Meditation: Meditation Challenge July 2021 �� |
- Meditation Challenge July 2021 ��
- My Christian mom left her church after meditating a few times lol
- Effects of Meditating for 1 month straight
- This is a great analogy for the practice of meditation.
- Cherish this moment, there's none other like it.
- Fatigue and meditation. I just can't get past the lethargy. Any advice?
- Being Inspiring — Not Condescending
- While meditating I started crying
- 1 minute meditation��♀️ , animation by JIPSx
- I challenged myself to meditate every day in June and hit my goal!
- nothing has changed me more
- Regardless of what happened to you in the past or what will happen in the future, everything is okay.
- How to not get irritated by argumentative people? Typical examples are antivaxxers / antimaskers, who are pretty common nowadays, always loud and one can't really avoid them
- Avoiding falling asleep
- Levels of Consciousness
- I need a book on Meditation, send me some recommendations!
- How can I get rid of my fear of "Meditation Induced Psychosis" as I begin a deeper practice?
- Today I discovered my healthy agression
- Two Questions from a Beginner
- I can’t meditate long, help please
- Connecting with my friend through meditation.
- have some questions
- Well that was new
- The Basic Method of Meditation - Ajahn Brahm
- Awakening By Fire: How Trauma and Suffering Cause Spiritual Awakening
- Would anyone like to join a 30 Day Self Reflection Challenge starting 04/07? =)
| Meditation Challenge July 2021 �� Posted: 30 Jun 2021 03:58 AM PDT Hi all! We all know that it can be hard to start and maintain a regular sitting practice. So I wondered if anyone would care to join me in a daily meditation challenge for July 2021? u/WCBH86 set up a monthly meditation challenge for the last 2 years or so, and it's really seemed to strike a chord here and received lots of engagement and positive feedback over that time. It provided a lovely sense of community and lots of encouragement. I'd like to continue his efforts. Here's the deal: You choose how much time you want to spend meditating each day, and what sort of meditation you're going to practice. But you commit to practicing every day for the month of July, and maybe check in on here with others who are doing the same. The idea is to have some group support/accountability, to help you stick to daily practice all month long. ----------------------------- If it goes well, then we rinse and repeat for the month of August. I'll make a new post for that when the time comes. Post a comment below if you'd like to take part. And if you'd like an accountability partner to really help see you through your daily practice, post a comment below that says "accountability partner needed". Then wait for someone else to reply to your comment, and say "I'll be your partner". You can help keep each other in check throughout the month. For those who use Insight Timer, there is a group for this called Meditation Month. Feel free to join up and find some extra accountability there. For those who use it, join our Discord here to keep each other accountable : https://discord.gg/meditationmind Good luck folks. Hope this helps some of you start a meditation habit and others get back into one. TLDR: Encouragement and support for people trying to make daily meditation stick! NOTE: I like to encourage everyone who wants to take part and who leaves a comment below by wishing them luck and other little things in response. But I don't reply to people who have asked for an accountability partner in their comment because I don't want them to get a little "new message" icon and get hopeful only to find it's me saying "good luck!", and also because I think people scanning comments to see if anyone needs a partner might more easily look past those that already have a reply, even if the reply is just from me and isn't actually an offer to be a partner. Just wanted to let those folks who don't get a reply from me know that it's nothing personal! I wish you luck too, and am pleased you're taking part! :) NOTE 2: Since starting these monthly challenges, the Insight Timer group has grown to 1000+ members, and the Discord even more than that! So join in and help make meditation a regular part of your life! [link] [comments] | ||
| My Christian mom left her church after meditating a few times lol Posted: 01 Jul 2021 11:36 AM PDT Not sure if anyone remembers, but I made a post a while ago when my devout Christian parents walked in on me meditating and freaked out, called our pastor, etc... well I took your advice and actually found passages in the bible supporting meditation, and after months of convincing, my parents finally agreed to try it. My mom (without my knowledge) continued it daily after the first time, and apparently she had some kind of transcendental experience because about a week ago she sat us down and told us she doesn't want to go to church anymore and that "it's a lie and a just money grab" lol As you can imagine, this was pretty shocking but also hilarious. My dad doesn't know what to think but she's telling him to keep meditating and he'll understand [link] [comments] | ||
| Effects of Meditating for 1 month straight Posted: 02 Jul 2021 03:43 AM PDT I have meditated over 345 minutes or almost 6 hours overall. Definitely noticed some effects including more awareness of my feelings and thoughts. A great example is when I was reading a book, my reaction to the words and to the situations described was much stronger. I even realized that I was having a thought while driving and once I realized I felt like I woke up (definitely not a good idea to have lots of thoughts while driving - for safety reasons). So, if any of you peeps out there are thinking about meditation and meditating for one month as a challenge - DEFINITELY DO IT! [link] [comments] | ||
| This is a great analogy for the practice of meditation. Posted: 30 Jun 2021 08:34 PM PDT
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| Cherish this moment, there's none other like it. Posted: 01 Jul 2021 06:01 PM PDT | ||
