Meditation

ZiggyStar

Does anyone practice it?

I'm been trying to do a sort of Transcendental Meditation (but it's called Natural Stress Relief) and it's bloody hard! I'm struggling to stop thinking of things while I concentrate on the syllable that I'm supposed to say over and over for 15 - 20 mins each session (2 sessions a day).

Any tips on how to quieten my mind? I've only been doing it for 1.5 weeks.

dunkman

when the Beatles did transcendental meditation Ringo emptied his mind by trying to write a song... thick fucker

ZiggyStar

dunkman wrote:

when the Beatles did transcendental meditation Ringo emptied his mind by trying to write a song... thick fucker

ha ha I only recently read about the Beatles doing TM....and exactly as I write this, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds came on the tv.

anotherclone

I meditate, although recently, not every day. Honestly, I'm not sure if the type I do really has a name. A Buddhist in the yoga center I go to has given me some instruction and guidance.

I mostly began my lesson in meditation when I had cancer. I wanted to learn how to get some control over my mind so I wasn't thinking "cancer" all day long. It really did help me get to a peaceful place even if only for a few moments in each day.

What the instructor tells us is that when your mind wanders, which is common, the best thing you can do is gently guide yourself back to that meditative state. If you think "HOLY CRAP...MY MIND IS WANDERING!!!", it will almost be too disruptive to the process of getting back on track. He tells us to acknowledge that you have wandered off and then let it go.

Be gentle with yourself. It will take time.

nick1977

If I try to meditate, I always fall asleep. :rolleyes: I wish I could cure that!

anotherclone

nick1977 wrote:

If I try to meditate, I always fall asleep. :rolleyes: I wish I could cure that!

Are you laying down or sitting up?

chadwick

yea i meditate, havent in quite sometime tho.
i don't know the answers myself.
i to get sleepy and get very relaxed.
if i am laying down i can fall asleep fast.
i have fallen asleep sitting up tho too.
breathing is way important.
breathe in thru your nose, exhale out your mouth.
maybe stick in a meditation cd.
is the syllable your saying OM?

chinobaeza

nick1977 wrote:

If I try to meditate, I always fall asleep. :rolleyes: I wish I could cure that!

do you really want to cure that?...I wouldn't

pearljamgirl07

yoga is very interesting and help me a lot .I'm a very nervous person and start with yoga was the best ..

deadnote

maybe you should try reading

ZiggyStar

chadwick wrote:

yea i meditate, havent in quite sometime tho.
i don't know the answers myself.
i to get sleepy and get very relaxed.
if i am laying down i can fall asleep fast.
i have fallen asleep sitting up tho too.
breathing is way important.
breathe in thru your nose, exhale out your mouth.
maybe stick in a meditation cd.
is the syllable your saying OM?

LAM...sort of sounds like Looooom though.

MahoganySouls

I am an avid fan of Hatha Yoga. It's principle is of relaxation. One exercise that I highly recommend to my patients is to do a complete body purge.

First get into a comfortable position. I suggest laying down. For meditation I assume you are using a half lotus or burmese pose. Either way, start with a deep cleansing breath and then you will begin a series of taking a deep breath and then squeezing muscles for 1o seconds then releasing the air slowly.

Start with the toes. Take a deep breath. Squeeze all toes into a tight ball. Count to 10. Release the toes and exhale slowly yet fully.

Next do the heels of the foot.

Then the ankles.

Then the calves.

And on until you reach the top of your head where you expell all of the stress.

At this point, your mind and body will be totally relaxed and more receptive to a meditational state.

jojo

MahoganySouls wrote:

I am an avid fan of Hatha Yoga. It's principle is of relaxation. One exercise that I highly recommend to my patients is to do a complete body purge.

First get into a comfortable position. I suggest laying down. For meditation I assume you are using a half lotus or burmese pose. Either way, start with a deep cleansing breath and then you will begin a series of taking a deep breath and then squeezing muscles for 1o seconds then releasing the air slowly.

Start with the toes. Take a deep breath. Squeeze all toes into a tight ball. Count to 10. Release the toes and exhale slowly yet fully.

Next do the heels of the foot.

Then the ankles.

Then the calves.

And on until you reach the top of your head where you expell all of the stress.

