Meditation

Walker

I have used meditation for the better part of my life. In Tae Kwon Do we meditated before each class to prepare our minds for training. More advanced students were made to meditate for hours on end to aid self-discipline. These days I meditate to help with anxiety and depression, and to practice stillness and an awareness of my environment. Admittedly I don't know what science has to say about it, but I find meditation to be a very powerful tool, as well as an incredibly difficult thing to master.

What's the forum's view on meditation? Does anybody here practice it? Anybody think I'm full of shit?

muppet

It doesn't seem particularly meditative to try to pick a fight about meditation...

johndis

loltsundere

I start by just trying to focus on what I hear and feel around me, and nothing but that. Sometimes that works for a while, but I always have so many thoughts and feels coming at me at once, I am finding it next to impossible to fully clear my mind.

"I didn't clean the bathroom this morning. What should I make for dinner? I hope my fiancee job goes well today. Now I am caught up in contemplating the progress of my evolving and complex interpersonal relationships. Was I meditating?"

At the start and finish of Aikido classes we will occasionally practice our meditation, and usually that's the closest I come to achieving a less distracted meditation.

Honestly I think it would also be great for me and my slew of mental problems if I could learn to concentrate and relax better.

Ametto

I've been meditating a lot as well. Mostly after finding out a lot of comedians on WTFpod use it. It helps me break the downward spiral that my mind tends to default to. I've learned a few tricks that help. Dismiss any negative thoughts that come up. Or in the least, push those thoughts for another time. Another trick is to look at objects around the room and describe them.

nerdmancer

I believe meditation has taught me to help control my emotions more effectively and to slow my heart beat (I can slow my heart rate faster then 100% of those tested in Psych101 in my high school graduating class through a heart rate monitor).

I just relax and breath deeply. I still think of things, I don't understand the idea of clearing my mind as it never shuts down. I just don't think of stressful things. I think of relaxing things (a mattress, comfy chair, or a massage) or myself doing relaxing activities (walking, sleeping, reading, looking at art)

Walker

Clearing one's mind is incredibly difficult. I've rarely managed to touch that state, and I had been meditating frequently when I did. The biggest barrier for me is letting go. One can't push thoughts out of one's mind completely, because they're always pushed out of the way by another thought. The idea is to simply let go of thought, let it drift away without judgement or consideration. Usually the most I can manage is a state in which my thoughts come and go without restraint or pause in a dream-like fashion. This is the sort of meditation that many martial artist espouse. Bruce Lee and Miyamoto Musashi refer to it as "no-mindedness" or "no-thing-ness"; not a complete lack of thought, but a way of thinking that allows emotion and understanding to flow without judgement. It creates awareness and mental freedom, and allows one to act without hesitation. Very useful in combat.

Walker

I start by just trying to focus on what I hear and feel around me, and nothing but that. Sometimes that works for a while, but I always have so many thoughts and feels coming at me at once, I am finding it next to impossible to fully clear my mind.

How long do you usually meditate in one sitting?

WindUpBird

I can only achieve mental clarity to the point where I am focused on one thing with utter completeness of purpose. Be that a calming mantra (I go with "Om Mane Padmi Hum" when I try to sleep) or a problem I'm working on.

Rym

Upon emptying my mind, I immediately fall asleep.

Drunken Butler

Upon emptying my mind, I immediately fall asleep.

+1

GroverBomb

It's not so much meditation that I do, but just "quiet time" I guess. It's more about just taking a moment to sit back, close the eyes and just do some relaxing breathing, with no input or output. Even if I'm not able to clear my mind, it's just the fact that I'm not actively doing something or taking in anything that makes it a repairing and healing time, and most usually I come out of it feeling more focused and aware, even more empathetic. The things that are most important come back into view.

For me, I just feel like have so much input/output everyday that my system gets kind of clogged and makes me feel strung out. I don't necessarily need sleep when I feel strung out, but just need quiet & dark, perhaps even solitude (though I will say sleep never fails, especially if it's a long, uninterrupted sleep).

Anthony Heman

When I was a kid I couldn't fathom the idea of an empty mind. Not thinking of anything was fucking impossible.

I miss being a kid.

As nice as being able to zone out is now, there was something great about being always on all the time.

Viga

Upon emptying my mind, I immediately fall asleep.

+1

and two.

jtvh

I grew up in Northern California in the 1970s, so everybody was talking about Transcendental Mediation. This book is still on my shelf. Unfortunately a lot of the people talking big spiritual truths were actually full of BS in their day-to-day, worldly lives. Religious hypocrisy, West Coast style. I developed a strong bias against meditation (baby with the bathwater, much?).

But in recent years I've given it another shot. I don't do well with trying to empty my mind. I do much better with a focal point, such as a mantra. Metta meditation works pretty well to help me relax and center myself.