| Fatigue and meditation. I just can't get past the lethargy. Any advice? Posted: 02 Jul 2021 01:56 AM PDT I've been meditating on and off for about 10 years ever since a psychologist suggest i read 'A new Earth'. I didn't find the book helpful at the time but still had a little belief in inner calm so sporadically ever since I've practiced mindfulness / meditation. Problem I have though is I am plagued with chronic fatigue. I'm sure I have CFS/ME but it's extremely difficult to diagnose in the UK and so I just drift through life in a miserable state of meloncholy. Some days are OK but mainly I'm tired all the time. I feel my inner conscience cant break through this fatigue barrier and wondered if any one could help? I'm a 40 year old male in good physical condition, I am gluten intolerant so have to have a strict healthy diet. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks. [link] [comments] | ||
| Being Inspiring — Not Condescending Posted: 02 Jul 2021 12:18 AM PDT I often witness stress and ill-health in the people I love, and naturally, I want to free them of their suffering. As an outside observer, I can easily see that their suffering is caused by their own habits and delusions. Naturally, I want to inspire a positive change in them, so that they can become happier and healthier versions of themselves. The problem is, I do not know how to inspire change without coming off as condescending or acting superior... First off, they are seldom aware of the fact that they are walking around in a stressful state -- be it physical or mental -- although it is quite apparent to others. Asking them about it is like asking a fish "What is water?". The fish has no idea, because it never experienced anything else. Secondly, when you question peoples' beliefs, they tend to get defensive. I have found this to be highly counter-productive; the more you question someone's perception of truth, the more preciously they will hold onto that truth, disabling change in themselves. What I want is the ability to inspire change in a positive way. How can I become more influential and convey my message more lovingly? And, perhaps more importantly, is it really worth the effort? [link] [comments] | ||
| While meditating I started crying Posted: 01 Jul 2021 11:10 PM PDT Has any one ever experienced crying and nausea while meditating? I have been trying to meditate more lately and tonight, I just started crying and felt nauseous. And when the feeling passed. I feel much better. Is this common? [link] [comments] | ||
| 1 minute meditation��♀️ , animation by JIPSx Posted: 01 Jul 2021 12:00 PM PDT
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| I challenged myself to meditate every day in June and hit my goal! Posted: 01 Jul 2021 03:15 PM PDT I tend to have lots of intrusive thoughts relating to worry/anxiety. Been doing therapy and meditation off and on since September. I really noticed a difference about a week or so in at how much a dedicated practice can make a difference. I became relaxed much earlier into each session and overall more relaxed when done. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 09:10 AM PDT i am somebody with adhd and generalized anxiety i did really well in high school. like really really well, and so i went into college feeling like i could take on the world. freshman year went pretty good, though at times it was stressful. i still made good grades then covid hit, and i was suddenly stripped away of every single good habit i had developed up until that point, replaced by activities like sleeping in until 3PM and staying out smoking weed every night that next semester, classes were still mostly online, and i did bad. i didn't completely fuck up my gpa but i received the kind of grades i never thought i would. i was an anxious mess. and by the end of the semester, i was extremely sick and underweight. that winter i started meditating i also began working out and changing my views on health etc, which helped immensely, but obv i'm here to talk about the meditation i looked terrible. i was still pretty sick. it felt like i was going mad, and i wasn't talking to any of my friends. nonetheless, every night, i would sit on my bed and meditate it became a sort of routine. and i was never a "routine" type of person - i know for people with adhd that having routines is essential, but most of the time i just winged it but it was a routine nonetheless and at first it was frustrating. i couldn't calm my thoughts "isn't meditation supposed to be the absence of thought? i can't even properly meditate, not even after 10 minutes of it!" but after a bit of research i saw that it was normal. "every time you catch yourself in a thought, just lovingly bring your attention back to the breath," i read. and so i did every thought that entered my head while meditating, i gradually became able to completely observe it. not control it, but observe it. and every day it got a little easier and it was very strange. sometimes, during the day, i was able to step back from my thoughts and almost "objectively observe" them. for instance, there were moments when i would lose something - like my phone, or keys - and i would get very angry. like extremely angry. i would get tunnel vision, and manically search for whatever i lost. but i had gained the ability to step back and observe exactly what i was doing and my exact mental state. "i know it is not rational to be this angry about this," i would think, though i was still very angry. but i was so much more conscious of it. and i was suddenly becoming conscious of my bad habits, all of them. still, it was difficult to completely go against all of them, but i became very aware of them. and i had gained a much more clear path of what i needed to work towards. not only that, i became so much more forgiving of myself for my bad habits and such. "you just went through the worse semester of your life," i'd tell myself. "this is just the way your