At this point, your mind and body will be totally relaxed and more receptive to a meditational state.

i've got try that

Earthgirl

I meditate every day... grew up doing it with my mom, all I do now is when i go for my daily 1 hour walk in a field.. I stop, sit down , close my eyes and meditate with nature... the birds, air.. sun.. and am thankful for it all. Mediation can be done anyway you like.

soulsinging

Earthgirl wrote:

I meditate every day... grew up doing it with my mom, all I do now is when i go for my daily 1 hour walk in a field.. I stop, sit down , close my eyes and meditate with nature... the birds, air.. sun.. and am thankful for it all. Mediation can be done anyway you like.

i'd give anything for an hour every day to do that.

Earthgirl

soulsinging wrote:

i'd give anything for an hour every day to do that.

you dont live near any fields? or other rural places? you need to find one... it's beautiful.

soulsinging

Earthgirl wrote:

you dont live near any fields? or other rural places? you need to find one... it's beautiful.

i don't have an hour. i live in the middle of a huge urban city, but there are some very nice parks here. it's the hour i don't have to spare.

NothinGBetteRPJMaN

this worked for me the first time....and its pretty easy

just sit in a chair fold both hands on your stomach(thumbs around the belly button area) concentrate on deep breaths, and your hands will move up and down with your stummy. also if you must, think of a syllable that has no meaning, like the typical aummmmm you see in movies

Jeanie

ZiggyStar wrote:

Does anyone practice it?

I'm been trying to do a sort of Transcendental Meditation (but it's called Natural Stress Relief) and it's bloody hard! I'm struggling to stop thinking of things while I concentrate on the syllable that I'm supposed to say over and over for 15 - 20 mins each session (2 sessions a day).

Any tips on how to quieten my mind? I've only been doing it for 1.5 weeks.

Zig, I had that problem too when I started, brain would go racing around, freaking because I wasn't doing it right or just because my brain is mental. I just kept gently stopping myself by refocusing on my breathing going in and out. I found that the more I meditated the better I got at quieting my mind, so you'll probably find that if you keep at it you'll improve. I always find that if I stop meditating for a few weeks that my brain does the racing thing when I start up again. I also found that by doing a 3 minute breathing exercise at regular times during the day, that I "built up my focus" so to speak and was able to meditate for longer. The meditation that I learned didn't require me to make any sound but I'm sure the principles are the same.

I went to a group who used the cd's of this guy.

http://www.mindfulnesstapes.com/author.html

And the 3 minute breathing exercises are explained here.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46922

Maybe you could try the 3 Minute breathing exercises and see if it helps?
I swear by it because it really helped me when I was doing a full meditation.

Good luck.

ZiggyStar

Jeanie wrote:

Zig, I had that problem too when I started, brain would go racing around, freaking because I wasn't doing it right or just because my brain is mental. I just kept gently stopping myself by refocusing on my breathing going in and out. I found that the more I meditated the better I got at quieting my mind, so you'll probably find that if you keep at it you'll improve. I always find that if I stop meditating for a few weeks that my brain does the racing thing when I start up again. I also found that by doing a 3 minute breathing exercise at regular times during the day, that I "built up my focus" so to speak and was able to meditate for longer. The meditation that I learned didn't require me to make any sound but I'm sure the principles are the same.

I went to a group who used the cd's of this guy.

http://www.mindfulnesstapes.com/author.html

And the 3 minute breathing exercises are explained here.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46922

Maybe you could try the 3 Minute breathing exercises and see if it helps?
I swear by it because it really helped me when I was doing a full meditation.

Good luck.

Thanks! I'll try that.

How long can you quieten your mind? I thought meditation was some sort of trancelike state that you go into and wake up an hour later and can't remember anything...but what I'm reading suggests the opposite. Hmmm....I'm a little confused to be honest.

Jeanie

ZiggyStar wrote:

Thanks! I'll try that.

How long can you quieten your mind? I thought meditation was some sort of trancelike state that you go into and wake up an hour later and can't remember anything...but what I'm reading suggests the opposite. Hmmm....I'm a little confused to be honest.

Well I guess it depends on your experience, but it's not hypnotherapy!

I can't say that in my experience that it's been trancelike or that I'm unaware or can't remember. I can still hear everything and am aware of things around me, but they don't concern me I guess is the best explanation. I can go for an hour, probably longer if I put my mind to it, but I find that 20 minutes to 1/2 hour is more than enough to refresh me. But I did find that REALLY difficult to begin with. And if I did manage to go for longer than 1/2 hour I tended to fall asleep, WHICH if that's what you're wanting to do fine and good, but if you are looking at it as a way of releasing stress and tension and helping your brain to function more effectively during the day, falling asleep isn't what you want at all!

