Meditation group - for those who’re serious

[BalanceLife]

Hi peeps,

I’ve started meditating 10 minutes daily for the past three days. I know it’s only three days but I want to take inspiration from the NoPorn/NoFap thread and start this meditation thread.

For some strange feelings I feel calmer for the three days after meditating for ten minutes in the morning, maybe it’s placebo maybe it’s real. Hopefully this will be the start of a long and good habit.

Please join me, and for the masters please share your experience.

Ten minutes a day makes a better man.

 

[BalanceLife]

What’s the best time to meditate. Right after I wake up from the bed, or 15 minutes after checking the phone.

 

[Bienvenuto]

What’s the best time to meditate. Right after I wake up from the bed, or 15 minutes after checking the phone.

Not sure.. if you really are confused on this one or just trying to bump your own thread

If you can.. fuck off the phone for as long as you can.

Most people can only wake up by using their phone these days. But bringing the world's concerns into one's mind before a sit???

The ideal is moving from one stream of consciousness to another waking - sleep - waking with as much undisturbed presence and awareness as possible. But that's an ideal, I tend to hold ideals quite lightly when put next to my somewhat chequered life and mind.

I would give money for advice as to what would motivate me to actually emotionally want to meditate on waking up - rather than wanting to do just about anything else.

I only ever seem to find sitting down to meditate easy when I'm on retreat.

 

[Mage]

What’s the best time to meditate. Right after I wake up from the bed, or 15 minutes after checking the phone.

What do you mean by checking your phone? For time or for massages and calls and at what time of day? You speak of it as it is some conventionally understood time like breakfast or siesta, but it isn't. People use phones differently.

Best time to meditate is

1)when you can
2)before sleep
3)after sleep

 

[Sherman]

I have been meditatating 1 hour a day for over 10 years. I have a few suggestions. Find a special place in your house to meditate and start out at 15 minutes a day. Find a good time for you and get in the habit of doing it every day. When it is time to meditate, the habit will automatically put you in the right state of mind. You can start out just following your breath and coming back to breath every time your mind interrupts.

Even more important is to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness means having a part of your mind outside and observing your thoughts while you are going through your day. You will find this to be incredibly useful as you begin to notice that subtitle thoughts and emotions that influence your decisions. Meditation is like aerobic exercise that strengthens your concentration muscles. When you apply this concentration to your everyday life you will be amazed at what you discover. Also, keep a journal of what you learn. This is useful self knowledge.

 

[BalanceLife]

Thanks, I have been meditating for five days for 10 minutes a day, I will take your advice of meditating in a fixed area. I was doing it just on the bed.

 

[BalanceLife]

I have been meditatating 1 hour a day for over 10 years. I have a few suggestions. Find a special place in your house to meditate and start out at 15 minutes a day. Find a good time for you and get in the habit of doing it every day. When it is time to meditate, the habit will automatically put you in the right state of mind. You can start out just following your breath and coming back to breath every time your mind interrupts.

Even more important is to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness means having a part of your mind outside and observing your thoughts while you are going through your day. You will find this to be incredibly useful as you begin to notice that subtitle thoughts and emotions that influence your decisions. Meditation is like aerobic exercise that strengthens your concentration muscles. When you apply this concentration to your everyday life you will be amazed at what you discover. Also, keep a journal of what you learn. This is useful self knowledge.

Thanks, I have been meditating for five days for 10 minutes a day, I will take your advice of meditating in a fixed area. I was doing it just on the bed.

 

[Evil_oil_man]

Insight timer is a good free app to use while meditating.

What I found worked really good for me is put the phone on airplane mode before bed. Then wait until after meditating in the morning to check up on the latest messages. Waiting to check the phone helps keeps you out of an reactive mode before and during the meditation session. I also believe that spending time during the day not processing or reacting to stuff is really good for your mental health.

After meditating for years I come to realise that the most important thing for me is to do it daily. It takes me around ten days of daily meditation to get into the flow, where it is easier.

Also, try not to judge your session to much. Just be happy you did it. Some sessions will be spendt thinking for the whole session.

