30 day meditation challenge. Any meditating tips anyone?

[backpocket]

I plan to experiment with meditation, and see if this thing can help me focus more, and try to personalize it for myself, to see what works.

I'm thinking of just trying the simple noticing your breathe, watching your thoughts kind of meditation. I'll do it twice a day, at least 10 minutes, and I'll try to build it up day by day.

If anyone here has any experience they want to share, suggestions or tips or resources, I'd be greatful for it.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by backpocket

I plan to experiment with meditation, and see if this thing can help me focus more, and try to personalize it for myself, to see what works.

I'm thinking of just trying the simple noticing your breathe, watching your thoughts kind of meditation. I'll do it twice a day, at least 10 minutes, and I'll try to build it up day by day.

If anyone here has any experience they want to share, suggestions or tips or resources, I'd be greatful for it.

10 minutes is a bit short. Your mind would just be getting settled, and then it's over.

I would suggest at least 20 minutes, and once a day instead of twice.

[Zukin]

This book has some really good meditation exercises:

Amazon.com: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness: Books: Jon Kabat-Zinn

It's kind of long, but that's mainly because it discusses the experimental evidence for the health benefits of meditation. You can just skip ahead to the exercises in the book if you want.

[sri]

I would say don't plan for a specified time -- at least during
the experiment period. Just set aside 25 minutes and start
meditating and go on for as long as your are comfortable.

Also make sure to sit in a very, very comfortable position.
Focusing on breath is a great to quiet the mind quickly.
But note that if this is the 1st time you're meditating,
then you mind will be more chaotic when you meditate
initially.

Don't be discouraged by that.
What it really means is that the mind has be chaotic all
along and only now you're noticing it -- only now are you
quiet enough to notice it.

Also, a specified time each day worked for me.
Like 20 minutes before going to bed.
Or early in the morning.

[backpocket]

Just tried it today for 30 minutes and I could say that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Doing the 30 day being in the moment challenge (which was cut short) probably helped a lot. Nothing complicated, all I did was just start off with some progressive relaxation, and start to notice my breathe, and repeating "Observe, Let Go, Relax" again and again to remind myself to watch my thoughts and then let it go. I don't know why I used those words but I had a sudden thought to do it, and it worked. Still trying to figure out a comfortable position to sit, because after about 20 minutes my right leg feels numb because my left leg is over it (I'm sitting cross legged).

I could tell that meditating really worked because my focus and attention is much more improved after the session. I still have those moments where my thought wanders, but now it feels much intense. It's hard to explain, but it's like the present moment feels that much more clear, and when my thought wanders the whole world goes blackout (does this make sense?).

[Acting Like Godot]

Well, the "present moment being clear" bit made sense to me. Not the "blackout" bit, though.

[Steve T]

Hi,

I don't know if I am allowed to give links out here but there is a site which is having a 21 day meditation challenge with plenty of tips and guidance available.

So rather than having my wrists slapped, if you send me a message I will pass the link on to anyone who is interested.

Good luck with it anyway,
Steve

[AtriumGuy]

Hey backpocket--
First off, congrats! Meditation is a truly wonderful practice so integrate into your life. Here are a few tips from personal experience:
1) Meditate first thing in the morning, and sometime before you go to bed (in the morning your mind is quieter and at night its great to let the day go)
2) Make sure its QUIET, and you won't be disturbed
3) Try one sitting meditation (preferably morning) and one lying down posture (at night) each day.
4) Your mind WILL wander. Do not get frustrated, but keep patiently draw your attention back to your breath.
5) Buy a guidance CD; there's a great one from John Kabat-Zinn and an awesome book from the same guy called Whereever You Go There You Are.
Good luck! I hope this helps...

[backpocket]

Argh. I have to start from Day 1 again. Couldn't find a quiet place to meditate the past few days, what with my house being a makeshift community center for students who are late with their assignments.

[EnduranceNinja]

I am with you Backpocket,
I have done meditation off and on. Really enjoyed it and found it only took a few days to get use to it. One question, music playing in my head. Does anyone get this while meditating? I had trouble stoping it so I let it go and tried to make sure it was a good song to meditate to. Good luck at it Backpocket.

[backpocket]

Music? I don't hear music. I do have a lot of weird movies in my head though. Feels like I'm watching Monty Python. Thanks for the support, Enduranceninja.

While meditating yesterday, after I've done the relaxation and cleared my mind (as best as I can anyway) I suddenly have an idea for a project of mine. I think that when you meditate, your head gets quiet enough for the important things to actually get some screen time.

