Meditation

[Attie]

Does anyone meditate?

I am just beginning.....5 minutes is like five hours. My mind is so full that it's hard to keep an
"empty mind" for more than a couple seconds at a time. I've been wanting to do REAL mediation for many years and I have read about it, watched videos and never really understood how to do it or got results. UNTIL, finally I came across a video by my ole friend Russ (Russell Brand ) sharing the most direct and best explanation. He said to focus on a word like "flower" that has a neutral meaning and return to that word each time a thought comes into your mind. It's that basic but I think it's starting to work because when I'm able to do it, I feel some peace and calm.

I'd like to hear other's experiences.

[LeeAnn]

@Attie I am sorry to have missed this for so long. This is an important part of my life and history

For many years I used self hypnosis instead of traditional (empty your mind) meditation. Some what different in technique , the result can be the same. In meditation one way to start is by counting breaths. In self hypnosis I also use counting but I count backwards attempting to visually onstruct each number. Creative visualization is also a way to beat the wandering thoughts that PLAGUE meditators. Some try to visually create a flower or a ROSE. I do not mean to just think about it , with eyes closed actually visualize it.

It has changed my life and allowed me to have some really unique experiences. I have learned it is important to clear your chakras frequently to rid yourself of the static. I mean something billions of people have done for so many years has to have some validity to it

Its sounds somewhat like you are talking about

[Headchange]

@Attie are you still meditating? I started using ‘waking up’ app with guided meditation by Sam Harris and it’s been a game changer for me

[Attie]

@Attie I am sorry to have missed this for so long. This is an important part of my life and history

For many years I used self hypnosis instead of traditional (empty your mind) meditation. Some what different in technique , the result can be the same. In meditation one way to start is by counting breaths. In self hypnosis I also use counting but I count backwards attempting to visually onstruct each number. Creative visualization is also a way to beat the wandering thoughts that PLAGUE meditators. Some try to visually create a flower or a ROSE. I do not mean to just think about it , with eyes closed actually visualize it.

It has changed my life and allowed me to have some really unique experiences. I have learned it is important to clear your chakras frequently to rid yourself of the static. I mean something billions of people have done for so many years has to have some validity to it

Its sounds somewhat like you are talking about

LeAnn,
I just now saw your post! Better late than never. It's nice to hear of others experiences and yours sounds particularly unique as I've not known of self hypnosis. It's intriguing to me as well as the creating detailed visualizations to empty the mind and get to that 'sweet nothing' place I will look into that as an addition to what I'm doing. I have to admit my disciplined mind is not so disciplined and I work on it most everyday. I'm excited to add this new concept. Thanks for sharing.

[Attie]

@Attie are you still meditating? I started using ‘waking up’ app with guided meditation by Sam Harris and it’s been a game changer for me

Headchange,
Yes, I'm a work in progress and just sticking with it is the real key to seeing change in the mental noise. I use some guided meditations as well the powerful addition of noticing the mind chatter & choosing to turn it off. Like I mentioned to LeAnn, discipline is something I'm working towards that I know will give me results. How is your journey going?

[charo]

Hello Headchange and Attie,
I know that this is an old thread and I dont know how to reply with quotes yet but I have some advice.
I have been practicing meditation and self-hypnosis for quite some time. I have had a life-long battle with stress and anxiety.
It takes much practice to get to a point where the thoughts in your head empty and allow new positive ones and peace to enter.
Honestly, meditation should be practiced daily since we encounter negative thoughts as soon as we wake up. But the results get better and stronger with time.
I have used an app called head-space and did not find it very helpful. I do like self-hynosis before bed.
I have always had a hard time sitting still and allowing my mind to do the same.
May I suggest watching a youtube video on kundalini yoga? There are warm up exercises with deep breaths that will make you sweat-gets the body and chakras ready for
meditation. Start with one that has a meditation for 3 minutes, like the sat nam kria. There are thousands of meditations within kundali yoga, and have many tradtional teachers and many not so traditonal.
Headchange, I will check out the "waking up" app, and follow up with my thoughts.
Happy meditating and peacefully wishes.

[Carlbez]

Yes I do meditate, but it's one thousand times more difficult when I don't have any chemicals in me to help stave off my mental illness and what comes with it.

