Meditation: new habit for May

[Salaam]

Nice link Mountain.

Here's a place where you can read and download that book for free.

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

[Alvar]

(07-25-2012 04:40 PM)Salaam Wrote:  Tim, do you think you'd have more success with this, if the practical application and reward behind meditation was more immediate and clearer to see?

I have just installed one of those Sports Tracker's on my phone and after noticing how much faster I ran and how carefully I reviewed the data, I started wondering if tracking our meditation practise could be that reward and motivation? Better yet, sharing it with other board members?

The app is from http://www.sports-tracker.com, but as far as I can see it is geared towards running and activities involving movement (I don't seem to be able to register pushups, for example).

[Alvar]

Answering my own question, I seem to have finally installed the meditation habit: so far, I have been doing it consecutively for 14 days.

The culprit:



It is so simple, yet bloody effective. I have a set of tasks and, by the end of the day, I answer a set of questions. Did you meditate? Yes, yes, yes. When I don't do it during my usual morning ritual I find myself making time for it.
I also track the length of my meditations using a sports tracker, just for statistical purpose.

I'm using this app for other habits and I'm having a blast. Most habits I'm able to complete, but for a couple I seem to run into difficulties. Instead of looking at myself as a failure for not being able to complete them every day, I look at the data, see that I can do some of the habits and ask myself what can I change to start doing these habits daily.

[Ryan]

How has regular meditation changed/helped you guys?

[Alvar]

I've been thinking of your question. It's not that I do not feel the benefits or that meditation hasn't helped me. It's just pretty hard for me to put a measure to it and/or distinguish between real effects, life and mood changes, effects of other work, or possible placebo's. You know, when you read 3, 4 or 5 books or articles that swear by the powers of meditation and if you do it, you pretty much know that you are moving in the right direction and want to convince yourself that it is right for you. So yes, I believe that this is helping me, I can see myself acting more focused and self-disciplined, being more aware of my emotions (which isn't always easy...), introspective, calm and more spontaneous.

Btw, I just had a look, spent about 3 hours meditating this month and skipped only once since I started tracking my behaviour.

[luda]

So I'm new to meditation. I've only been doing this for a couple days but today during my meditation I felt a huge rush of anxiety centred around my chest. The anxiety seemed to be getting worse as I kept meditating and I constantly caught my thoughts trying to rationalise or explain it instead of feeling it without commentary. As I continued, the anxiety sort of reached a climax and then slowly disappeared for a few minutes. However the anxiety did come back closer to the end of my meditation but it was more bare able this time. I don't know what this means but I'm looking forward to my next meditation section so I can tackle this further

[middleway]

(08-30-2012 05:33 PM)luda Wrote:  So I'm new to meditation. I've only been doing this for a couple days but today during my meditation I felt a huge rush of anxiety centred around my chest. The anxiety seemed to be getting worse as I kept meditating and I constantly caught my thoughts trying to rationalise or explain it instead of feeling it without commentary. As I continued, the anxiety sort of reached a climax and then slowly disappeared for a few minutes. However the anxiety did come back closer to the end of my meditation but it was more bare able this time. I don't know what this means but I'm looking forward to my next meditation section so I can tackle this further

As an experienced meditator, I can tell you that you are doing very well for having only been at this for a couple of days...

And you are exactly right to notice the anxiety, but your concentration is probably not developed enough to be mindful of the these sorts of sensations.

You can either develop the concentration to quiet the mind, or take the short cut of mentally 'noting' your experiences (thereby disrupting the mental thought patterns, and returning your attention to sensations of anxiety).

[Shaun]

I have decided to try meditating to help me clear alot of the useless rubbish going round in my head. I was wondering if you guys could give me some info on the best way to get started. I was pleased with my first session but unsure if I was doing it right.

My method was to just sit, eyes closed, breathing deeply and counting upwards every breath (about every 3 seconds or so) for a 15 minute period, with the intention of resetting my count if my mind got sidetracked, the same as outlined in one of Marks blog posts.

In the past I tried once or twice, a few years ago now, and I was amazed at how quick my mind lost foucs, and I would be deep into thinking about something else before I caught myself doing it.

This time it seemedf to go better, but I had some issues with what I could only describe as background thoughts. They didn't take over the counting which remained at the front of my mind, but I was aware of them but they were there and they cropped up for a second or so in between counts. I'll put my 'background thoughts' in brackets as it will perhaps give a better to provide an example of what I meant as I was counting.

1.2.3.4.5.(wow this is going well).6.7.8.9.10.(Am I doing it right?).11.12.13.(Should I have restarted the count?).14.15.16.17.(Can I make it to 100?) etc etc etc

I managed to stay on task but those background thoughts were always there, not the whole time though. That may sound silly, but having never meditated successfully I am unsure of how silent the mind should be. My thoughts are that I was not in a full meditative state as my mind was thinking about whether I was meditating right, although I did alot better than my previous attempts and it did make me feel pretty relaxed.

Anyway, if anyone can share some info with me that would be great. Should I be starting my counting from scratch if I have any outside thought, or is some awareness and thought normal? Any help would be great!

[middleway]

(09-02-2012 02:46 PM)Shaun Wrote:  Anyway, if anyone can share some info with me that would be great. Should I be starting my counting from scratch if I have any outside thought, or is some awareness and thought normal? Any help would be great!

It is normal to have those types of thoughts when you start doing well in an area of meditation. But it does represent a distraction.

1) You can think of counting sort of as training wheels. Rather than emptying the brain of thoughts we are filling it with counting, to keep it busy while we focus on the object of meditation. (in this case the breath).

Its not a big deal if you start over or not, just make a quick, and consistent rule beforehand so you don't spend time thinking about it during the sit.

2) Try to keep your focus on the physical sensations of the breath. As your body inhales and exhales. Notice the pleasantness. When your focus gets good this pleasantness can increase in intensity.

3) Awareness and thoughts are not the same thing. I don't want to confuse you with too much new information. But you can notice that it is possible to be aware of your thoughts...