Has anyone tried meditation here?

[trencherman]

Last night, as I was coming back from shopping, another tenant, a guy probably close to my age waited for me as I was parking. As it turned out, he also wants to park in the covered space where I park and wanted to ask me which are the vacant slots he could use. He did not speak fluent English. I pointed out to him a few around my slot that I knew were vacant and called out their numbers to him. He asked me again so I repeated my reply. Then once more for the third time by which time I have completely lost patience, I barked out at him how many times do you have to ask and started to walk away. He apologized behind me and I regretted getting irked so quickly. Did not consider that he could have been deficient or suffering some impairment. Then I thought I really should chill it a bit and be more self-aware. I shall take up meditation to help me do this.

 

[Otage]

The quickest way I know to chill out and be more aware of yourself towards surroundings is this: look around you, see the things around (lamp, chair what ever), imagine the air around you and between things and inhale deep telling yourself everything is fine or good. The point is to get you to this moment, this place and realize that brolly at that moment and time all is pretty well. You may have stress at work ect. but at this place, this moment all is pretty well.

I find the meditation etc. bit unfunctional, since often the point is to block everything outside out yourself. It's relaxing, but in my opinnion isn't really handy out in the real world.

 

[Stonecold]

I can't imagine life without some type of meditation. We find ours in the late night hours and early morning laying or walking on the beach together listening to the splashing waves, breeze and seagulls.We stay and watch the sunrise if the morning happens to be a weekend otherwise traffic getting back home is to bad if we don't leave the island by 4:30 am. We also have a firepit at home and love to sit around the fire and watch the flames while we relax drink wine and totally forget all the cares at home and in the world. I also when time is short and home alone will lay on the bed with one or several of my cats and cuddle up and listen to their purring and this is very healing and relaxing.

 

[W!nston]

I took a course in TM (Transcendental Meditation) in 1971. It really opened my eyes. I experienced something that’s not easy to describe. It is a simple technique that can be done anywhere. I use it to this day.

Just google “tm dot org”and read about it yourself.

 

[hhindd]

I discovered 4-4-8 breathing to chill & i find it helps slow down any tension, negative thoughts or anxiety.

Breath into belly for 4-seconds, hold for 4-seconds & breathout for 8-seconds. repeat 3 times & enjoy!!!

The factory setting for humans is often not relaxed, we have to learn it.

 

[brmstn69]

Oh, meditation...

I thought you said medication...

 

[trencherman]

Oh, meditation...

I thought you said medication...

Maybe that's what I really need.

 

[hhindd]

Maybe that's what I really need.

Don't be hard on yourself, you realized your error, & nobody is perfect...Medication may help short term, but training the mind from the factory settings of threat & stress maybe more helpfull long-term, by increasing self awareness, ie we stop operating on nature's default setting which has flaws!. The flaw is that being vigilant for threat increases stress chemicals which stop feel good chemicals!

I recently became interested in the relatively new but scientific psycho trend called mindfullness & also compassion therapy. I say scientific because certain pleasureable-psychological events trigger ocytocin in humans (which is a feel-good innate/on-board chemical), inc: huggs, love & reassurance, but also compassion, both to oursleves & others, so these are very beneficial & proven as mood modifiers.

Threats block Oxytocin
While compassion to ourselves through internal dialogue, ie 'its OK, You can be calm, You are safe, may I be kind to myself', boosts Oxytocin.
Threats & our critical internal voice inside our head, which may be overly negative to ourselves &/or others, block ocytocin the feel good chemical & trigger the threat & stress response with cortisol, which is a stress hormone getting the body ready for fight or flight. So you cannot feel good when the threat system blocks ocytocin.

Our threat system is triggered by hostility percieved or otherwise, which includes any social threat to our ego.

We can modify/dampen the threat signals buy feeling content emotionally.
Its called self soothing......How do we do this?

