What the original commenter said is correct, meditation helps you see how thoughts arise in the moment, and with practice you can get to a point where there is very little noise and instead you have a broader view of ideas and your life in general.
It is also calming, for your entire system. Learning to monitor and control your breathing consciously is a serious mental workout. If you have never sat down to practice it, you might surprise yourself as to how much is going on in your own mind and how the wheels and cogs just keep turning.
A caveat: my previous employer (a rent-seeking publishing company) used this sort of thing as a trap. Here, have Headspace for free. Here, take this training on how psychological safety and mental health are important in the workplace. Oh, your manager is psychologically abusing his team? That's against our core values - report that to HR right away. Surprise, HR cares but they are impotent; here's the shadow ER rep to hand you your walking papers.
In my experience, complete introvert, it helped me enormously with anxiety. But it did take some work, such as working through emotions that I had bottled up. If you stick to your practice then you will work through it.
Imagine I told you to go to the gym 3x a week or wake up daily at 4:30am. How would you react?
It’s a shame since I might even enjoy mediating. Maybe I try it one day.
I have to reframe someone telling me "you should do X healthy thing" as "you should look into X healthy thing and see if it interests you/if there's really a good reason to do it", and then if I do my own research/reasoning, sometimes I can get my brain on board.
Basically, I have to trick myself into thinking it's my own idea. Very silly, but hey, it's how I started eating more vegetables and drinking more water, at least.
Meditation, or some sort of reflection, may reveal to you that wrapped up in "allergic to evangelism" is an illusion that you received the intended message in the intended way. Or rather, that your reaction isn't necessarily in line with the reality of the intent of what was said. And that your reactions may be limiting you in your growth. You may even figure out ways to gamify your own improvement.
That said, realization is the easy part!! lol, who am I to talk, let alone preach
Then they go on to blanket it with Oops! I forgot I don't do this! I am so mindful of myself! I am free of judgement!
It's important to remember that all else is _not_ equal though. The totality of a human being can't be measured by any one form of aptitude, but most people would be better versions of themselves if they read more, exercised more, had better diet, were more introspective, engaged in some 'spiritual' practice that reinforced humility and charity, etc.
Someone who meditates is probably better than me on that particular axes. I don't seem to have an aptitude or patience for it, at least not yet. Maybe that means I need it all the more. Maybe some day...
I'd say "screw that, I'm not cutting back!"
Why let them - or rather, allow your imagination of them - have power over your future choices?
Meditation and yoga are two practices that I've never managed to make myself try earnestly because of the aesthetics, evangelism, and just a hesitance towards anything that has an air of 'spirituality' that a lot of western practitioners tend to employ.
I don't have a problem doing 'mobility work' and stretching and various exercises to make myself less injury prone, but yoga somehow is just beyond the pale. Our preconceptions are almost even weirder when we're consciously aware that they're probably silly, but abide by them anyway.
In my case, I was advised by my cardiologist because of high blood pressure. He said in my case he sees significant correlation with stress so anything that helps me to lower my stress levels will also help me to lower the dose of medication. It works very well for me, but I have no idea if it worked for anyone else. Moreover, I also do it while walking outside, with even better results (like 15-20mm Hg difference before/after).
What do people from english speaking countries (I guess mostly from US) mean when they say this?
It's such a frequent phrase, but I don't think I ever thought about it as a distinct concept, nor spoke about it as such to any of my friends, and we've all been driving for many years.
I know I wouldn't think twice about it if someone switched lanes and forced me to lightly brake. Having to slam on the brakes would be more noteworthy, but that rarely happens.
A maneuver that’s perfectly acceptable in NYC can earn you an angry honk in the suburbs. For better or worse, in large swaths of the US people are accustomed to having loads of space on the road and ample time to react to changes in traffic patterns.
New Yorkers would call other people lazy/inefficient drivers. Other people call New Yorkers crazy/aggressive drivers. YMMV.
If you are traveling straight in your lane at a steady speed, and somebody enters your right-of-way and forces you to brake or steer away from your intended path, that person is said to have cut you off.
2. close your eyes, pay attention to your breath
3. when thoughts appear in your mind, note them but attempt to keep your attention on your breath, not on your thoughts
4. when you notice that your thoughts have wandered away from your breath, congratulate yourself for noticing this, and go back to step 2
important: do not berate yourself for getting caught up in your thoughts, do not worry that your head is too full of thoughts to ever be able to "stop thinking" - your brain has been thinking for most of your entire waking life and disengaging from this is hard at first! it gets easier.
"the mind illuminated" is a nice book on the subject IMHO.
Still meditation is basically get enough sleep then get in a comfortable position sitting, lying down, or even standing just so long as you can hold it indefinitely and focus on something for long periods. Breathing is always available but options vary wildly from something specific like smoke from a stick of incense, to the environment such as trees blowing in the wind, ripples in a stream, or even the sound of someone leading a meditation. Though in general people follow something similar to what egypturnash mentioned.