brain is currently wired. change it as much as you can, but don't freak out on yourself when you don't improve at your desired rate - it's okay" i realized i had built my sense of identity off of academic success and how unhealthy that was, i realized i was viewing life and myself from an unhealthy angle, and i became closer to the self and i would sit on my bed and meditate, breathing in, and out. lost in a thought? that's okay, return to the breath. not focused on the homework you're doing? it's okay, just lovingly return your focus to it as often as you can, taking breaks when needed. angry at the world for giving you adhd? it's okay, many other people have it too, and you can still lead a fulfilling life with it i became a third person observer of my thoughts, and gradually i was able to put a stop to many unwanted thoughts all throughout the day. i didn't gain complete control, but it became so much easier to have some - and i was always able to forgive myself when i couldn't. i was also able to more easily forgive others for the ways in which they'd make me angry, because we're all just animals, trying to satisfy pre-programmed desires in a world that doesn't always cater to those desires. and we all have our different coping methods, even if it includes being an asshole to others (a problem some of my friends have) - and there's always a reason for those coping methods the semester after that was the best yet, and the next will be even better. but if it's not, that will be okay tl;dr meditation is amazing you should do it [link] [comments] | ||
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| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 09:43 AM PDT I meditate for around 6 months, almost every day for 10-15 minutes and I see great improvements. I definitely got calmer, and gained more clarity in thinking. One thing I found very hard though, is staying calm during occasional, inevitable and unsolicited interactions with people who are spreading negative energy. Typical example just from the last week, I stand in line at groceries, and there is this annoying guy in front of me, loudly preaching how vaccines don't work and Bill Gates wants to kill us all. Every once in a while I meet somebody like him...I don't want to argue with them (done it few times in the past, not worth it), but they just never shut up or respect other people...And I dont always have earbuds with me, so listening to such bullshit for 10 minutes is a real challenge to not get triggered. How do you deal with people you can't really avoid, and who are walking reservoir of a bad energy? [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 10:48 PM PDT Pretty much the title. I've been meditating on and off for around 5 months and I recently took on the challenge to do it consistently. I noticed this pattern of getting sleepy around the 30 minute mark, where my body becomes comfortably relaxed. My head starts dozing off slowly to the sides and it just turns into a sitting nap from there. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 11:55 AM PDT I'm a professional chakra healer, and this is a blog post I wrote about how people can heal their own chakras through meditation: Meditation can take many forms. Some do it by being so still and relaxing so deeply they trick the conscious mind into thinking they're sleeping, which is what hypnosis is. Others meditate in motion, going on long walks in nature, performing daily chores, running, painting, gardening, or putting the body in yoga poses, which distracts the conscious mind since it rules the physical body. There's also automatic writing, meditating on the page in a stream of consciousness. Julia Cameron calls this doing "morning pages" in The Artist's Way. Some rely on hallucinogenic plants to surpass the conscious mind--things like ayahuasca, peyote, mushrooms, or the indica strain of cannabis. There's also lucid dreaming, and dream journaling. It'd be great to have a shaman or spiritual healer guide you through the entirety of such an intense process, but most don't have that option. Healing can take months, years, or even lifetimes. However, if you consent without fear, your spirit guides will guide you. No matter how you meditate, it's about detachment from the conscious mind and external world. To understand how meditation is necessary for shadow work and chakra healing, you need to understand the levels of consciousness possible for humans to explore. The 1st dimension of consciousness rules the Earth Star chakra, which is black in color. This is what Carl Jung called the "collective unconscious", what ancients called "the underworld" and "the world soul" and the part of mankind Freud referred to as "the id." It contains all unconscious emotions of humanity, from ancestral and past life trauma to soul desires. This is passed through our DNA. Your soul desires will always be unmet needs of your ancestors and past versions of yourself, because we reincarnate into the same bloodline, or into one of the same vibration with the same traumas. The collective unconscious is currently experiencing a collective shift, which is why the world is so chaotic right now. Disembodied souls, or ghosts, are purely in this dimension, but those in a physical body are multidimensional. A great but horrifying portrayal of this dimension of consciousness and humanity's repressed shadow selves is in the movie "US." Because this chakra is ruled by Earth itself, the traumas of specific pieces of land are tied to the people born and raised there. The United States has to atone for the genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of African Americans for us to heal as a nation. The 2nd dimension of consciousness rules the Root chakra, which anchors us into the physical earth and our physical bodies. The Earth Star chakra is sometimes called the "super root" because it anchors us into the collective of humanity, but that 1st dimension is intangible. The 2nd dimension is all things Mother