Meditation :)

Who else here meditates? Do you use guided meditations or not? just curious if anyone else here meditates. :cloud9:

I prefer being diapered while using a guided meditation.

I do a form of meditation. I'm not sure if it has a name, but help keep my rage in check

I try to meditate using breathing exercises. With some chill out tracks or sounds. Its hard to keep distracted for a long time. But, it works well before sleeping.

I used to, back when I was in college and later. Now, I've sort of substituted intense listening to music, classical and let the music fill me up.

I have been trained/shown how to do several meditation, but they never worked for me.

Now the only one that I have gotten to work is what I call "going to my little side".

IT works when I am diapered and have my wife cuddle me. Then I can do the mental relaxation steps and empty the negative thoughts and calm my mind.

Meditation is a huge one for me. I use inspirational music and go to a quite place. Preferably the Aquinas center at the university I'm attending

I've never had an in-person lesson on meditation and have only discovered how to do so through research online. Never done any guided meditations though. It honestly distracts me when somebody's suggesting stuff while I'm trying to meditate. I may have watched one or two videos of guided meditation just to get tips and hints, but there has to be a certain time and place for me to meditate effectively, and that is by myself in a very quiet, comfortable room.

I hear a lot of people treat it like exercise and meditate regularly, but I often find I either don't have time to do so or I can't meditate as deeply because I'm trying to force it. For me, there are spontaneous times where I just follow the flow and go into a meditative state. I'm very much like a Daoist when it comes to meditation. I try to Wu-Wei rather than discipline.

The best description I've had of meditation comes from Alan Watts. He wasn't particularly talking about meditation in the example I'm going to allude to, but it helped me figure out how to best approach meditation. He said that your mind must be a rock in a river where all of your thoughts are the flow of water. Your thoughts will wash over your mind like a river over rock, but a stable enough rock will not be moved. It will simply sit quietly as the water washes over it.

I used to try to empty my mind completely, but the best way to let meditation happen is to let it happen naturally. It's all about relaxation and not forcing your mind to do anything. If you try to force yourself to relax and act naturally, you are missing the point completely. You must let your thoughts flow without letting them hold sway over your anchor point. Your anchor point is something that is in the here and now while your thoughts are a viciously distracting combination of past, present and future. Breath works the best for me, as the cyclical nature keeps my focus very well, and the deep breathing slows my heart rate significantly. Others use something visual like a candle or a waterfall or river. Some use auditory things like the ticking of a clock or a droning noise. Or they need the guided meditation so they can relinquish their stress over to someone else.

There is no one way to meditate. It's all about self exploration and discovery, and meditation has shown me many great things about myself. I do need to do it more often though. I feel so light and airy whenever I have a successful meditation! Greatly improves my happiness and concentration.