Having been somewhat appreciative of mindfulness for years, I have really started devoting some time and energy to this. The concept of being fully present and not thinking about the past or future...simply focusing on the here and now has been very eye opening.
I have started moving into meditation and was curious if other BBI folks who meditate might want to have a chat about it.
BTW, I really like the corpue of guided meditations on the appy Insight Timer
I paid for the Calm app about a month ago and have been using it each morning (well, most mornings) and I'm getting much better with it. The daily 10 minute sessions are great - and they're new every day.
It's a little pricey, but worth the investment for me. I've spent 80 bucks on far worse things in my life.
Being present and mindful really does enhance your life once you get comfortable doing it, though. It's very worthwhile.
I think we're always just in overdrive and so rarely take time to take a step back and really assess where we're at and what is surrounding us. We've got our faces buried in our phones everywhere we go. I feel like I spend entire days on auto pilot. Learning to slow my mind down and organize my thoughts has made a big difference.
It just hasn't translated into good posts. But there's still time!
(I know, I'm putting jokes on a tee here)
It can be anything, really - just a visualization you can hold.
So you don't have to meditate in order to benefit from mindfulness.
Hope that's helpful.
I paid for the Calm app about a month ago and have been using it each morning (well, most mornings) and I'm getting much better with it. The daily 10 minute sessions are great - and they're new every day.
It's a little pricey, but worth the investment for me. I've spent 80 bucks on far worse things in my life.
Being present and mindful really does enhance your life once you get comfortable doing it, though. It's very worthwhile.
I think we're always just in overdrive and so rarely take time to take a step back and really assess where we're at and what is surrounding us. We've got our faces buried in our phones everywhere we go. I feel like I spend entire days on auto pilot. Learning to slow my mind down and organize my thoughts has made a big difference.
Arc that is ok if your mind is racing. Its not about emptying your mind. Its about being able to acknowledge and observe your thoughts and practice letting them go. It sounds easier than it is but it really takes a lot of practice. So just imagine yourself meditating and whatever thoughts you get, let them come in like video clips going down a stream. Watch them, observe them and let them go and wait for the next thought if it comes. That way when you get those same thoughts in your life whether they be negative or whatever you will have had practice letting them go and not letting the negativity eat you up.
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I've always struggled with meditation because my mind just races by nature and it's hard to get it to slow down. I'm one of those people who is always trying to think about and do a million things at once.
I paid for the Calm app about a month ago and have been using it each morning (well, most mornings) and I'm getting much better with it. The daily 10 minute sessions are great - and they're new every day.
It's a little pricey, but worth the investment for me. I've spent 80 bucks on far worse things in my life.
Being present and mindful really does enhance your life once you get comfortable doing it, though. It's very worthwhile.
I think we're always just in overdrive and so rarely take time to take a step back and really assess where we're at and what is surrounding us. We've got our faces buried in our phones everywhere we go. I feel like I spend entire days on auto pilot. Learning to slow my mind down and organize my thoughts has made a big difference.
Arc that is ok if your mind is racing. Its not about emptying your mind. Its about being able to acknowledge and observe your thoughts and practice letting them go. It sounds easier than it is but it really takes a lot of practice. So just imagine yourself meditating and whatever thoughts you get, let them come in like video clips going down a stream. Watch them, observe them and let them go and wait for the next thought if it comes. That way when you get those same thoughts in your life whether they be negative or whatever you will have had practice letting them go and not letting the negativity eat you up.
Appreciate the tips!
I paid for the Calm app about a month ago and have been using it each morning (well, most mornings) and I'm getting much better with it. The daily 10 minute sessions are great - and they're new every day.
It's a little pricey, but worth the investment for me. I've spent 80 bucks on far worse things in my life.
Being present and mindful really does enhance your life once you get comfortable doing it, though. It's very worthwhile.
I think we're always just in overdrive and so rarely take time to take a step back and really assess where we're at and what is surrounding us. We've got our faces buried in our phones everywhere we go. I feel like I spend entire days on auto pilot. Learning to slow my mind down and organize my thoughts has made a big difference.
I've used it for years on an almost daily basis albeit mostly for the nature sounds that drown out my alleged snoring.
no
I went to one of those Landmark intros and it was repugnant to me. Also wouldn't call it mindfulness meditation.
I used to feel the same way. I kinda thought thst if people were able to meditate that it just came naturally to them. Was talking about it with a friend a few years back and he just laughed at me. His point was that most people drawn to meditation and similar practices are drawn to it exactly because they have racing thoughts etc and want to take a breather.