We connect with our compassionate self. This self is non judgemental & always understands our human condition & the same for others!
It replaces our critical voice which is unconcious with our conscious voice which understands our human faults & frailities & knows that everyone is also imperfect.

The human condition:
Life is short & we did not choose our body or our environment, but we mostly want safety for our loved-ones & ourselves.
We are not perfect & have strong emotions but Peace is benefical to all.
Accepting ourselves & others as able to be positive members in society is beneficial to all.

 

[trencherman]

Here is the guided meditation I find easy to understand and follow:

 

[trencherman]

I have been following daily this guided meditation for a few weeks now in the lotus position which becomes painfully unbearable after a few minutes. You need to adjust your position constantly to relieve muscle tension. Yesterday, I noticed that I went through the whole hour without shifting my sitting position at all. Is that incremental improvement or what?

 

[trencherman]

Here's a great introduction to secular (non-religious) meditation

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[trencherman]

Here's another effective relaxation clip to try

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[hhindd]

Cheers that was fab, he kind of orders you to relax, relax now!
By the way did you get a chance to amend the situation with the guy who helped start this thread Trencherman? ??????*

 

[fb115]

Meditation is too static for me; I cannot remain still and try to devoid myself of thinking for more than 5 minutes. I participated in a modified Buddhist meditation session with an avid practitioner who was the resident "relaxation" coach at a spa once. Later when I substituted for him while he went abroad, I led the participants through visualization exercises, instead. They voted that they liked my techniques better than those of the previous coach. So I was floating on air for a while of my supposedly superiority, at least among the rehab patrons. But an incident with a manic compulsive resident showed that even my attempt at CBT with him didn't snap him out of it. The Buddhist medication coach did manage to snap him out of his attack. Since then, I never doubt the miracle of meditation.

 

[tuneart]

I tried meditation but unable to concentrate. too many voices in my head

 

[taurus2904]

I've tried several types of meditation, and I just can't keep my mind quiet. I find pets far more useful for relaxation and far more reliable for companionship.

 

[Shelter]

I've tried several types of meditation, and I just can't keep my mind quiet. I find pets far more useful for relaxation and far more reliable for companionship.

:thumbs up::thumbs up::thumbs up::agree::agree::agree:

 

[hhindd]

You cannot stop thoughts, but you can choose not to be swept away by the constant chatter, known as Monkey Mind!

For anyone up against monkey mind, (ie unsettled & jumping around) which is unfortunately our human default, you can use this formula:

Label every event in your awareness with one of the following THREE zones during your meditation.

1. SEE, (this includes any mental image past, and present or fantasy)
2. HEAR, (this includes the same as above but in mental or audible experience)
3. FEEL, (this includes any physical sensation in the body, emotional or sensory)

So you basically sit there and label... HEAR - I am talking to myself,.... FEEL - I can feel my butt on the cushion. SEE - I am picturing an image in my MENTAL SCREEN, that is from past, future or fantasy.

When you consciously label what is going on for you in your experience, non-judgementaly in the present moment, YOU are awareness mindfully observing the human condition, which in my personal experience, is not a pretty condition.

Labelling during your meditation these three zones keeps you in the present moment, mindfully watching and strengthening your concentration and also your sensory clarity which means you're not wrapped up in the automatic triggers because you are seeing individually and feeling the sensory inputs and labelling them and that helps you stay focused and so just let the voices go by and say to yourself.... HEAR.! And if you feel butterflies maybe or tension, say to yourself.... Feel!. And if you picture an image you say..... See!

Basically this makes your meditation an active experience and means you are not trying to quiet the mind you are observing it and you are not zoning out because you are highly attentive!

 

[trencherman]

Monk Thubten in post #11 nails it with a convincing metaphor. He likens the mind to a busy road full of taxis, you can hop from one to the other like most people do or you can train not to hail any of them and simply let them get to their destination.

 

[hhindd]

Another way to see this, although taxis are good, is that your mind is a host and your thoughts are the guests. You don't have to pay much concern to any annoying guests because as the Host U know they're going to leave.