Meditation: if you struggle to meditate, try to do at least a minute or two a day, and often you'll find that when you're there it's much easier to carry on. |
- if you struggle to meditate, try to do at least a minute or two a day, and often you'll find that when you're there it's much easier to carry on.
- Finally able to look at my thoughts as an observer
- Do not force Lotus position
- What ACTUALLY is Mindfulness? Some wisdom from the Best teachers.
- We're making a meditation game called Gamitate. We need your help to make it as effective and healing as possible. Link & trailer in comments.
- Does meditation help coping with addiction or having an addictive personality?
- Does all meditation work same? Same results and stuff? Or some meditation technique is more powerful than other?
- What keeps you from meditating?
- Meditation makes me feel like I am losing control of my body.
- Is it okay to listen to the audio (om chants, light meditation music, nature sounds) while meditating?
- Do you feel like meditation has helped in your long-term memory recall?
- Long shot but.......
- Activities while present.
- What have you personally done to take your meditation practice off the cushion?
- Knowing where feelings originate from takes away their power
- First Successful Meditation
- Resistance
- Techniques to notice a thought
- The Voice of the Ego, Psychotherapy & Self-Therapy
- Accepting things as they are.
- plagued by insomnia, meditation gave me my life back!
- Getting started in the daytime
- Meditating at the park and a snake approached me! Wow.
- improving mind and body connection
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 08:23 AM PDT Never pressure yourself to meditate more, just do as long as you feel like, but setting a simple goal of maybe a minute a day is good to actually get the ball rolling :) <3 [link] [comments] |
| Finally able to look at my thoughts as an observer Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:57 PM PDT I've been thinking a lot more about the concept "you're not your thoughts" recently because I've been having more negative thoughts. I haven't meditated in a while so I decided to tonight. This was the first time I was able to be an observer to my thoughts rather than pulled into them. Usually I can acknowledge my thoughts as they occur and allow them to pass but this was a totally different feeling. I felt at ease and more free. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:46 PM PDT the flexibility comes from the hips and if you have to force it you are torquing your knees. many people get hurt every year from this. work on making your hips more flexible first [link] [comments] |
| What ACTUALLY is Mindfulness? Some wisdom from the Best teachers. Posted: 03 Sep 2020 09:01 PM PDT I frequently see from posts and videos that mindfulness is simply to 'be in the present moment'. However, from what I've deduced there's more nuance than that. Here are my findings simplified in dot point form in three depths of understanding deduced from the Best teachers in the field. STAGE 1: From Joseph Goldstein, Respected Vipassana teacher with 40 years of experience, Founder of Insight Meditation Society:
STAGE 2: From John Yates, author of the Mind Illuminated:
STAGE 3: From Shinzen Young, John Yates, Joseph Goldstein, and really all Buddhist philosophy:
Combining all these three understandings gives a more comprehensive view of what Mindfulness really is. I also put together a video summarizing this all more directly in effort to provide more clarity for myself and others in order to understand the practice of what mindfulness really is. I hope this helps to dispel confusion! <3 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:54 PM PDT Meditation is hard for beginners. Even worse is that many people don't even try to experience meditation and its healing effects. We're making this game to introduce as many people as possible to easy and beneficial meditation techniques. The techniques we aim to teach fall in 3 categories: 1)Focus meditation. The classical practice where you have to focus on various objects, sounds, sensations, etc. 2)Mindfulness & presence. Presence and fully open the senses. 3)Self love, self forgiveness and the generation of other positive emotions towards self. The beta version of the game is going to be released soon. It's going to need your precious feedback and guidance. If you feel like sharing your feedback an guidance please consider joining the discord here. This is not a sales pitch, we're not urging you to buy the game as it's not released yet (but if you want to check the trailer you can do it on Gamitate steam page) [link] [comments] |
| Does meditation help coping with addiction or having an addictive personality? Posted: 04 Sep 2020 02:34 AM PDT I was watching a couple of videos and in one of them, it was mentioned that meditation can help with addiction? Was wondering if anybody had any information on the topic? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2020 02:11 AM PDT I have been doing breath focus meditation for two months and it worked amazing and helped me clear my mind but i have been forgetting things. Idk if its some kind of side effect or soemthing. So i decide to do mindful meditation. It is said the best meditatoion. I am having hard time doing it. Will i be getting same result as mindfullness meditation? Or its different? [link] [comments] |
| What keeps you from meditating? Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:08 PM PDT Sometimes I feel like I have this evil voice trying to keep me from meditating, even though I know it will make me feel better. What's up with that? [link] [comments] |