I'm fairly practical Ziggy, so I look at it as a tool for better mental health and it's definitely very beneficial for your circulation and oxygenating your blood. I really got into it for stress relief and to help myself go to sleep at night. So I have different meditations depending on what I'm hoping to achieve. Like I said the 3 minute exercise is GREAT just to calm yourself down during the day and get a little equilibrium. You can do it anywhere, you can even do it with your eyes open so people don't even know what you're doing. I found it really handy in tea breaks at work.

Are you actually meditating with guidance? Like are you doing it with a practitioner or from a cd? The important thing to remember is that it's what you want to get out of it that is the most important and you can't "do it wrong" you can only do it your way and see how you go. But practice definitely makes perfect. The more often you try the less confusing it will become I suspect. Well that's how it was for me anyway. I just didn't get it at all in the beginning, and then I eventually got the guided relaxation meditation to put me off to sleep down, but couldn't see myself sitting up doing it during the day but after going to a group, I've found it much easier to understand and achieve what I wanted to achieve with it.

MahoganySouls

I think you are expecting too much from meditation. As Jeanie said, it isn't hypnotic in nature. Rather it is a focused event.

Have you ever been involved in something and suddenly lost track of time because you were so hyper focused on it? That is basically mediation. It is a focus on one particular thing. Be it your breathing, the sound of a water trickle, the click of a clock.

Medicated-Genius

soulsinging wrote:

i don't have an hour. i live in the middle of a huge urban city, but there are some very nice parks here. it's the hour i don't have to spare.

Even finding just ten minutes a day is beneficial. Set your alarm ten minutes earlier, do it before you go to bed at night........ make it part of your daily routine. It's an awesome way to start the day.

As to the racing thoughts the original poster asked about...... it just takes practice and patience. If people didn't struggle with the thought train, there'd be no need to learn to mediate. One good way of finding that space in your mind that is nothing but consciousness is to quietly ask yourself........ I wonder what my next thought will be? It's interesting to watch what happens. Once you find that space, it's a matter of learning to relax into it and observe it without thinking about it, if that makes sense.........

harmless_little_f***

Well I'm into contemplative prayer/the Christian mystics. Does that count?

chadwick

Earthgirl wrote:

I meditate every day... grew up doing it with my mom, all I do now is when i go for my daily 1 hour walk in a field.. I stop, sit down , close my eyes and meditate with nature... the birds, air.. sun.. and am thankful for it all. Mediation can be done anyway you like.

that is perfect.
i just seen you sittin out there
amongst earth.

i do the same stuff.
i go for my walk, sit on some driftwood,
under a tree, whatever, and write in the silence of nature's sounds.

MattCameronKicksButt

I tried it once when I was at school. It was bizarre, everything in life seemed to make so much sense.

I haven't been able to do it since. :(

Ahnimus

There is nothing paritcularly special about meditation. It's a self-induced trance. Humans go in and out of trances all the time. Especially when watching television.

The concept is similar, yet opposite in ways to the theory of hypnosis. Hypnosis seeks to flood the consciousn with information, effectively disconnecting it from reality by getting it caught up in trying to decipher the flood of information. Another method, instant induction, uses a method to jolt the nervous system to disconnect consciousness while feeding a verbal command like "Sleep" to the subconcious.

Meditation, is the opposite method of reaching the same goal. The method is to clear your consciousness of information. A result of either method is the reduction of activity in the pareital lobe, which is involved in the sense "ego" or sense of self, autonomy. The sense of self is an important survival mechanism. Also common in meditation and hypnosis, is the increase of temporal lobe activity.

Next time you are watching TV and you gap out, or zone out and miss some of the show, recognize that you are in a trance. The danger here is that your not consciously aware of the TV material, but your subconscious is still receiving cues from it. It might be ok for purposes of this discussion to equate consciousness with inhibitory control and subconscious with preprogrammed behavior. In which case a loss of inhibitory control may very well be a bad thing.

Some studies show some bennefits for mental health and possibly longevity in favor of meditation/hypnosis. But danger lies in taking this too far and misinterpreting the implications of the experiences accompanied by such alterations of brain states. With a complete reduction of pareital lobe activity, one will lose any sense of separation, autonomy or self, which is an important survival mechanism.