Nature--flora, fauna, crystals, dirt, human bodies, bodies of water. Most humans have a severely blocked Root chakra, which we'll talk about later, so they cannot communicate with plants and animals or feel a connection to the land like indigenous people once did, and they work hard to have physical needs met instead of receiving the abundance of Earth. Plant medicines and crystal healing often won't work for them, and more invasive procedures or complete reliance on pharmaceuticals with severe side effects are necessary for temporary relief of symptoms. There's also a great deal of body dysmorphia, bodily harm, and disassociation from the body in our society, with people more in their upper chakras and imbalanced. Even those able to enjoy nature do it from outside of themselves, and they don't realize they're ungrounded because it's all they've ever known. The 3rd dimension of consciousness rules the Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, and Third Eye chakras. It rules our physical senses, and the manmade material world. Technological and industrial advances, the entertainment world, the rise of social media, consumerism, and 40-hour work weeks have created an overemphasis on the 3D, sensory overload, adrenaline fatigue, inability to meditate, and a debilitating imbalance to our chakra systems, which harms our emotional, physical, and mental health. Most people are so externally focused that they have no self-awareness or autonomy, and they are far too distracted to ever begin shadow work. They are primarily concerned with finances, relationships, and how others perceive them. When I started out as a traditional astrologer giving psychic readings, these are the only things clients asked me about. Money, love, family problems, reputation, and how they can belong here in this outer world. In actuality, the 3rd dimension is an illusion, a mirror image of what is going on within us. You will never, ever improve your outer world circumstances by focus or force. The attachment to and obsession with 3D problems is the perpetuation of them. The Third Eye is the portal to all dimensions of consciousness. While the Throat chakra rules both the conscious and subconscious mind, and it's how we process our physical senses, the Third Eye is reached through the subconscious mind, and it's how we process the clairs, the extrasensory perception. The conscious mind must be bypassed to get to the subconscious, and access the Third Eye. This is only done through meditation or sleep, and we often forget our dreams. The Third Eye is the most active in children under the age of 7, who are consistently in their imaginations, and the meditative state. The 40-hour school week is meant to be a free babysitter while parents work 40-hour work weeks, and also preparation for children to grow up and work 40-hour work weeks. This damages the Third Eye, forcing the young and impressionable to be in their conscious minds an unnatural amount of time while they are overwhelmed with information, made to pay attention to the teacher and interact with peers. Daydreaming and the pursuit of individual passions is discouraged. Inner child work is necessary to open the Third Eye. Many people tell me they cannot surrender to meditation consistently because it doesn't feel productive. We've all been programmed for productivity, and must reparent and nurture ourselves to not feel shame for a relaxed state of being. The 4th dimension of consciousness rules the Crown chakra, also known as the "collective consciousness" or the "superconscious" or the "super ego." This is the chakra of enlightenment, self-awareness, autonomy, and claircognizance, or "clear knowing." It can only be opened by illumination of the shadow self. Until you've explored the 1st and 2nd dimensions, integrated your soul desires, respected your body as a physical vessel for divinity, and fulfilled your physical and non-physical needs through radical self-care and devotion to your destiny, the 4th dimension of consciousness remains the astral realm you visit in forgotten dreams, and the parts of your brain you never use. The Crown chakra is violet in color when blocked. When cleared, it is white, the combination of all colors, and the integration of the full rainbow bridge of the 7 main chakras. Your predominate chakra gives you a predominate aura color, so spiritually advanced people have white auras surrounding and protecting them. The 5th dimension of consciousness rules the Soul Star chakra. THIS is the "5D" spiritual people are always talking about "ascending" to, although I'm not sure they're fully aware of what that entails. This chakra is the part of you that people refer to as your spirit, your Higher Self, your main spirit guide, or your guardian angel. It's the part of you that can perceive things you cannot from your very limited conscious mind. This chakra is never blocked, but it's only reached through the Crown, so a Crown blockage keeps people from merging with their higher self in holy union. The 1st dimension of consciousness I talked about is not only the shadow self, the dark you must integrate with your light, but also your soul. The soul is your divine femininity, the spirit is your divine masculinity. When they're united, you have inner balance, inner peace, which is reflected back to you in the 3D that you're still very much a part of. My spirit guides have told me the 5D can be temporarily experienced through near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, and doing heroin. I've no experiences with any of that, so make of that what you will. What I can say is that the Soul Star chakra is magenta in color until the rainbow bridge is cleared in someone who has fully integrated their shadow self. It then turns gold, and this is why saints, enlightened beings, and angels were depicted with golden halos in ancient art. People used to have more open Third Eyes, and clairvoyance or "clear seeing" was the norm. They could see this golden chakra above the heads of ascended