I set my alarm clock for 30 minutes, and I noticed that in the last 2-3 minutes (I checked my clock. I cheated. Haha) I felt damn impatient for it to finish. I find this interesting and I'm planning to increase my meditation time by 5 minutes per day until I hit an hour, or until I can stop trying to will time to move faster, just so I can control this impatience thing.

[shivraj]

"The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."
Lao Tzu

Congrats.

Here are some meditation ideas I have compiled, may be useful for you.

Lots of Meditations

[backpocket]

Today I had the weirdest experience while meditating. When I meditate, I usually start off by doing some progressive relaxation, then noticing any tensions in my body before watching my thoughts and my breathe.

But today, while going through the progressive relaxation, I couldn't do it properly because my attention keeps on getting pulled towards this strong feeling of impatience in me. I just sat there and watched it, but it just started to grow, and I couldn't stand it anymore so I stopped meditating before my alarm rang (I think I did 20 minutes, but I set it for 35 minutes).

And after that, I just feel awfully energetic and my mind is clear. I feel like I can run a bloody 500k marathon right now. It's been nearly 7 hours since I meditated, and now I'm even sweating.

Has this ever happened to anybody?

Shivraj: Thanks for the list. I'll definitely try out the gratitude meditation.

P/S: It's 1 am here, and I'm usually asleep around 10pm. I think I'll end up staying the whole night. My mind is clear, it's just that I feel like the Duracell bunny.

[elastigirl]

ignore that restless pull,I know the one you mean.
concentrate on the sound of your breath.

chant out ''ommmmmm''.


happy meditating

[backpocket]

Originally Posted by elastigirl

chant out ''ommmmmm''.

Personally, I find doing that makes me laugh while meditating.

Anyway...today is day 4, since I had a 36 hour day recently (people who lose sleep doing last minute college assignments, unite!)

Meditating is now getting easier and easier. I found a cool trick to fool my mind into being relaxed instead of impatient while waiting for my session to end.

Whenever I got impatient, I just told myself, "What's the difference in sitting here for the first few seconds and the last 20 minutes? There isn't any, really." I had this idea after reading some blog post where it mentioned that everything was relative and events are inherently neutral, it's just how we view it. So whoever who wrote it, thank you for the inspiration. It made the meditation seem so easy, I felt disappointed when it ended, but I had to go out.

I started doing some open eyes meditation too, just for fun. Did the Eagle Meditation (it's from here)
and I just found out my toilet floor is blue.

[jbsmith]

WIth over 7 years of meditation under my belt, here are some tips you can perhaps use to improve your meditation sessions...

1. I cannot listen to guided meditations - for me the voice is too distracting. I am better with silence or better yet with relaxation CD's (especially repetitive water, ocean or forest nature sounds). I do not pretend this will work for everyone, but for me it makes a big difference what is going on in the background.

2. As was mentioned by others - initial sessions (perhaps even for over 1-month) can be quite chaotic, each day different than the next. It takes a rather giant leap of faith to keep going and not give in to the seeming futility of it all - but little by little you are training your mind to focus.

3. Try heading into your mindset by acknowledging that this is YOUR time - this is time that nobody else (no matter what is going on in the world) can take away from you. It helps to value this time highly.

4. I've found that very intense focusing for the first 5-minutes can give way to completely giving yourself to the moment in the next minutes - when you get to this state it is sheer bliss. Even better, once you get into the habit, it becomes easier and easier to place yourself in that state. It is now possible for me to do it in just a minute or so no matter where I am.

The benefits of sticking with it are incredible. I used to have MAJOR digestive problems, after about 6-months of daily meditation I haven't had these problems for almost 6-years - this was chronic problems for almost 20-years overcome in just a few months.

Lots of other benefits too...

Good luck.

[sameer]

You should check out Vipassana Meditation Website -- I took a 10-day meditation course with them and it was the best thing I ever did. I'm going back for another 4-day course this week. It is simply amazing.

Sameer

[backpocket]

I'd love to try that Vipassana thing. But I can't live without my guitar for a day, much less 10 days...

I've been noticing that my visualisations have been sharper recently. Usually when I close my eyes and try to see in my mind, the images are usually a little blurry. But now the pictures are crystal clear. It's like having an upgrade from a CRT to an HDTV in my head.

I was counting my thoughts in todays meditation, and after awhile, I'm able to see the precise moment a thought springs up (I had damn near 400 thoughts, by the way). It's interesting to see that most of my thoughts are assumptions and future projections, and how I think people react to what I do.

[shivraj]

the average person thinks about
twelve thousand thoughts per day. A deeper thinker puts forth
fifty thousand thoughts daily."

Dr. Deepak Chopra once quoted a study (...) in which the researchers
concluded that the average person thinks approximately 65,000 thoughts
per day. They also went on to conclude that of these 65,000, about 95%
are exactly the same thoughts that [passed] through the minds of
people the day before.

