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Meditation
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Desu Offline
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Post: #1
Meditation

If this is too much reading, scroll down to "how do I meditate?".

What is meditation?

This is hard to answer... I'll keep it simple and say it's a state of mind where you are more aware. More fundamentally (and I like this word better), it's a state of mindfulness.

Don't worry about semantics, just try it and you'll find out what it is.

That's silly, I'm already awake and conscious, what are you talking about?

The vast majority of people are barely aware during their waking life, sadly. When people first meditate, most people are surprised by how noisy their mind is 24/7, and they're surprised at how much they do not notice in both their inner world and their outer world.

People have imaginary arguments in their head, worry about things that aren't even real, replay traumatic/negative experiences in their life over and over, replay past conversations etc. People have constant anxiety and weird emotions without even realizing what it really feels like. It's just this weird background noise that slowly poisons everything in their life.

People don't notice all the things in their outer world. What does your shirt feel like? the floor? Gravity? The objects in your environment? the feel of the wind?

Regular meditation will allow you to become aware of your inner thoughts and feelings, paradoxically making it easier to let go of noisy and negative ruminations.

No, being more aware of your environment will not overload your brain. Regular meditation and practicing general mindfulness throughout the day will bring you back to Earth and make your life slightly richer. This will also make it easier to get out of your head.

I'm not religious or some new-agey person

Neither am I. 100% atheist and I don't believe in any stuff about chakras or vibrations or whatever. Meditation is a central part of some religious practices but there are many types and ways to meditate.

How is this going to help me?

There's a ton of benefits, and in the past several years, most of these benefits have, or are in the process of being corroborated. The list is so long, if you have some sort of problem in your life, meditation will probably help it in some way.

Psychiatrists will sometimes recommend meditation instead of medication for mild cases of anxiety & depression. Actually, even if you have serious anxiety or depression, meditation will still help you (alongside whatever therapy or meds you take). It works, but you have to take it seriously. Meditation will not help very much unless you DO IT EVERY DAY. I am serious.

You will see some immediate results (feeling more relaxed). But it takes at least a month with one 15 min session per day.

https://www.headspace.com/science

Quote:According to neuroscientists as you continue to meditate your brain physically changes, even though you’re not aware of it re-shaping itself.

Quote:Research has found meditation to promote ‘Divergent Thinking’ a type of thinking that allows many new ideas to be generated.

Mindfulness also affects awareness and the filtering out of other mental processes during creative tasks.

Quote:Neuroscientists have also found that, after just 11 hours of meditation, practitioners had structural changes in the part of the brain involved in monitoring our focus and self control.

Quote:Researchers have found that, compared with the people who didn’t meditate, ‘those trained in meditation stayed on tasks longer and made fewer task switches’.

Quote:Research from 163 different studies suggested that mindfulness-meditation practice had an overall positive effect on improving anxiety and stress.

Quote:Also...
Research in people with clinical levels of anxiety has found that 90% experienced significant reductions in anxiety.

Quote:Meditation can improve relationships with everyone you meet.

You become more comfortable with yourself, which makes it easier for others to get along with you, and you find it easier to accept them as they are.

How do I meditate?

First, I always sit in a chair. Sitting on the ground hurts my back, even if I sit on a cushion. If you sit in a chair, don't lean back, you'll fall asleep.

Have a look at these pictures:

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https://www.headspace.com/register/free-trial has a free trial where you can listen to some 10-minute guided meditations from Andy Puddicombe.

Here are some guided meditations I like that will give you an idea of what to do. After you listen to these (while following along and meditating yourself of course), take the techniques you learned from these and do it by yourself.

Alan Watts:

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Mingyur Rinpoche:

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Metta (loving kindness) meditation with Sharon Salzberg:

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Sam Harris:

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How long should I meditate?

EVERY SINGLE DAY. I am serious. Don't mess this part up.

It is better to meditate 15 minutes every day, rather than 105 minutes one day a week.

When you first start, you may find it hard to sit for more than a few minutes without getting extremely uncomfortable and restless. That's fine, do as much as you can, but try to do a little more every time. Use a timer/stop watch.

If a beginner tries to push through too hard, their session will start to work against them and they won't be meditating effectively. Just work up to it. You slowly get better at meditation the more you do it.

When I visited a Zen temple, they recommended 1 hour in the morning, and 1 hour in the evening. That's ... a lot.

Personally, I think your goal should be about 20-25 minutes minimum every session. It takes me 15-20 minutes just to get fully relaxed and absorbed. The most I've ever meditated in one sitting is 1 hour, and the difference is HUGE around the 30 minute mark. When you get to that point for the first time, you realize how deep you can travel into your own mind.

RIP GORE GOROTH

He was an hero. He will always be remembered.
(This post was last modified: 07-11-2014 01:44 PM by Desu.)
07-11-2014 01:32 PM
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 Thanks given by: xcriteria , vonunov , SoulRiser
vonunov Offline
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Post: #2
RE: Meditation

Like exercise, this is something that's easier to get into if you can find an interesting way to frame it for yourself.

For me, this was: http://www.marketaz.co.uk/StarTrek/Vulcan/med2.html

Of course, for an ordinary human like me, it's less of learning to control my dangerously violent impulses and more of this: http://www.wimp.com/compulsivethinking/
07-13-2014 01:31 PM
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brainiac3397 Offline
Machiavellian Amoeba

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Post: #3
RE: Meditation

With a hectic lifestyle, sometimes setting aside time for such things is highly difficult. Like I personally only have 4 hours of personal time(note that I didnt say free time) when you factor in sleep,work and trandportation...

But Im hoping for improvement when my full-time education schedule kicks in and gives me more life time.

Personality DNA Report
(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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07-13-2014 02:34 PM
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Desu Offline
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Post: #4
Meditation

People who say they don't have time to meditate are lying.

You are currently sitting at 7,448 posts on school survival.

You have time to meditate.

Butchered quote from someone I forgot,

"You should meditate for 30 minutes a day. If you are busy, an hour."

RIP GORE GOROTH

He was an hero. He will always be remembered.
(This post was last modified: 07-13-2014 02:46 PM by Desu.)
07-13-2014 02:45 PM
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brainiac3397 Offline
Machiavellian Amoeba

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Post: #5
RE: Meditation

Wrong. Ive been working full time only 4 months now, and having decided to be interested in meditation a weekmago, which was within the month of Ramadan where I fast sunrise to sunset , does indeed have me in a position where I do indeed have 4 hours of personal time at best.

Thus the generalization that those who say they have no time is actually a prejudiced bias created by the larger number of slobs who consider free time to be not free. Thus devoting time to meditation in such a condition wouldmin fact be detrimental because it wouldnt reorganize life stress but rather dump it forward and simply make it worse.

And unlike most who "dont have time" I infact have a rough schedule of how to utilize the time I have when I stop working and start college.

tl;dr Suk it.

Personality DNA Report
(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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07-13-2014 04:43 PM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #6
Meditation

(I only moved this so that people can see it without having to log in).

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
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07-14-2014 12:05 AM
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James Comey Away
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Post: #7
Meditation

Typically I meditate laying in my bed listening to music.

RIP GWEDIN
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Stop jerking off to porn and whining and do something about it

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05-05-2017 02:47 PM
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