people. The 6th dimension of consciousness rules the High Heart chakra, and this one is a little harder to explain. Like the 1st and 4th dimensions, it's a shared realm. The 1st dimension is your connection to your ancestors and akashic records and world soul, or life force of the planet. The 4th dimension is your connection with the collective mentality, and you can either be influenced by it through groupthink if your Crown chakra is blocked, or you can be an influencer as a great thinker. You can also connect with anyone, living or non-living, through your dreams in that astral realm, which is what the 4th dimension is. The 6th dimension is unity consciousness, and it is where ascended kindred spirits come together. It is how they can feel deep connection and community, and telepathically communicate. It's how people can experience utopia alongside others on the planet experiencing dystopia, and I can tell you right now that this is what our collective shift in consciousness is leading up to. Those who've done the shadow work are living a completely different reality from those who haven't, even while in the same physical locations. It's not a location, it's a state of being, a dimension of consciousness. It's what the Bible refers to as "the kingdom of God within you." You don't have to physically die to ascend there, but you do have to experience ego death. Fortunately, ego death isn't death at all, it's just an energetic transformation. It's the giving up of your old identity to become your Higher Self, and to live as your Higher Self here on Earth. This chakra is blue-green, and between the green Heart and blue Throat. One last thing I want to make clear--you cannot "meditate on" your chakras. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. To meditate is to surrender your thoughts, not control them or force them in any direction. You also cannot clear your chakras with reiki, candles, herbs, crystals, or rituals. Don't be scammed. A chakra cannot be overactive or underactive, it can only be blocked or clear. A blocked chakra will work in one direction only, receiving energy but never sending, being influenced by external factors but never influencing positive change. When ALL chakras are clear, they are balanced. There's no way to individually balance each chakra. Chakras are blocked by repressed emotions and thoughts that you are not consciously aware you have. The most anyone can do for you is hold space for you to reclaim these emotions and thoughts, or gently guide you to explore them. It will be intense, much more intense than traditional therapy or journaling where you are focusing on 3D problems you're already well aware of and likely using to distract yourself from the deeper problems. It will require aftercare. If you can't find a trusted practician and don't have a support system of those who know exactly what you're going through, you will have to cultivate a relationship with your spirit guides, take it slow, and be willing to hold space for yourself and self-soothe. It can feel like you are having a nervous breakdown, and some people do find themselves institutionalized temporarily. You are not going crazy, you are going sane. You are breaking toxic patterns, many of them generational. Be kind to yourself, and don't have expectations for how fast or how well your recovery is going. Originally posted here: [link] [comments] | ||
| I need a book on Meditation, send me some recommendations! Posted: 01 Jul 2021 08:56 PM PDT I read "10% Happier" and while I did enjoy it the author did seem a bit full of himself. I also started to read "Waking Up, a Guide to Spirituality Without Religion" I couldn't really follow it, I'm not sure if it was too advanced or complicated for me or what but I read about 25% of it and gave up, is it worth starting over? I also read about half of "The Power of Now" I liked the first half but then it started to get too Zenny for me. I'm not religious, I don't believe in a God so that one just didn't really work out for me. If you guys have any book recommendations, preferably by an Agnostic or Atheist, or even one that's not super religious I'd like to hear a little bit about it. I want to start meditating again because of some mental health issues if that helps. I'll be back online in the AM to see what you guys recommend, thank you in advance and I look forward to your replies. [link] [comments] | ||
| How can I get rid of my fear of "Meditation Induced Psychosis" as I begin a deeper practice? Posted: 01 Jul 2021 08:42 PM PDT As the title suggests I have somewhat of a fear of meditation-induced psychosis (which most likely stems from a fact that a friend of mine developed paranoid schizophrenia after a few mushroom trips). I know the condition is rare, just looking for some advice as far as ways not to worry about it or tips to prevent it. [link] [comments] | ||
| Today I discovered my healthy agression Posted: 01 Jul 2021 06:15 PM PDT Near the beginning of my session my phone fell and yanked the earphones out of my ears. They way they get pulled out like that makes an extremely loud and painful sound in my ears. I was in shock, as usual with loud noises. It's a trauma thing. I tried getting into the meditation again and it seemed to work pretty well and quite quickly. There was a bit of it. In the body. And in the thoughts. The thoughts mainly were pillorying. "See, that shit is so destructive, see how it's fucking everything up? Everything is fucked up now! It's all kaputt now. There's no sense in doing this anymore and you'll sleep terribly and tomorrow is going to be shit and the day after too and it's going to take weeks for this to subside." Usually those thoughts are becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. Then I felt anger. Snarling started to happen, growling. I could feel my asthmatic chest and my allergic sinuses opening up. My abs contracted and my body sat a little straighter. It felt very good and healthy. My hands wanted to punch the air in front of me. I let them. There was a brief moment were I felt scared because I was acting as if possessed. (Also it's nighttime and I can't be too loud because of my neighbors.) . For the last 10 years, numerous therapists have told me that the most important thing for me was to find my healthy agression so I wouldn't be in an emotional victim role. I tried and tried and got kind of annoyed with it. . Edit: I'm not sure if it's the exact video that inspired the dog face, but this one is pretty close. