Mindfulness

Seeing as how so many discussions on here regard personal betterment ("how do I get girls", "how do I into motivation", etc etc), I figured it might be fruitful for us to cut through this myriad of questions and discuss a topic that's at once central to how we live in this world as well as something practical.

Speaking from personal experience, I can say that meditating allows me to get to a point where I don't feel so oppressed by my thoughts and where I'm better in touch with the present... kinda like how I felt when I was a kid and had no stress on my mind and felt myself more adaptive and labile. Shit works guys. I meditate for about 10 minutes a day... Usually before I study or when I just happen to feel my brain is getting out of control. Anyhow, I feel like I'm proselytizing at this point. I'm not sure what your experiences with meditation are, or even whether you've ever thought about it, but I do know that this moment -- where you're sitting there reading what some stranger who you'll never meet and whose life will likely never intersect with yours -- makes up one of many, many moments in your life. And moments are all that exist. This moment is as real as the moment when you'll be on your deathbed, thinking of how your life passed you by so quickly.

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As someone who has fallen out of practice, let me provide fair warning to prospective meditators: if you fall out of practice (and you probably will), you will be back to your old self.

>you will be back to your old self.

that's because you're an idiot, you just dont meditate just to meditate, you try and improve yourself along with meditation

>improve yourself
>self
Dumbest post of the year.

Let me add to this for all the prospective meditators. If you stop showering daily, you WILL start to stink.
See how retarded his logic is?
Meditation is a lifestyle guys. Just like lifting. Progress and benefits come with time and practice.
I meditate 20min AM and 20min PM. I can easily say it's changed my life for the better. I'm not afraid of falling off because I enjoy doing it.

>false equivalency
You have the same exact arrogance I did when I started, you're in for a rude awakening. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I'm with you... Reading a book by some Buddhist fucker and he says that a lot of people who go to the retreats and reach enlightenment or whatever eventually fall out of it after the retreat. I'm sure it's the same with meditations broader benefits.

Anyhow, there's no point meditation if you're not being mindful in your day-day life. That has never been the end goal for meditation.

Great post user.

I used to meditate quite regularly, maxed out at 2 hours per day - 1 hour in the morning after waking up, and 1 hour at night before bed. I fell out of the habit and don't meditate anymore, but I sincerely felt the effects of a sharper mind.

Meditating and reading is getting your mind Veeky Forums. Many people want to get their body Veeky Forums but forget about their mental faculties, and meditation will aid this. Meditation and reading actual books, not just the internet, will help create a sense of calm and wakefulness rather than thoughtlessness and restlessness.

Give it a try, user. It'd probably help getting grills too since it calms your mind and allows you to stay in the moment.

How exactly do you go about meditating, user? Just sit and focus on breathing? I've tried it a few times and it's definitely rewarding but it's difficult to cut through the fog of the mind.

Meditation works can confirm.
I keep falling into the trap of "k I meditated I feel good and productive now I don't have to meditate anymore" though.

Also: if you're anxious to the point of adrenaline kicking it (was that way when I got a new job, couldn't sleep at all), when you breathe out, make it last at least 10 seconds. It made me calm as fuck, but it works over ~2 weeks. It works by activating parasympathetic system, so that means you become less catabolic too.

^ this, lmao

OP what is your view on the non-dualistic perspective taught in Advaita circles?

I started mindfulness meditation when I was having a lot of anxiety and I feel like rather than make me better it just made me more and more focused on/aware of my own thoughts and the fact that I'm not really in control of them. I did it for about 4 months and then had a panic attack that triggered a major depressive episode, haven't done it since.

Was I just doing it wrong? Would it maybe have a different effect on me if I had more external things to focus on in my life?

>le thinking about things is bad maymay

top kek wannabe rice niggers

hey anons, i think i could really use this is my life. but ive no idea where to start. googling "how to meditate" just brings up so much hippy bullshit and wikihow tier garbage. tell me how to do it please

Meditation is incredibly simple, and can be done without any of the TM, Zen, or Buddhist stuff.

Read Dr. Herbert Benson's book from the 70s The Relaxation Response - it's a completely secular, non-mystical explanation of what meditation is throughout history, how to illicit, and what it is biologically.

Here is his crappy website, the book is great, through: relaxationresponse.org


Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response

1. Sit quietly in a comfortable position.

2. Close your eyes.

3. Deeply relax all your muscles, beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face. Keep them relaxed.

4. Breathe through your nose. Become aware of your breathing. As you breathe out, say the word, "one"*, silently to yourself. For example, breathe in ... out, "one",- in .. out, "one", etc. Breathe easily and naturally.

5. Continue for 10 to 20 minutes. You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm. When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes, at first with your eyes closed and later with your eyes opened. Do not stand up for a few minutes.

6. Do not worry about whether you are successful in achieving a deep level of relaxation. Maintain a passive attitude and permit relaxation to occur at its own pace. When distracting thoughts occur, try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them and return to repeating "one."


With practice, the response should come with little effort. Practice the technique once or twice daily, but not within two hours after any meal, since the digestive processes seem to interfere with the elicitation of the Relaxation Response.

* It is better to use a soothing, mellifluous sound, preferably with no meaning or association, to avoid stimulation of unnecessary thoughts - a mantra.

This is the kind of mystical stuff that I have trouble understanding, which is why I prefer the Herbert Benson secular/scientific method.

Meditation is one way of eliciting the relaxation response, which is the biological opposite of the fight-or-flight response. There are other ways to do it throughout history. Dale Carnegie, in his book How To Stop Worrying And Live Your Life, lists about 5 other ways of doing it in the chapter on relaxation exercises.

In Japanese, the word for breath is comprised of two words, and it starts with "out". Think about that.

I meditate almost daily, I use the Calm app sometimes for guided or specific meditations (body scan, loving-kindness, etc). I don't know whether it has had any substantial affect on my well being, sometimes I will meditate and feel great afterwards and sometimes I will feel as if it was a waste of time.

I've taken up the idea that you can meditate while doing things, and not just by sitting quietly with a focus on the breath. I've been going for walks, drives, sweeping/cleaning my house, and these acts in themselves are also meditative or at least have a meditative response. I think the overall goal of meditation is to have an absolute focus on one thing.

Ivanka Trump meditates twice a day for 20 minutes each.

I think one thing to really stress when explaining how to meditate is that you are not trying to suppress your thoughts and achieve a totally "clear" mind, this will only lead to frustration. Rather just let go and allow whatever is happening in your head to happen, and when you notice you are having a thought, just acknowledge it and gently bring your attention back to your breath.

"The first rule is: Don't try to! Because if you do you will be like someone trying to make rough waters smooth water with a flat iron, and all that will do is stir it up. So in the same way as a muddy turbulent pool quiets itself when left alone, you have to know how to leave your mind alone, it will quiet itself." - Alan Watts

Yes, the book goes into more detail of that.

I also downloaded the headspace and other mindfullness apps and I wanna test them out, just as a tracker. They have instructions for using them too.

In Chinese, the word for "turkey" translates to "fire chicken." Think about that.

wtf i hate mindfullness now

...

This is why Buddhists advise to meditate with a teacher.
Meditation teaches you to 1) allow yourself to feel your emotions, 2) sit through your emotions rather than react mindlessly to them.
If you have some dark stuff, it will surface. At some point, meditation drives you to face all of that stuff.
They even set up some sort of Buddhist emergency hotline in case of mental crisis (psychosis, panic attacks, etc.)