I find that sitting for 20 minutes is good for me. It takes me a while to get into it, but after ten or fifteen minutes I am fairly in the zone. I dont wanna spend more than 20 minutes though because I have a life to live.

 

[BalanceLife]

Insight timer is a good free app to use while meditating.

What I found worked really good for me is put the phone on airplane mode before bed. Then wait until after meditating in the morning to check up on the latest messages. Waiting to check the phone helps keeps you out of an reactive mode before and during the meditation session. I also believe that spending time during the day not processing or reacting to stuff is really good for your mental health.

After meditating for years I come to realise that the most important thing for me is to do it daily. It takes me around ten days of daily meditation to get into the flow, where it is easier.

Also, try not to judge your session to much. Just be happy you did it. Some sessions will be spendt thinking for the whole session.

I find that sitting for 20 minutes is good for me. It takes me a while to get into it, but after ten or fifteen minutes I am fairly in the zone. I dont wanna spend more than 20 minutes though because I have a life to live.

I’ve done seven days strait, hopefully I can be like you and make it a real habit.

I try to imagine a red dote in the middle of my forehead and try to focus ok it - obviously lots of mental noise happens, I just try to relax and focus gradually though sometimes I fall back to the noises.

Posture wise, I am just sitting and have both arms relax, usually wrist area resting at the knee, which is crossed. I only meditate 10 mins.

 

[BalanceLife]

Insight timer is a good free app to use while meditating.

What I found worked really good for me is put the phone on airplane mode before bed. Then wait until after meditating in the morning to check up on the latest messages. Waiting to check the phone helps keeps you out of an reactive mode before and during the meditation session. I also believe that spending time during the day not processing or reacting to stuff is really good for your mental health.

After meditating for years I come to realise that the most important thing for me is to do it daily. It takes me around ten days of daily meditation to get into the flow, where it is easier.

Also, try not to judge your session to much. Just be happy you did it. Some sessions will be spendt thinking for the whole session.

I find that sitting for 20 minutes is good for me. It takes me a while to get into it, but after ten or fifteen minutes I am fairly in the zone. I dont wanna spend more than 20 minutes though because I have a life to live.

When you say not trying to react or process stuff, what do you mean exactly?

 

[DoneDeal]

Meditation is the key to success.

I started doing it about a year ago, after reading about Tim Ferris book "Tribe of Mentors" for which he interviewed 140 top successful people in various fields and found out that meditation was the single most shared habit among them.

I only do it sporadically but even like that I notice my mind is clearer, calmer, and more confident and optimistic for the day.
I just do mindfulness meditation in the morning, sitting in a chair, for 10 - 15 minutes.
But I agree, doing it longer and everyday will probably have a much greater effect.

 

[BalanceLife]

Meditation is the key to success.

I started doing it about a year ago, after reading about Tim Ferris book "Tribe of Mentors" for which he interviewed 140 top successful people in various fields and found out that meditation was the single most shared habit among them.

I only do it sporadically but even like that I notice my mind is clearer, calmer, and more confident and optimistic for the day.
I just do mindfulness meditation in the morning, sitting in a chair, for 10 - 15 minutes.
But I agree, doing it longer and everyday will probably have a much greater effect.

Thanks so much for confirming this! Even more fired up to meditate daily now.

I've been doing for 13 days in a row now for ten minutes daily, I don't know if there is any changes - sometimes I am too dense to feel it.

One problem I have is that sometimes I am not sure if I am in the state of meditation or just sleep-dreaming. My mind wanders and when meditation it ends up becoming my day's to-do list mind map.

 

[DoneDeal]

One problem I have is that sometimes I am not sure if I am in the state of meditation or just sleep-dreaming. My mind wanders and when meditation it ends up becoming my day's to-do list mind map.

What type of meditation do you do? There seem to be many and they vary by what kind of "state" they aim to achieve.

In mindfulness meditation, what matters is that you try to focus on your breathing and whenever your mind drifts off, you just calmly observe this and then return to focus on your breathing again. You don't need to force yourself to not think about anything, unlike some other forms of meditation. So there is not really anything difficult about it.

 

[Bienvenuto]

One problem I have is that sometimes I am not sure if I am in the state of meditation or just sleep-dreaming. My mind wanders and when meditation it ends up becoming my day's to-do list mind map.