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 06:13 PM PDT 1st - Question for Zen practitioners - How do you adapt to having your eyes open during meditation? I find that my lids become very heavy and I have to fight to keep them open. I do find it easier to stay in the "now" with my eyes open as my mind is less apt to wander. 2nd - General Meditation Question - I find that I internally narrate my actions. I notice that I internally say "breathe in, breathe out" or "I noticed a thought". There have a few been times when I notice that this internal narration is not active, but it only lasts for a minute or two. My question is does my internal narration interfere with the purpose of meditation? I feel like it's training wheels to prevent my mind from wandering. Any ideas of how I can stop or should I even bother? Thank you. [link] [comments] | ||
| I can’t meditate long, help please Posted: 01 Jul 2021 06:57 PM PDT I wish I could. It's so frustrating. I'm not a flexible guy so whenever I sit, my ankle bends and it cuts off circulation to my foot. I want to meditate longer but my foot always ends up feeling tingly and looks a colour that it shouldn't. Can anyone help?! Stupid foot [link] [comments] | ||
| Connecting with my friend through meditation. Posted: 01 Jul 2021 07:57 AM PDT Just a few weeks ago, the closest friend I've ever had moved many miles away from the town where I still reside. I won't dwell on the details of our relationship because they're not really important for the sake of this post. However, what I came here to say is that in order to remain super close, and to give ourselves a reason to speak every day despite the distance that now exists between us, we've decided to meditate together every day. We will find a time when both of us are available for about 20 minutes, whether that's early in the morning or late in the evening (i.e. when neither of us is working), and we'll take it in turns each day to propose a practice for the pair of us to follow for that session - it could be vipassana, pranayama or metta practice if it's in the morning, or yoga nidra, unguided practice, or meditating with music if we're having to do our practice a bit later in the day or at night. We try to start our meditation at a particular time "on the dot", so that we're following the instructions together. It sounds silly but it makes me feel closer to her when I know that we're "taking a deep breath inwards" (for example) at the exact same time. We then usually discuss the practice on the phone shortly afterwards, comparing our experiences, and sharing insight, and even reading to each other from various scriptures/books that we're currently reading to further our practice and understanding. What's even better is that inevitably we end up talking about other things too, keeping our friendship alive despite now residing in different countries. It's really helping with the pain that's come from the sudden change in the dynamic of our friendship, but also - it's really helping both us to keep up the regularity of our meditation practice! Knowing that somebody else is counting on you to meditate with them gives you a type of accountability that is hard when you're only accountable to yourself - I would highly recommend practicing with a friend if you can! I don't know why I shared this with you guys really, but I just thought that it was a beautiful way to connect with a friend and to nurture a relationship, and thought maybe some of you guys could take inspiration from the idea :) [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 10:15 PM PDT I have been meditating for 2 weeks(not continuously), have some questions: 1) I don't notice my breathing in day-to-day life, people who are meditating for a long time do u notice your breathing when u are busy with life? 2)am using an app, the guy on this app suggest sometimes to notice ur natural breathing, so after hearing this I will get this urge to breathe, and even if I wait for sometimes the breath doesn't feel natural(Idk how natural breath feels like) it feels somewhat like small controlled breathing, do u guys feel that way? 3)(RAIN principle), whenever I get a thought I try to analyze or investigate it but I can't able to derive anything from this thought and if I try to focus deeply on this thought like what is this thought or why am getting this thought, my brain starts to hurt( i can feel pain). 4)is there any science behind meditation, can u recommend some articles or something? [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 01 Jul 2021 02:39 PM PDT So I was doing a self healing/forgiveness/self love meditation that was really great and so nice. Towards the end I started hearing singing in my head space. It was tip toe through the tulips by tiny tim. I almost started laughing because it just made sense. 🤣 [link] [comments] | ||
| The Basic Method of Meditation - Ajahn Brahm Posted: 01 Jul 2021 08:28 PM PDT The Basic Method of Meditation - Ajahn Brahm https://bswa.org/teaching/basic-method-meditation-ajahn-brahm/ PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
The Basic Method of Meditation (book) [link] [comments] | ||