| Meditation makes me feel like I am losing control of my body. Posted: 04 Sep 2020 01:40 AM PDT Since I was a kid I used to daydream a lot. I practically lived in my mind. I even spoke to myself a lot because I am an only child with no siblings to interact with. It got pretty lonesome. I have a constant monologue going on in my head where I discuss topics/ideas and daydream to escape reality. Now my thoughts have begun hurting me. I experienced a panic attack a couple of months back and now I am flooded with intrusive thoughts. Non-stop questioning my sanity and SEVERE anxiety/intrusive thoughts. Every time I try not to inner monologue in my head I begin feeling dissociated. It's almost as if I can't operate without it. I want to read your stories about mindfulness and meditation. Your stories of losing control and regaining it. Anyone else constantly speak in their head? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:15 AM PDT Is it okay for beginners? Or is it irrelevant? or is it preferable to not have any audio at all and listen to the real sounds emanating from your real surroundings? Please add anything related but not queried! Thanks and pleasant meditation! [link] [comments] |
| Do you feel like meditation has helped in your long-term memory recall? Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:57 PM PDT Mine is absolute garbage so I wanted to know if it's helped anyone remember more from events that happened in the near past. All the studies I find are about meditation helping with working memory. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2020 01:21 AM PDT Alright so ive had 2 experience in recent days with golden sparkles/glitter✨ mind you i have no glitter in my house & i have not been outside. The first time i had an epiphany about my spiritual life and how i was going about it. I went to use the bathroom and as i was washing my hands i realized a ✨ near my eye i didnt think nothing of it at the time.....until now i just finished meditating it was a powerful meditation and as i open my eyes there was ✨ on my leg once again , i dont know if this means anything but i thought it couldnt happen twice by coincidence if anyone knows what it means please enlighten me , thank you for taking the time to read and respond in advance , i hope you all have a great day ❤ [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 05:42 PM PDT I've been trying to be more present. It's really hard for me so far, and I'm not very good at it. I feel like I might have better success if I incorporate being more present with activities that are somewhat tactilely/physically engaging. If I just sit and stare out the window, I'm back up in my head with thoughts racing in no time. If I have some basic movements to focus on, I think I'd find it helpful. For example, I find brewing tea to be a good activity for presence. Not like tossing a teabag into a mug, but with loose leaf tea like a traditional tea ceremony. Any other ideas for activities? [link] [comments] |
| What have you personally done to take your meditation practice off the cushion? Posted: 03 Sep 2020 04:06 PM PDT What I mean by "off the cushion" is how do you apply your sitting practice towards your everyday activities? How does what you practice when sitting translate into action? What do you personally do with the insights and abilities cultivated in meditation? [link] [comments] |
| Knowing where feelings originate from takes away their power Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:08 AM PDT Emotions and thoughts can feel like they come out of nowhere, and that can make us feel powerless over them. It's like we're suddenly surrounded by a swarm of locusts and the more we try and shoo them away, the more they buzz and irritate us. But if we understand that they have an origin, we can be less afraid of them and just let them be. They might always be around us in some way, but we can keep them from taking over our minds. The next time you have a "bad" thought or feeling, trace where it started and see that you can protect yourself without denying its presence. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 07:01 PM PDT I finally have been able to meditate successfully i feel so light and so happy i used to think meditation was just a joke but oh boy i was funny for thinking that its a powerful and wonderful thing if you havent tried it i irge you to do so , if you already do can you leave me some tips for better meditation in the comments please ? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 10:30 PM PDT Why is sitting so hard? Yo-yo meditating. Weeks of daily sitting, then weeks of nothing. It would always frustrate me, too. I know that when I sit regularly, I'm a better person. More compassionate. More content. More creative. More disciplined. Blah blah blah. And yet, sometimes it's just all too hard. It's not to say that the resistance to meditation isn't warranted though. I mean, yes, the physical act of it couldn't be any more banal and restful, but meditation is not inherently relaxing. It's work. It's a commitment to focused attention, which is so elusive in our overstimulated environment. Recently, I've found a little respite in that resistance, and ironically, it's from leaning into it—by making resistance the object of the meditation. Thoughts arise, 'how much time is left?', 'I can't be fucked doing this', 'I'm tired'. And I just mentally note 'resistance', and return to my anchor of attention. Sometimes it's harder, and resistance manifests as a feeling rather than a thought. If the body could feel 'uggggggghhh', that would be the feeling. A heaviness, sleepiness, sometimes angst. Mentally note it, 'resistance', and return. In this way, resistance isn't separate to any other thoughts or feelings in awareness. There's no judgement of the resistance. There's no identifying with the resistance. There's just an acknowledgement, an acceptance, and a commitment to return to focused attention. [link] [comments] |
| Techniques to notice a thought Posted: 03 Sep 2020 06:53 AM PDT Many times I've heard people say that when a random thought comes up during meditation that you should notice it and then focus back on the breath. I've never known what that meant but today I heard someone suggest that you should categorize the thought. Decide whether the thought was a worry, a reminder, a good thought then go back to focusing on the breath. This helped me so much. I realized that putting a category on the though helped me to finalize my emotions on it quickly and move on. I feel like this was the meaning of "notice the thought and move on" that I've been trying to grasp for so long. I was just wondering if anyone else had any techniques for noticing then moving on from random thoughts. [link] [comments] |