... Source: Google Answers: Thoughts per day

[Phil Parkinson]

I would love to get into meditation as my mind is always racing...

[backpocket]

Originally Posted by Phil Parkinson

I would love to get into meditation as my mind is always racing...

Haha. Join in the fun, Phil. It gets easier by the day.

[backpocket]

I have to start it all over again...damnit. My usual schedule was to meditate before bedtime, but I screwed it up yesterday when I had to do some overnight work. When I was done, instead of meditating before sleeping, I lied down and thought, "I'll do it...right after a nap." Then I passed out for 8 hours.

Regardless of this 30 day trial, I think this will be a lifelong habit of mine. I felt the difference in myself when I don't meditate today, it was just so easy for me to get wrapped with my thoughts and get angry, offended, moody, pissed. And that was just this one day.

So I'm planning to do it in the mornings now instead of night. Wish me luck. Again.

[tejvan]

I meditate twice a day and have done for the past 8 years. Good luck with your own meditation.

I find a helpful trick is to see thoughts as separate to yourself. Just watch them go by and after a while you will be able to reject them.

[backpocket]

My session today was pretty interesting for me. I felt a weird sense in the area of my forehead, like a warmth in the third eye area I think, and the closest thing I could say to what I was feeling was energy. I also felt it in my hands and I had a fun time concentrating on these three areas together with my breathe.

Sometime in the middle, I can feel the tension in my legs and hips just letting go , the joints feeling like they just unlocked.

I meditated for 30 minutes and weirdly enough at the end my legs weren't numb at all.

[Believer]

Please keep updating this thread, I am going to try it too but I don't really know where to start. There are so many types of meditation, I'm not sure which one I should do or even if there's a 'best' one.

I guess I'll start by just trying to clear my mind and focusing on breathing.

[thehexman]

I would just like to recommend an ebook which in my opinion is extremely useful and also explains meditation in a practical way.

Mindfulness In Plain English

It really is quite good and I consider it to be one of the best introductory books there is. In fact, it does not only deal with basics but also offers deeper insight into the practice of meditation.

[backpocket]

Aaah...I had one of my best meditation sessions ever. I was aware of my breathe for probably more than 80% of the time, compared to when I just started, where I'll be counting my breathe and going, "21, 22, 2...hmm, what should I have for dinner..."

There were a few insights and ideas which came up during my meditation, and thankfully I learned enough memory techniques to remember all of them, or it would be such a waste.

While listening to my insights, I had these sudden surges of euphoria. After awhile, it drops then it rushes back again. I was like , "Whoa, sitting still and watching my mind can make me feel awesome. Who would ever believe that?"

[backpocket]

@believer I think it would be very hard to empty your mind. Try just counting your breathe and pledging to sit still for whatever length of time you've set (a timer is good) no matter how impatient you'll feel towards the end. When the impatience comes, just feel it.

@thehexman Looks interesting for me, since my aim for meditation is mostly to develop my focus, and if I'm lucky, peace I loved that part about Uncle Herman's divorce and the angelic choir. LOL.

[BobYeager]

Originally Posted by backpocket

I plan to experiment with meditation, and see if this thing can help me focus more, and try to personalize it for myself, to see what works.

I'm thinking of just trying the simple noticing your breathe, watching your thoughts kind of meditation. I'll do it twice a day, at least 10 minutes, and I'll try to build it up day by day.

If anyone here has any experience they want to share, suggestions or tips or resources, I'd be greatful for it.

You know, I have had meditation in my life since I was 4 years old. I am also a martial arts instructor, former tournament fighter, and a personal and success development coach for a global community of spiritual entrepreneurs. One of the mentors in the community had developed a meditation program that truly brings you into developing the mindset that you need, controlling the thoughts that you perceive and creating stillness in silence. If you are interested in starting right, go to Delfin Global and pick up a copy of Leslie Fieger's Delfin Knowledge system.

I direct all 3786 of my students to utilize the same program, and it's not just meditation but it will also help you to realize your own potential, keep you focused on your desires and create total stillness within yourself.

If you want to develop true success and clarity and truly understand how to accomplish living within your meditation, pick it up!

[Remez Sasson]

15 minutes a day, once a day is quite enough to begin with. After a while, you can gradually lengthen the time and start meditating twice a day.

The quality and depth of the meditation count more than the length of time. 15 minutes of focused meditation are better than 30 minutes of the mind running here and there.

The more focused is the mind, the better the meditation is and the greater the benefits (inner peace, calmness, happiness, inner strength, etc.). In my opinion, developing some concentration ability through concentration exercises, before starting with meditation, can be highly rewarding.