| Awakening By Fire: How Trauma and Suffering Cause Spiritual Awakening Posted: 01 Jul 2021 10:39 AM PDT TLDR at the bottom. The man who would become one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time started out life profoundly unhappy. That seems unlikely when you look at him now. If he had a spirit animal, it would be a sloth with a full belly of whatever a sloth eats. He once famously trolled his audience by walking onto the stage and just stood there, breathing, gazing at one person in the audience and then taking a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling, and very slowly transitioned his gaze to the next person...and then the next. And then, when the tension couldn't get any heavier, he broke into a wheezing snicker and said something like, "And that's the present moment." His name is Eckhart Tolle, author of the mega-best seller The Power of Now and patriarch of one of the world's largest spiritual communities. And, he's a perfect example of Awakening by Fire, the curious phenomenon by which spiritual awakenings arise out of deep suffering or trauma. Eckhart's parents fought a lot when he was a kid. And he was particularly sensitive. So, the unrest in the home weighed on him heavily. Up until the age of 13, he recalls, he lived in a state of constant anxiety broken only by periods of suicidal depression. He lived for a time in an apartment building in Germany that had scaffolding along it's facade. "I'll be okay as long as the scaffolding is there," he remembers thinking, "That way, I can always climb up and jump off." His suffering continued into adulthood. His unhappiness grew. Until one night where it became unbearable. He recalls it this way: One night not long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such a feeling many times before, but this time it was more intense than it had ever been... What was the point in continuing to live with this burden of misery? Why carry on with this continuous struggle? I could feel that a deep longing for annihilation, for nonexistence, was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live "I cannot live with myself any longer." This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. "Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the 'I' and the 'self' that 'I' cannot live with." "Maybe," I thought, "only one of them is real." And that's what cracked his egg. He dropped out of his doctorate program at Oxford to the horror of his family. He spent years homeless, jobless, solitary, kicking around park bench to prank bench in a state of bliss and resting in awareness. And, well, you already know the rest of the story. I came to learn about Eckhart's story after my own awakening by fire. It was precipitated by a period of intense stress, financial trouble, addiction, the loss of a relationship and a suicidal depression. I had the realization after taking a massive dose of psychedelic mushrooms. I left my body. And I was in some other place, above it, looking down. And I got the message that all this suffering I was experiencing in that mind and body were of that mind and body. But there was more to me. Another self. And I could retreat into this self whenever I wanted. What I experienced was a spiritual awakening. And it's shaped my life ever since. I've been obsessed by the idea of awakening born from trauma or suffering. It seems to me to be a truth no one is talking about. There are questions that need to be answered. Who are these two people inside my head? What is an awakening experience? How exactly does trauma and suffering create the conditions for awakening? Have others experienced this? Could this provide comfort to people in pain? I Am Two PeopleThrough my direct experience, I've come to believe that I'm made up of two people. At first I thought I had done too many drugs and triggered a schizophrenic break. And maybe I did. But I went looking for answers anyway. Almost every spiritual tradition accounts for the mystery of two people. They have different names. They have different explanations for the phenomenon. They have different prescriptions for what to do about it. But one thing they all agree on is that it's true: we're made up of two people. Eckhart named those two people the Ego and the Awareness or Consciousness. The Christian tradition calls them the Self and the Soul or Spirit. I find it helpful to think of them as the Higher and Lower Self. Have you ever noticed, like Eckhart did, that you're constantly having a dialogue inside your own head? Notice that it's called an inner dialogue, not an inner monologue. Do you ask yourself questions? Do you have arguments with yourself about things you should and shouldn't do? Do you feel pulled toward some higher version of you? If there was only one of you, would you need to have this conversation? Surely not. The conversation is between the Lower Self and the Higher Self. They have different roles and different responsibilities. And they're constantly negotiating with each other. The Role of the Lower SelfThe Lower Self is who I think I am. It's who I mean when I refer to myself. It's composed of my mind and body. It is informed by the senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. It's where pleasure and pain are experienced. It's where emotions exist - anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust. The Lower Self is the one who gets depressed, who feels anxious, experiences pain. The one who is born and the one who dies. It's where thoughts happen, where the idea of self is compiled. It assigns value to every experience, good or bad, based on how they affect that sense of self, whether they support or threaten life. Those value judgments become supersalient. They announce themselves as being of paramount importance. They feel unequivocally real. And they'd better feel real. That realness is what spurs us to action and that action keeps us alive. Giving up attachment to the Lower Self feels like death, because it might actually be. So, the Lower Self blinds us from the existence of the Higher Self because, if you're walking around New York City as pure soul energy, you'll probably get hit by a bus. And it's supported in this mission by our environment. Every single thing in the world is built for the Lower Self. Everything is designed to pique the interest of the Lower Self, to keep its senses stimulated