Moving meditation allows for some representative action like walking, dance, ritualized prayer, juggling, or even some repetitive factory job where you can do it indefinitely without thinking. Just be careful it’s easy to lose focus on what you’re doing so don’t try this when driving etc.
But others feel that can be restrictive in that it doesn't go into a deeper state. But that goes to the whole truth of zen and the misleading of the student and the one thinking they need to be there - it gets complicated.
[1] https://www.tdisdi.com/sdi/get-certified/advanced-buoyancy/
- Go some place with no distractions.
- Lay down, and let your muscles go limp.
- Close your eyes, and just focus on your breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth, nice and slowly. I'd often hold at full breath for a few seconds just to let everything settle.. this is not a hurry.
- Focus on relaxing your toes, then your feet, ankles, calves, etc up through your chest, now focus on your arms... let all the stress run out your fingers like rays. Finally focus on your head, and push the stress out through the top of your head, or fingers, which ever feels easier. I'll also push stress through my toes too. The key is to release the stress from your body and visualize it... visualize getting rid of the knots and stress.
Some days, you'll get up to your calves, some days with practice you can get your whole body. But even your toes is an accomplishment!
- Your body will tell you when you are done. It is hard to explain, but you will know, "I'm done." When you are, don't rush to sit up, let your body rest a moment eyes closed, then open your eyes, wait a moment, then sit up. (if you were actually well relaxed this may stop a faint.)
But much of this comes from listening to your body. The noise of life isn't what matters... just listening to your body, and helping it relax....
I use relaxation, as a way to force other things out. So if work comes up, out it goes. Relaxation gives me a central focus, which helps with the whole experience.
Ok, lie down. Relax muscles, sinking down, good breathe...
Bored.
Bored bored bored OMG this is so boring!
Breathe, breathe, try not to think of how boring this is!
Bored bored bored oh a bird is chirping. Chirp chirp chirp and gone.
Bored bored bored bored bored holy shit when does this end?
My fingers are flicking now. Bored bored bored bored fuck it I'm done. Waste of an hour.
My friend: wasn't that awesome?
Uhh.. let's just go build something.
Boredom is just one perspective of the mind. For you it might be more beneficial to approach meditation in other ways before sitting still or lie down. For example : when I do indoor climbing I almost get into this meditative state where only the next step matters. Some friends report surfing does this for them.
Observation is the key word, or experience of mind as it goes through different processes (say boredom, sleep, happiness, concentration, building something)
After a month and a half of intensive study that made no difference whatsoever, I'm pretty much done. The marginal benefits don't at all seem worth the extreme effort.
Now I just write instead. It's far more relaxing.
That said the different pathways to the experience you would call deep meditation is very diverse, and sometimes it’s also a phase/station of life people need to be in. In old texts these things are often described as different temperaments, so I doubt it’s a new thing :D
2. Relax and just be in the room.
4. When you notice that your thoughts have wandered congratulate yourself for noticing this and come back to the room.
The Smiling Mind app is excellent.
I'm sure there are plenty of Podcasts and YouTube guided meditations to be had as well!
Depending on your preferences you may want to ignore some of the more religious/spiritual parts in it.
Either way, it has had a big, positive, and lasting influence on my life (even though I haven’t been meditating much lately anymore).
Also, the "Waking Up" app, which has a fantastic collection of guided meditations, dharma talks, theory, etc.
"The Mind Illuminated" is a really good book too, with a very specific (and effective) technique taught in a lot of detail.
Recently I found an app with a pretty large following called "Insight Timer" that has a spectacular free library. It has single-handedly helped me build a habit after only meditating once or twice in guided settings.
The problem is that for some reason "everyone" down to creators of alarm clock apps think subscription is the right monetization model.
Many of us are tired.
Please note that I personally at least am not against usage based: tokens are fine with me.
It is the stress of having to remember to unsubscribe (or feeling like a fool when I realize an unused app has been siphoning off money from my account for months) that bugs me.
That, and sometimes you can cancel as soon as you start but still have access for the month.
Possibility of ending up on the path to 'Zen-sickness'
People will try to "be calm", "be zen", they will attempt to "empty their mind". They will look for something special. They will not understand the implications of frustration, impatience, discomfort...
It's very hard by yourself because you bring with you a lot of ideas from a world that doesn't meditate, but certainly has a lot of things they want to claim about meditation no matter how little experience with it they have.
And you won't know when you got in a direction that will not work for you
ps. if you think the app is helpful, don't rush into the subscription, check out its scholarship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yEorY8UH30&list=PL5B1627ADA...
It's a systematic, well structured and holistic approach. No commercial background. Just teaching. Follow these simple 8 steps. Don't use an app.