Meditation

Who here mediatates fit. How often and how effective do you find it. Any hacks or apps of techniques you use. Also Brain Hacks thread.

I just sit in the full lotus position and just empty my mind. Usually an hour of this passes by very quickly and relaxes me. In addition I may play around with some Baoding balls focusing on the sounds of each ball.

Meditation has been the single most effective thing I've found for combating my anxiety and my ADD type issues.

I personally enjoy 'mindfulness' meditation. You breathe as slowly through your nose as possible and focus your attention on said breathing.

When thoughts come into your mind, don't block them out forcefully, just don't put a commentary on them, simply return your focus to the breath.

It helps separate your sense of self from routine invasive thoughts and helps calm your mind.

Bumping for interest. I have dabbled off and on with meditation and cannot get it to stick.

What are some more of your experiences? What has helped you become consistent with it?

I've been doing this, but I have a lot of trouble not attaching myself to my thoughts. I have brief moments of pure consciousnesses until I reattach myself to my thoughts subconsciously. Is there anyway to prevent doing that? Maybe I just need to keep practising.

Also, does anyone know a way to work up to full lotus? I can sort of do half lotus but I have no clue how to progress to full lotus

Take a class if you need to stick to a schedule. My first year at college, a local buddhist temple offered a beginners/intermediate class 2x/week in the evening. Other groups may offer this as well, and anything that reduces the overall autism of some people here is a good thing.

For me, the primary benefit is that I've learned to drop into a more "mindful" (I fucking hate that term) state in a short period. Something pissing me off at work? Too much stress in a short time period? Let it all drop away, get back to work, and things move on. Regular use of this makes it fucking easy

Also, a great closer to any workout.

I meditate occasionally. Usually when I have a lot of stuff on my mind and have no idea what to do. I meditate, try to clear my mind of all thoughts and end up making a plan about stuff I need to do and i let go of all stress simultaneously.

Feels pretty gud desu. 15 minutes is usually enough. Any tips and tricks or suggestions welcome.

What you already said. Just keep practicing. It's supposed to be hard, takes a lifetime to master. Keep at it!

Wouldn`t that wreck her ankles if she did it for 20 minutes everyday?

The last month, I'd decided to try out meditation, and I have honestly never felt better in my life, I still have a lot way to go, and sometimes it's still hard for me to focus, but I have felt such peace, I have felt a better connection to myself, I have been able to clear my thoughts and I can problem solve better, I've stopped being so angry, and in turn I've stopped swearing almost entirely, I have better sleep, I can wake up early and not feel terrible, I can appreciate the world around me, and I've learned to smile at the world. I am alive, I am well, and that is enough to be happy.

lurking, interested in the topic, any general advice is welcome

That's the point of the position, to take the stress off of your ankles and more on your butt and a comfortable area on your knee, plus, usually mediation is done on a Zafu (meditation pillow) filled with seeds.

Same here. It tamed my autismo symptoms better than anything else.

Mindfulness meditation is good, normie tier meditation. The app smiling mind handles this type of meditation bretty well. Good combination of self directed and guided meditation

Trying to get into Chakra meditation after talking with a guru when I was at an Ashram in India last year

I started doing yoga to help my hip range of motion during judo ground work. The instructor there introduced mindful breathing and meditation, and I started applying that to the meditation section of the formal opening and closing of the judo class.
So now I meditate twice for each judo class. It has really helped me calm down during newaza. Pic related.

I'd love to meet a Zen Master in Japan when I go next year.
How's the Chakra Meditation going for you so far? I'm not nearly ready for it yet, but I'm interested in knowing more about it.

But it looks like there;s crazy stress on her ankle... If my ankle was folding like that, it;d hurt like a mother fucker after 2-3 minutes

It only gets better, provided you`re consistent with your practice. Or at least that`s my experience of 14+months of daily meditating. Shit changed my life.

Thats the point of meditation; when you realize that you are your thoughts, just go back to the breathing. Repeat that times infinity.

Lotus positions require different levels of ankle and hip mobility. She's doing a half lotus which involves ankle mobility more than hip. A full lotus, which involves both ankles resting on top of the thighs, involves much more hip mobility. But basically the better your mobility is, the easier time you'll have with holding either position. If you can almost hit atg on your squats, you should be fine to start doing half lotus

Well, considering my martial arts background, and the fact that I stretch before and after gym, it's actually quite comfortable on my joints and muscles because of my flexibility. So if you're struggling, maybe try some leg stretches, and find a soft pillow, or fold up a doona into a square, and sit off of the edge of it with your back straight, so you don't feel so pretzel-ed. :)

Honestly, I wake up every day actually excited, I'm able to jump out of the bed, and it's even improved my lifts, not just my outlook on life. Everyone makes it out to be a meme, or like some of my family is all "stop acting like a monk it's weird" but I just can't stop being happy, negativity just bounces off of me, it's a wonderful feeling, it truly is.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't even bother mentioning it to anyone anymore, since everyone always seems to think I'm some new age hippie or some shit. Doesn't help that I used to have a reputation as a junkie with a penchant for psychedelics,though I'm 90% sober ever since I started meditation. Mostly just drink 3-4 times and drop acid 1-2 times a year. No weed, no hard drugs, no cigs. feels great.