and to keep us trapped in it. But there just might be another self, outside of this Lower Self, outside its blinders - the Higher Self. The Role of the Higher SelfThe Higher Self is harder to describe because you can only use the machinery of the Lower Self, the senses, thoughts, speech, to describe it. The Higher Self is real but it's incomprehensible to the mind because the mind belongs to the Lower Self. It can be touched. It can't be seen. It can't be heard, smelled or tasted. And how exactly do you describe something that is beyond words? One thing I can say for sure, is that the Higher Self includes the Lower Self but isn't limited to it. Imagine a little circle. And then draw a big circle around that. The little one is the Lower Self. The big one is the Higher Self. In fact, it includes everybody's Lower Self. Draw more little circles inside the big circle. The Higher Self is part of all of us, it transcends the boundaries of separateness. It is the thread that connects everything. And it seems to speak to us but only when the Lower Self gets out of the way. It is the muse. The Collective Unconscious. Divine inspiration. The formless. The Nature of AwakeningAwakening is just a word used to describe the realization that this Higher Self exists. We call it awakening because that's what it feels like - waking up. When you're in a dream, all of your reality is that dream. There's nothing outside of it. You're not aware you're in it until you're not anymore. But then you wake up. And when you do, you realize there is an entirely new reality that includes the dream reality but isn't limited to it. This new reality is more real than the dream. You've just been fooled into thinking the dream was all there is. How Suffering Causes AwakeningSuffering causes awakening by making it unbearable to live in the Lower Self any longer. When that happens, we retreat. We detach. We jettison our identity as the Lower Self and retreat into the Higher Self. Living in the Lower Self becomes so uncomfortable, that we must abandon it. Why does this happen only when we're suffering? Well, there are stories of so-called "Spontaneous (or Instantaneous) Enlightenment", Ramana Maharshi comes to mind. But those seem to be the exception, not the rule. Most awakening experiences are the result of profound suffering, trial and tribulation. Sometimes suffering is imposed on a person by another, like in the case of malevolence like abuse or violence. Sometimes suffering is imposed by an accident or by nature. And sometimes a person inflicts suffering on themselves, like in the case of self denial, asceticism or withdrawal from society. And sometimes it's some mix of these. And sometimes it takes multiple traumas or extended periods of suffering to crack the nut. But the mechanism is almost always the same. Only when living with the Lower Self becomes unbearable, do we discover the Higher Self. Or, as Eckhart so wonderfully puts it, "You don't wake up from a good dream, you wake up from a nightmare." All different kinds of experiences can cause suffering. At lower levels, suffering seems to reinforce the attachment we feel with the Lower Self. Having a sunburn or stubbing a toe might make you more aware of and attached to your physical body. But there seems to be a tipping point where enough suffering will break the attachment to the Lower Self and send you running to your Higher for refuge. There's a common thread among Awakenings by Fire. We think we know who we are (our Lower Self). And then something happens. And that thing changes our beliefs about who we think we are, who we think other people are and what the world around us is made of. This can be just momentary, it can last a while and fade over time, or it can be persistent. What Kinds of Suffering Wakes You Up?Some common experiences that cause Awakenings by Fire might include:
Here are some notable examples off the top of my head:
It seems that the more central to our identity the thing we lose is, the more likely it is to cause an awakening. We're like the Pheonix, we have to burn to the ground to be reborn. We have to lose everything. Because, when we do, we realize we are not who we thought we were. We realize there is something left. And that something is the eternal part of us, the part that can't be destroyed, the Higher Self. The Meaning of SufferingI believe something that I am willing to admit is crazy: I believe that the luckiest people in the world are those who "lose everything" because I believe that when you do, you gain the only thing that matters. You gain the most valuable thing in the world. You wake up. You understand the meaning of life and the nature of reality. It's what we're all here to do. In that way, I think suffering and trauma happen for us, not to us. I think it's possible in the cosmic sense that, before we're born, we choose a life that will give us just the right kind of suffering so that we have what we'll need to wake up. I think that repeated patterns of trauma and extended periods of suffering are simply the universe giving us as many chances as we need to see the light. And whenever we want to awaken to our higher nature, it's here for us. We can wake up because of our suffering, not despite it. Do you have an Awakening by Fire Story? Because I want to hear it. --- TLDR: We generally of awakening as a pleasant experience. But it seems that the mechanism behind spiritual awakenings is trauma and/or suffering. This is because suffering makes identification with the Ego or Lower Self unbearable and in response, we retreat into Awareness, Consciousness or the Higher Self. The hope is that this phenomenon gives meaning to the suffering we encounter in life. --- This piece originally appeared here. [link] [comments] | ||
| Would anyone like to join a 30 Day Self Reflection Challenge starting 04/07? =) Posted: 01 Jul 2021 06:50 AM PDT I have written out a progression of questions for the 30 days [link] [comments] |
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