Now i think of it like a muscle: the first day you walk into the gym you arent gonna bench 300 lbs. The first time you go for a run youre not gonna go for 10 miles. But if you put the work in thr growth is there. Coincidentally just like cardio if I spend some time away from it it takes awhile to knock the rust out and get back into form. Start with some guided meditations on youtube. 5 minutes. And build from there.
Im not a religious guy, probably agnostic at best. But there is something about meditation that puts me in a good headspace. Makes me feel more connected to the world around me. Simply stated, Im much less of a self centered asshole when i take 15-20 minutes a day to just let go of the stress and be in the present moment.
I still use it to this day when I hit a roadblock at work. I'll try to clear my head for about 15-20 min, then go back to try to resolve the issue that was giving me a hard time. Very effective.
Also good for hypertension believe it or not, so long as you couple it with breathing exercises. Not a replacement for a beta blocker if you need one, but definitely helps regulate.
Kelsto - working it into your daily routine can be tough. 10% Happier has a bunch of different length options as well as some walking meditations. Could be worth checking out.
Focusing on your breathing is the classical meditation of yoga. As I was taught it, it's not even called meditation but rather "breathing exercises", at least in the native language of the discipline I practiced, Korean. It may be as important to breathe very slowly and very deeply, using the diaphragm muscle alone, as it is to clear the mind. . Basically that's it. Completely relax every other muscle in the body (lying on one's back one feels as if sinking or sagging into the floor) and breath deeply into the diaphragm counting silently 10 seconds each inhale and exhale.
When done right, you feel super "present" and notice that you hear all sorts of sounds from the area that you'd previously been ignoring or overlooking. It's very refreshing when you are done. My teacher used to say it was better than sleep for recharging your battery.
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I've always struggled with meditation because my mind just races by nature and it's hard to get it to slow down. I'm one of those people who is always trying to think about and do a million things at once.
I used to feel the same way. I kinda thought thst if people were able to meditate that it just came naturally to them. Was talking about it with a friend a few years back and he just laughed at me. His point was that most people drawn to meditation and similar practices are drawn to it exactly because they have racing thoughts etc and want to take a breather.
Now i think of it like a muscle: the first day you walk into the gym you arent gonna bench 300 lbs. The first time you go for a run youre not gonna go for 10 miles. But if you put the work in thr growth is there. Coincidentally just like cardio if I spend some time away from it it takes awhile to knock the rust out and get back into form. Start with some guided meditations on youtube. 5 minutes. And build from there.
Im not a religious guy, probably agnostic at best. But there is something about meditation that puts me in a good headspace. Makes me feel more connected to the world around me. Simply stated, Im much less of a self centered asshole when i take 15-20 minutes a day to just let go of the stress and be in the present moment.
I've definitely improved with it as time has gone on. I remember the first few times I ever tried it... I was like "this is impossible, forget it..." but now I actually have sessions where I manage to clear my conscience for most of it and I always just feel this nice sense of "reset" when I'm done.
I just have to stick with it. The biggest hurdle for me is that. I like that the Calm app tracks streaks and time spent being mindful. It kind of motivates me to keep going and not break my streaks.
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In comment 14267009 arcarsenal said:
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I've always struggled with meditation because my mind just races by nature and it's hard to get it to slow down. I'm one of those people who is always trying to think about and do a million things at once.
I used to feel the same way. I kinda thought thst if people were able to meditate that it just came naturally to them. Was talking about it with a friend a few years back and he just laughed at me. His point was that most people drawn to meditation and similar practices are drawn to it exactly because they have racing thoughts etc and want to take a breather.
Now i think of it like a muscle: the first day you walk into the gym you arent gonna bench 300 lbs. The first time you go for a run youre not gonna go for 10 miles. But if you put the work in thr growth is there. Coincidentally just like cardio if I spend some time away from it it takes awhile to knock the rust out and get back into form. Start with some guided meditations on youtube. 5 minutes. And build from there.
Im not a religious guy, probably agnostic at best. But there is something about meditation that puts me in a good headspace. Makes me feel more connected to the world around me. Simply stated, Im much less of a self centered asshole when i take 15-20 minutes a day to just let go of the stress and be in the present moment.
I've definitely improved with it as time has gone on. I remember the first few times I ever tried it... I was like "this is impossible, forget it..." but now I actually have sessions where I manage to clear my conscience for most of it and I always just feel this nice sense of "reset" when I'm done.
I just have to stick with it. The biggest hurdle for me is that. I like that the Calm app tracks streaks and time spent being mindful. It kind of motivates me to keep going and not break my streaks.
Trying to do 10 minutes felt like a form of mild torture for the first 3 years or so for me. After 5 years or so, 30 minutes started to seem too short much of the time.
The 10 minutes seem to be gone so much faster now; presumably because my mind is wandering less and less and I'm not actively thinking about the time.