Original Post
Meditation
Does anyone here meditate?
I do, though I still haven't made it a regular practice. I try to at least once everyday, even if it's just mindfulness while I do something else. I'm stuck in a egoistic trap of being interested in meditation and eastern religions, but haven't done it nearly as much as I like to read about it.
It's nice when I do manage to practice. I've noticed already that by focusing entirely on the breath, thoughts get way less attention. And the only thing that causes suffering, is thoughts. So I can imagine progressing even more will bring about states of peace.
If anyone has an interest but doesn't know much about this topic, I'd recommend listening to some Alan Watts lectures, and possibly reading The Power of Now. There's other resources too, but I've mostly only listened to Alan Watts, that book, and skimmed other texts.
Discuss.
I do, though I still haven't made it a regular practice. I try to at least once everyday, even if it's just mindfulness while I do something else. I'm stuck in a egoistic trap of being interested in meditation and eastern religions, but haven't done it nearly as much as I like to read about it.
It's nice when I do manage to practice. I've noticed already that by focusing entirely on the breath, thoughts get way less attention. And the only thing that causes suffering, is thoughts. So I can imagine progressing even more will bring about states of peace.
If anyone has an interest but doesn't know much about this topic, I'd recommend listening to some Alan Watts lectures, and possibly reading The Power of Now. There's other resources too, but I've mostly only listened to Alan Watts, that book, and skimmed other texts.
Discuss.
Last edited by isaac; Jun 30, 2015 at 02:40 AM.
Originally Posted by WeooWeoo
Can you explain the basics on how to meditate? I'm honestly interested.
Mindfulness of breathing:
- Focus on the breath.
A. Pick either a physical sensations (e.g: the rise and fall of the abdomen, the breath passing through the nose, the breath passing the tip of the nose, etc... ), a mental concept ("in" and "out", or a point in space that the breath passes, or the process of the rising and falling of the abdomen, etc... ) or both. - The mind will begin to wander. When you notice it has (a moment of mindfulness) return focus to the breath.
- Rinse and repeat.
I like to focus on the point in my nose I feel air entering and exiting.
Meditation in this style is training concentration/focus. If a thought comes up, there's no need to feel bad or upset, just return focus to the breath and be happy that you're back to the breath. You might get lost in a long chain of thought, don't start another by being displeased by that, instead just focus on the breath when you realize that.
To make things easier in the beginning, you can count your breaths. When I first started I would count every in breath and out breath. If I got distracted by a thought, then I would start over from 0. If I got to 10, then I started over again. Once you're able to routinely get to 10 when counting both in and out breaths, start counting only your out breaths, or only your in breaths.
In the beginning, I meditated lying down. If you're more comfortable doing that, then do that. The most important thing is that you meditate at all. Finally I'm at the point where I'm sitting up to meditate, and I noticed right away how much more focused I am during the session than when I'm lying down.
I'd recommend setting a timer for however long so you can let thoughts about how long it's been or "am I done yet??" pass away with ease. It'd be easiest for you to ease into the habit with just 5 or 10 minutes a day. Most people who are serious end up doing 20-60 minutes a day, and a lot of people claim that it takes a good 15-20 minutes before their mind actually settles and they're able to settle in deep into the meditation. But for now, it's more important you create the habit of meditating and that'll be easiest if you start low.
Meditation has a lot of scientifically proven benefits, as well as having been used for centuries by religions. Here's just one quick thing I googled about it. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...ain-meditation
Keep in mind that it's a practice and that you're physically changing your brain and it will take time, and thoughts will occur. I'm at the point where it just clicked that I just need to return to the breath instead of going off on a tangent about thinking about being on the breath and not getting lost in thought.
I've noticed that doing this gives a thought very little time to try to trap me into reacting to it. Instead of being aware of a negative thought or desire thought, I'm aware of the breathing again in an instant. It allows one to become more conscious, and end their slavery to their thoughts.
Last edited by isaac; Jun 30, 2015 at 05:20 AM.