[Carlbez]

Yeah, speaking of meditation, as I mentioned in my prior post, I do meditate, and do my very best to make it the most consistent thing that I do. I say this because I do believe that
some sort of spiritual practice that I do, which include reading "wisdom teachings"(Advaita Vedanta) is the only thing that I feel that could make sense in a world that's really propelling
itself toward "Hell in a hand basket"! These Hindu teachings or texts are probably the oldest in recorded history, and their concept of God resonates with me.

[maxcom]

I am new to meditation myself. I did a "restorative" yoga class for the first time and there was music and meditation. I really liked it! I also did a
"walking meditation" with someone and that was pretty cool too. I will try the guided meditations you listen to next although I feel like it might be harder for me because of ADHD and my wandering thoughts!

[Carlbez]

Yes, it sounds like you may have found a new hobby!

[Renne]

Lots of old threads ...

I meditate daily. 2 or 3 times a day for around 30 minutes. Been doing if for many years and the practise remains basically as I started out. It has evolved in that there are degrees of difficulty of focus.

It's all about what I focus on, that's real and not imaginary. The senses, the inner sensation of tingling or warmth etc, and the space it all occurs in. Starting out with focus on sensation is difficult enough, as some have noted time seems to drag, but it gets easier with practise and time even disappears at times. Eventually the focus, or sense, is on or of the space it all happens in - staying out of engagement with any thinking or emotion that may occur and just letting it pass. And so it goes ...

[LeeAnn]

Did any of you routine meditators ever go so deep that you visualized something. Something unexpected that was frightening and I am serious, so I don't mean Casper the Ghost. Something sort of personal, but it made you think real hard about trying it again.

[Renne]

Did any of you routine meditators ever go so deep that you visualized something. Something unexpected that was frightening and I am serious, so I don't mean Casper the Ghost. Something sort of personal, but it made you think real hard about trying it again.

Hi LeeAnn. In my experience the practise of meditation is born of a need for negation, for an undoing of the accumulated layers to the often troublesome subconscious or psyche (or past as emotion and thinking) - to get back 'home' to the innocence apparent in the newborn that we love so much. It's difficult enough to start with but with earnest practise there are breakthroughs where the resistance or noise of mind stops and there is clear space for a while, until its time to face the next layer of difficult or resistant energy.

Along the way I have run into difficult layers that can be described as the place of nightmare - the incubus and succubus and other psychic characteristics that are essentially of human nature in the collective sense, encapsulations or condensations of common (enough) experience that must be faced along the way in order to move on. The experiences or encounters can be daunting, and the negative energy can cling for a while, but the way past them is to let them pass. Because everything passes if we don't hold on to it. The general rule is you can't go any deeper than you can handle, however difficult it may seem at the time.

There are equally remarkable breakthroughs, after periods of sometimes great effort in practising stillness (the effort is really of the will not to go with the resistance of mind that would deter or distract) all of a sudden the storm breaks and the clouds clear. And so it goes on.

There are many teachings that in my view give the impression you do some work and then you are rewarded, but this is a simplistic notion. The fact is, in my experience, as long as I'm alive there is work to be done.

Ain't that the fact? :-) And vigilance is the price of peace - sure it's been said before in some context.

I believe (almost, have to leave room for the exception) everyone is doing it in their own life to some degree, negating or resolving our emotional nature for a sense of clarity or equilibrium, to get back home. The difference with formal meditation practise (and not all practises are equal, though everything has its place) and/or so-called spiritual teachings is they are a way of focussing ones energy when the need is upon us and the time is right.

In my perception there is an integrity to life, everything has its time and place, and when we stop focussing on the particular enough and perhaps through focussing enough on pure sensation in the body we can come to the sense of space that encompasses it all and there is the possibility of entering a new octave of being where the work that's been done over the years doesn't have to be done any more, it's done. This is my intuition, and what keeps me going regardless of the difficulties, one of which is just doing the right thing at times, or even knowing what the right thing is. But there is no wrong thing, everything we do or experience moves us on to some degree.

I suppose the short answer to your question is yes, but it always leads into the problem or difficulty of living or the question of what is human nature. And the use of psychedelics can and does complicate the matter, has for me anyway. But that's another story.