tell you that i am honest, kind, responsible, generous, caring. But even with all those qualities, deep down I don't believe I am a good person. I don't believe I deserve to be loved. If I slip up even a little, I will want to feel pain, like a punishment for doing something bad. I want to stop being a martyr, I was to feel and act like I deserve loving relationships in my life. I constantly throw my love at people who don't treat me well. How do I change this? How do I stop being such a ass to myself? :/ [link] [comments] |
| Does meditation necessarily foster "progressive" ideologies? Posted: 05 Jun 2020 02:23 PM PDT Since I've started meditating, I've noticed myself becoming more connected with the world and consequently the people around me. This has made me more compassionate, because I'm more likely to now take others' actions as "just the way things are" and something that I should adapt myself to instead of trying to change (akin to the Taoist idea of Wuwei - nonaction). Following from this, it seems like I've become more "progressive"/"left-wing"* in most spheres - social, political, etc. - because I care more about other humans and nature, and I generally feel more selfless (less attached to my identity). I'm not claiming that "conservatives" don't care about humans or nature, but just explaining how my ideologies follow from my experience. Though I will admit I was already leaning that way before starting regular meditation. I've also been influenced by reading books by authors inspired by similar humanist movements as well as East Asian philosophy. So it could be that I just found some more confirmation in my beliefs through meditation, and it's not only meditation that brought me to these conclusions. Do you know of any person who routinely meditates and still holds "conservative"/"right-wing" views? I'm curious to learn how meditation has challenged/reinforced their views, just as it has mine. Or if anyone has good arguments as to how meditation could produce some "conservative" thoughts, I'd love to hear them. I hope this discussion doesn't become too political; that is not my intention at all! But I have faith that you peaceful folks can maintain civility in discourse :) *I put these in quotes because I don't want to put myself completely in that box, but I associate myself more with those ideologies. [link] [comments] |
| Physical Sensations During Deep Meditation Posted: 06 Jun 2020 12:45 AM PDT Hi everyone 😊 I'm hoping someone much more clever than myself might be able to answer this for me. I've been meditating on and off for several years, but recently my practice has been much more frequent; 15-20 min everyday alongside yoga everyday. I've started to notice a strange (but pleasant) feeling around 10 minutes in. I'll describe it how I feel it: As I follow my breath, I feel the rise and fall of my chest. I track the breath all the way from the tip of my nose to the deepest corners of my lungs, and back out again. Then, the breath seems to tap into something inside of me. It's feels like some sort of dormant energy (for lack of a better word) in the deepest part of my being that unlocks and rushes through my entire body. It pulsates like it's alive and I feel a rush of coldness accross my skin and get huge goosebumps. The first time this happened it shocked me, I'm just sitting here breathing?! There's a moment during this experience where I swear I can feel the air around my body moving, like some bizzare etherial breeze. (I did not have a window open!) I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced something similar? Is anyone is able to offer a philosophical, or physiological explanation? The curiousity is killing me and my Google searches have been pretty unfruitful. Thanks Reddit! 😊 [link] [comments] |
| If meditation is living in the present then isn't it misuse of our thinking power? Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:47 PM PDT Like we can think of the future and plan accordingly. Think of the past, learn from the mistakes we made. If meditation is being mindful of what you're doing. i. e. if bathing then only bathing, writing then only writing, reading then only reading, so when should we think of the past and the future as we are always focused on present moment? [link] [comments] |
| I can only meditate while lying on my back on the bed Posted: 06 Jun 2020 12:20 AM PDT When I try different positions, I feel much discomfort, often also some pain in my back. Am I doing something wrong? Can you give some advice about some good positions to start? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:38 AM PDT On mobile, sorry if it's weird. This is also just a story that I wanted to share. TL;dr at the bottom The other day, I woke up super grumpy. I had worked the night before (I have a pretty physically demanding job) and my body felt so exhausted still. I was also annoyed at the fact that I was grumpy. I hate starting the day off tired! Bleh!! So I tried caffeine and some other random vitamins I thought might help (maybe this sub doesn't love the idea of vitamins but they really help me). No luck. I was still so frikin grumpy. I finally just resigned to being a fussy baby all day. Sometimes you just wake up feeling like a raging toddler, fine. But then! I was doing my makeup while playing YouTube videos, a daily routine. I usually watch a couple specific youtubers but today I was so grumpy that everything they were saying was annoying me. So I looked on my suggested videos and a TedTalk about meditation came up. I usually don't watch Ted talks for whatever reason, but I was like fuck it, why not? Maybe it'll help. So I watched it. Now I was already sold on how amazing meditation is, I just could never get myself to do it. It was always in the back of my mind as something I would do once I got out of college or something. Just later. But this woman reminded me of everything. She said she gained confidence and self esteem, she found motivation to work out, her identity became more solidified, she finds happiness from within herself, all kinds of amazing shit that I wanted. Her personal story convinced my monkey brain to meditate WAY faster than the endless facts and research I had read about how amazing it is for you. So, I sat down and meditated for 10 minutes. Just focused on my breath, didnt engage with other thoughts. By the end of the 10 minutes, I was so relaxed and happy!! I ended up doing another 10 minutes because it was so nice. I had let go of everything. It was a huge difference. I got lucky with this, I hope I don't sound like I'm lying for feeling so good on my first session, but it really did make me feel amazing. THEN, I walked out and filled up my water bottle and felt this immense gratitude that I have access to running water. endless water!!! So much engineering went into me being able to beckon water into my face whenever I please. That's so fucking cool. I practice gratitude every day, but I haven't actually felt it in the moment in a long time. I just think of stuff at night and am like "nice." But this was the real feeling of gratitude washing over me. It was glorious. I haven't had a meditation session as amazing as that one since. I just got lucky that day, but now I'm so aware that so much of my suffering comes from my own mind. Every time I feel anxious, I know I can let it go. I could go on about amazing shit I've realized, but I know I'm preaching to the choir here. This was a long ass novel of a post but I had such an awesome experience and wanted to share. If you need another reason to start meditating, here it is!! TL;DR meditated randomly, it solved all my problems and got me really excited about a sink. Also ted talks are cooler than I thought. [link] [comments] |
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