As I said, meditation changed my life.

Yeah it doesn't help that my family doesn't take me seriously, but even that doesn't bother me anymore. I'm very happy for you, my friend, peace be with you. :)

Guys, i try to meditate but i have almost mobility, everything hurts, and i don't want to meditate laying down, that sucks.
Does anyone know some good stretchings to get used to it?

>apps for meditation

this is what the world has came to

The only use I get out of meditation apps is that they log how many days in a row I have. They also log my average time, which I guess is a neat bonus, but not useful in any sense. All the other stats are useless, and don;t even get me started on all the other functions. The worst is definitely the constant prompt to share with others at the end of the session. Why the fuck would I need to share that I just finished meditating?

westerners are really dumb
and companies knows how to milk it

I started meditating like a week ago but it seems to already have diminishing returns

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but I can't get into that fully relaxed state even when I do the exact same thing as I started doing

>that pic
>rewording ancient philosophy and putting your name on it

I don't know who Eckhart Tolle is, but I don't like them.

hes a cool and cute guy
its the fans who makes that pics, not him

I meant no offence by the picture, I just like what the phrase represents, it has helped me move past a lot of things that would usually make me angry or upset and instead improve my life and remain happy no matter what comes my way. If you could point me in the direction of the original quote I would appreciate it. :)

Yeah it's bretty good though. Defs need a teacher, guider

I'd love for meditation to become a regular staple of fit! I've been dabbling in it for some time occasionally used to mediate when I really needed to relieve stress and clear my mind. Been trying to do it daily but can't focus sometimes do I power through or just relax and try again later?

Nothing against you. He's rehashing a central Stoic thought; the only thing that is good is to live a good life, and the only thing that is bad is to live a bad life. Everything else is external, and you are disturbed by your own thoughts, rather than the thing itself. Marcus Aurelius wrote "all is as thinking makes it so – and you control your thinking."

However, we now know thanks to modern psychology that this isn't strictly true. There are many unconscious thought processes that happen all the time. With concentrated effort, we can train the more primitive section of our mind, but it's not as simple as deciding not to feel a certain way.

You ought to look at Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, Epictitus' Enchiridion, and Seneca's Letters.

>We are made for each other's benefit, so either teach or tolerate.

Thank you very much for the advice, I will definitely check this out.

A teacher would be fantastic, or even a retreat, however I don't know if there are many of those in Australia, although I haven't exactly looked around or Googled it.

Anyone know any good books for teaching meditation? There aren't any places where I can go so something to guide me would be nice. I'm looking at The Three Pillars of Zen by Roshi Kapleau and Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki at the moment.

I'm in Australia as well. Shits hard to find over here

Yeah, it's very unfortunate, however it gives me more incentive to explore the world and enjoy what this world has given us.

I saw this thread last night and decided to try it so I followed one of those meditation guide videos on YouTube.

It felt pretty nice, went from being unable to sleep to feeling almost exhausted in about
20 minutes.

I read mindfulness in plain english online. It should only take about 2 hours to read, and is very clear in my opinion.

Yeah I read about a 10 day meditation retreat is sounds intense. I would love to try one day

It's only been a week. Meditation is a long term deal. Besides, you'll always have some days that are easier than others, it's all about maintaining that discipline and slowly cultivating your ability to bring upon contentment

In my experience, power through it. it's when your mind is most frantic that meditation is most needed.

Though I definitely don't mean to imply you should only wait till your minds racing to meditate, just hat you;re training yourself to meditate from any state of mind,

And the Tao Te Ching.

I practice a form of meditation I call "napping"

Seriously people, you just need to relax. Most people don't even try. Doesn't matter if it's meditation, napping, just sitting on a park bench for a while, or whatever. Just take a deep breath and turn your brain off, give it a break.

I use the "Calm" app. It's pretty good. I try to meditate to focus on breathing techniques and improve my focus. Most effective is 5-minute sessions, I can't seem to hold my focus for more than that.

I use the loving-kindness meditation a lot as well as the body scan.

I meditate while lying down straight with my back down on the floor. I cannot do the lotus position because my knees are too high up, above my belly button even. Any tips? Should I just continue meditating while lying down or is there another solution for me?

You using a pillow to elevate your buttocks?

sounds like you have 10/10 form, but you're missing some equipment. get yourself a mattress and at least lmao2pillow and you'll be all set to start making sleep gains