| The Voice of the Ego, Psychotherapy & Self-Therapy Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:07 AM PDT This post is based on a comment I shared in another discussion that inspired me to recommend something that's helped me a lot. During our meditative practice, one of the most tangible benefits is spaciousness. As the monkey mind grows still, the mind becomes an empty vessel, and within this emptiness, awareness begins to expand. However, for most of our day-to-day living, this vast expanse of mind is filled with erratic thinking. The monkey mind runs the show, our egoic thought impulses rattle about in our minds, and our unchecked internal dialogue rides our trains of thought off the rails. The egoic voice, which often speaks to us from the second person ("you're not good enough! what are you doing? I can't believe you did that!"), can conceptually be recognized as something separate from us since it does not communicate in the first-person. However, it's all-too-easy to identify with this voice. Even though it addresses us as a separate being, it still manages to hijack our internal monologue and convince us that we're the one thinking these thoughts. However, the point of this post is less about trying to dissociate from our monkey voice and more about listening to it. Our monkey mind is actually trying to protect us and keep us safe. The problem is that our monkey mind struggles to communicate in a constructive manner. The ego's entire function is to protect the human organism, but it also lacks the circuits of higher consciousness. The monkey mind only communicates via the lower mammalian impulses, primarily the fight-or-flight mechanism. As such, the monkey mind's two basic thought patterns are either to attack (usually by judging or comparing others) or retreat (shaming, rejecting, doubting). However, this is just how the monkey mind tries to keep us safe. Behind each shameful, accusatory, fearful, or self-deprecating thought is a message of love, protection, or compassion. We just need to learn how to interpret the ego as s voice of wisdom that simply struggles to communicate in a constructive manner. I agree that we must not blindly follow the voice of our ego. However, I believe that it's just as important - if not more so - to play close attention to the content of this voice. The content of our ego's voice can be tremendously helpful if we pay attention to it properly. The subject matter that our ego focuses on usually indicates some sort of personal barrier or obstacle that we're yet to overcome - usually in the form of unresolved traumas, repressed memories or other unaddressed mental-emotional experiences that continue to influence our present-day awareness. For example, many people find that the voice in their head is always shaming them, making them feel guilty. For most of us, our first response is to tell the voice to shut up. "That's not true," we respond, "I'm strong and I deserve good things!" This is true - you are strong, and you do deserve good things. However, the monkey mind's negative thought patterns shouldn't be immediately rejected. These thoughts come from somewhere in your subconscious, and they're usually a reflection of a painful experience that you suffered through - most likely as a child when you were most vulnerable to psychological imprinting. The reality is that most of us picked up some sort of trauma during our formative years. While we might not always remember these experiences consciously, our ego and our subconscious mind do. Our ego, which produces most of the content of your internal monologue - the voice in your head - doesn't want you to relieve these experiences. To prevent that, it rejects, shames demeans, manipulates, and uses other dirty tricks to try to prevent you from ever encountering a situation in which you could get hurt the same way again. The irony here is that, in an effort to prevent you from being hurt again, the ego insults you, instills doubts, and otherwise tries to convince you that you're unworthy enough to put yourself in a similar situation. This is how the ego responds to trauma. For example, say you were given up for adoption as a child. Most children who were adopted develop a fear of abandonment because they were separated from their primary caregivers at a vulnerable time in their lives. The ego, now, wants to keep you safe and protect you from the possibility of future abandonment. It does this by trying to prevent you from ever being exposed to any situations in which you could be abandoned. In other words, to protect you from abandonment, the ego projects shameful, self-deprecating thoughts ("You're not worthy," "these people don't want your company," "nobody wants to get close to you.") to discourage you from developing intimate relationships with people because it knows that intimate relationships present the risk of abandonment. Another example might be someone who was bullied as a child for simply expressing themselves. The natural response to this is to feel hurt. You were simply being, but somebody else didn't like it and took it upon themselves to make you feel uncomfortable or ashamed for being yourself. In this situation, the ego takes it upon itself to protect you. In this case, it does so by convincing you not to express your true self. Whenever you're presented with the chance to expres yourself, the voice in your head will explode with shame, doubts, and hesitation because the ego knows that if you don't fully express yourself, you can't be rejected. The ego only wants to protect you. Unfortunately, the ego's distorted approach makes it seem like a nuisance that needs to be silenced. The point here is not to dwell on these negative thoughts but to recognize that they indicate an unresolved issue that weighs