What type of meditation do you do? There seem to be many and they vary by what kind of "state" they aim to achieve.

In mindfulness meditation, what matters is that you try to focus on your breathing and whenever your mind drifts off, you just calmly observe this and then return to focus on your breathing again. You don't need to force yourself to not think about anything, unlike some other forms of meditation. So there is not really anything difficult about it.

Alot of meditation teachers insist that The Most Important Practice is Reflection ahead of Meditation.

at least 10 - 20 minutes each day to reflect on whats happened that day and its effect on us.

Without that reflection/ download time the meditation will become reflection time by default.

>>> except thats not what the meditator is trying to do.. so he then resists it and the problems get worse.

-------------------
Some people struggle with genuine sloth - can't be bothered.

If you're prone to planning in sits then that would indicate a more active mind and the widespread thinking, anxiety of everyone these days.

I would recommend some kind of yoga/ stretching/ etc. before meditation to ground you in your body.

Setting aside a time to plan daily can help. Then you can just respond to it silently in the knowledge - 'planning time will take care of that'
Helps to assure the planning/ worrying part of the psyche that it can relax and helps you to unhook from any planning-urgency in meditation.

(Some people prone to worry actually set aside a time to just worry for say 10 minutes at a time and find that it helps.)

 

[BalanceLife]

One problem I have is that sometimes I am not sure if I am in the state of meditation or just sleep-dreaming. My mind wanders and when meditation it ends up becoming my day's to-do list mind map.

What type of meditation do you do? There seem to be many and they vary by what kind of "state" they aim to achieve.

In mindfulness meditation, what matters is that you try to focus on your breathing and whenever your mind drifts off, you just calmly observe this and then return to focus on your breathing again. You don't need to force yourself to not think about anything, unlike some other forms of meditation. So there is not really anything difficult about it.

Alot of meditation teachers insist that The Most Important Practice is Reflection ahead of Meditation.

at least 10 - 20 minutes each day to reflect on whats happened that day and its effect on us.

Without that reflection/ download time the meditation will become reflection time by default.

>>> except thats not what the meditator is trying to do.. so he then resists it and the problems get worse.

-------------------
Some people struggle with genuine sloth - can't be bothered.

If you're prone to planning in sits then that would indicate a more active mind and the widespread thinking, anxiety of everyone these days.

I would recommend some kind of yoga/ stretching/ etc. before meditation to ground you in your body.

Setting aside a time to plan daily can help. Then you can just respond to it silently in the knowledge - 'planning time will take care of that'
Helps to assure the planning/ worrying part of the psyche that it can relax and helps you to unhook from any planning-urgency in meditation.

(Some people prone to worry actually set aside a time to just worry for say 10 minutes at a time and find that it helps.)

Hi, I have two feedback.

Does it mean that possibly a good way is to do some thought processing aka reflection for ten minutes, before going into meditation.

I am someone that is prone to worry, and this has not helped as I spend once a week worrying about silly things, they take up my focus time so I will take up the attempt to only worry for ten minutes though I don’t know how I can achieve the attempt to just worry for ten minutes a day.

 

[perro]

I've done this and it has changed my life. There are many psychologists and counselors using this for their patients on depression because it really works.

 

[BalanceLife]

Currently on my 29th day or meditation, I did missed three days due to my travels.

I also think I m not doing it 100% right as my mind still wanders heavily, somewhat like going through the day’s to-do list.

 

[Speculation]

Try increasing the time in your sit if you can do it without it making meditation a chore.

I'm an introvert working in a mentally intense and stressful field. It can take me up to 40 minutes before my mind settles sometimes on a rough day.

 

[BalanceLife]

Try increasing the time in your sit if you can do it without it making meditation a chore.

I'm an introvert working in a mentally intense and stressful field. It can take me up to 40 minutes before my mind settles sometimes on a rough day.

Thank you, 40 minutes does seem like a long time but if you can calm your mind down an hour of sit in is definitely very worthwhile!

I have upped my time to 15 minutes, sometimes I wonder if I am just half day dreaming but I will just continue this practice, maybe soon enough the focus will kick in.

 

[Cr33pin]