upon your subconscious mind. Once you start to recognize this, you realize that the ego is just a scared and confused child that wants to keep you safe from emotional pain. The only way it knows how to do this is by trying to convince you that you're not worthy enough to find love or accomplish your goals. By preventing you from reaching for success, the ego protects you from failure. While it's still important to detach from the ego's thoughts and avoid identifying with them, it's also important to understand that these thoughts are filtered through our past experiences, including any unaddressed or repressed traumatic memories. This brings us to the focal point of this post. Once we learn to interpret the ego's messages properly, we can start to recognize how and why we were traumatized in the past, and how these traumatic experiences continue to influence us in the present day. If the voice in your head constantly shames you when you try to form a romantic relationship, perhaps it's speaking from a fear of abandonment and trying to protect you from the chance of your lover leaving you. Whatever the case, interpreting these messages can be an extremely valuable resource. Identifying the origins of these negative belief patterns is of tremendous importance. This is also often the initial focus of therapy during which your therapist will guide you through various techniques to help you uncover the root of your current mental/emotional situation. However, this can also be done on your own! With diligence, self-reflection, and honesty, you can learn to interpret the messages of your ego and identify the root cause of any self-deprecating beliefs and thought patterns. I like to call this self-therapy, or autotherapy, and it can certainly save you hundreds of dollars on therapy sessions. Still, the importance of counseling, therapy, or other holistic psychotherapeutic practices cannot be understated. However, if you walk into your first counseling session and tell your therapist that you already know what traumatic memories you've repressed, how they're affecting you, and what belief patterns and behaviours they've caused, you're already halfway done. Again, I'm not suggesting that therapy should replace meditation. I merely think that the two practices complement each other so well that it's a shame to practice one without the other. Unblocking and releasing stored traumas and repressed memories is tremendously liberating and will be one of the most profoundly exhilarating experiences of your life. And after doing it, you'll start to notice that the voice in your head starts to change. The monkey voice is still there, of course, but you'll notice that it starts to say different things. Rather than shaming you, it starts to be more supportive. Rather than casting doubts upon your every interaction, the monkey mind starts to take your side. Instead of pre-emptively setting you up for failure, the voice in your head starts pushing you towards success. Once your ego stops projecting its fears and anxieties onto, you don't have to fight it any longer. And once you stop fighting it, you realize how much energy you've spent in combat with your monkey brain every day, every week, for years. And once the fight is over, you'll realize that there's really nothing more comforting and supportive than a monkey who's got your back. And this, my friends, makes a world of difference in regards to your practice. Side note: it's super important to find a counselor or therapist who works well with you and preferably one who practices (or at least has an interest in) meditation. I was blessed enough to find a counselor who doubles as a Qi Gong master, who studied under a Taoist master whose many books I have read, and whose personal therapeutic practice is basically a guided meditation infused with EMDR and one-on-one coaching). [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:24 PM PDT How do I accept things as they are instead of trying to assign a meaning to everything that happens? How do I detach from the narrative of my mind? [link] [comments] |
| plagued by insomnia, meditation gave me my life back! Posted: 03 Sep 2020 12:22 PM PDT I wanted to share a success story i wrote about my journey through months of agonizing insomnia and OCD. In it I detail what meditation techniques and resources helped me get my anxiety under control, and now i hope to help others facing silmilar challenges. the whole experience has opened my mind to mental health struggle as a whole, and i have the utmost respect for others that suffer related conditions. https://www.reddit.com/r/insomnia/comments/ij41m7/sleep_anxiety_induced_insomnia_success_story/ [link] [comments] |
| Getting started in the daytime Posted: 03 Sep 2020 03:54 PM PDT I find it SO hard to meditate. Every time I try my mind just starts thinking about what I need to get done. I find it easier to mediate at night right before bed because I'm done for the day but it usually ends with me falling asleep. I would love to incorporate some mediation during the day when I feel stressed or anxious. Any recommendations? Also any apps you suggest? I know there's a ton out there, looking to try the best ones. [link] [comments] |
| Meditating at the park and a snake approached me! Wow. Posted: 03 Sep 2020 11:51 AM PDT I was just meditating, enjoying life, feeling deep gratitude for the earth. When I finished and opened my eyes, this snake was approaching me. It changed directions and slithered away. I managed to capture a video of it - but don't have access to upload here... That was bizarre. My heart rate increased immediately! [link] [comments] |
| improving mind and body connection Posted: 03 Sep 2020 07:18 PM PDT So I have had experience with using meditation and controlled breathing to Slow my heart rate, and heat myself up (although that was because I was in really cold water for lifeguard training and I was shivering so I was kind of desperate) does anyone know of any way to improve and hone in these skills [link] [comments] |
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