Meditation

[resilient]

Anyone good and consistent with meditation? I've tried to meditate here and there a few times in my life.

One month shortly after I first joined SoSuave many years ago, I did a 30-day to success challenge of meditating daily for a month. At first it was 5 mins, then 10, 15, 30, and finally 45. I could remember feeling 'zen' afterward. My ADHD chilled out. I wasn't overanalyzing everything. My world slowed down and it was awesome for a while. I could concentrate longer. I didn't try to dominate conversations, interrupt or speak too quickly.

I also used this machine I got off Amazon for a while called "RESPeRATE". I put a sensor belt around my chest and it can tell how fast and long I take deep breaths timed to the tone sounds. It usually helped before bed or when I was feeling stressed out with work or continuing education.

I'm trying to get back into meditation and would like to make it a daily habit since my school load is starting to get intense with being close to finishing up my undergrad in preparation for grad school w/prereqs, shadow hours up the wazoo.

I downloaded "Headspace," "Calm," and "Meditation Studio" on my smartphone after some people recommended them. Biggest petpeeve I have with them is that they want $5 a month to unlock premium packages to help with guided meditations on relationships, sleep, stress, health, etc.

 

[resilient]

So after trying out a few mediation apps, I would say Meditation Studio is my favorite. I like that that they have numerous guided meditations based on a category and a subcategory within or recommendations for similar guided meditations. I like that they length averages 3-12 minutes, so I can play one and hit the pillow after I finish. I'm feeling less anxious and starting to fall asleep faster than I have in a long time.

 

[BlueAlpha1]

Yes, I found some success with it last year also. While I didn't find it to be a great cure for depression or anxiety, I found that my anger significantly decreased. I wasn't as angry in traffic especially. I was more in the present moment too obviously, not always lost it thought.

It depends what you're trying to change about yourself. It's better for anger than for something like depression, because it comes down to science and wavelengths in the brain changing. It's almost biologically impossible to stay angry while slowing everything down as you do while practicing meditation. Anger is accompanied by rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, sweating, improper breathing, and meditation is a conscious reversal of that. I think for depression you're gonna need more than deep breathing. You probably need Rx/counseling and meditation alone won't help.

Recently I didn't do it for about 6+ months and found that the edge was coming back. I was getting impatient in traffic again and snapping at family, so I've recently started back up again. My roommate picked a fight with me yesterday and I stayed centered and diffused the situation, which was satisfying. I still think he's an azzhole, but I didn't overreact and that was the key.

I personally don't like those apps. I think using technology totally defeats the purpose. I want to disconnect entirely if at all possible. If anything I don't mind actual reading from a magazine (I just bought one this week) rather than being lost in my phone screen. I may occasionally use a guided youtube audio, but I'm still in a dark room with the phone face down.

There's a 24/7 Korean spa in a quiet neighborhood close to me that I frequent once every 2-3 months to do some meditation overnight from like 11pm-2am. That's always a great recharge. Or I go to the beach.

 

[resilient]

To be honest, I've heard of chakras... yet I don't really understand them. I googled "opening the third eye" and I listened/watched this weird on the positive and negative consequences of opening the third eye aka the pineal gland.

I haven't been into contact with the spiritual realm, lol, but with increasing awareness, I notice more subtleties in my body in the nerves and muscles aches pains or general sensations as well as subtle sounds within fifty feet while I meditate.

As far as depression and anxiety goes, I take melatonin 5mg if I got terrible sleep the night before and need that extra help going to sleep. I have a concentrated magnesium spray from LifeFlo that I will spray onto my fingers and rub the back of my earlobes. It's supposed to have a calming affect. I also try to journal and pray to empty my thoughts if their racing or anxious about relationships. I use a lavender and sleep essential oil blend, yet I don't know how much it really works. It's just a relaxing smell for the olfactory senses for a hour before sleep.

To manage anxiety and depression I still believe fully in exercising hard daily. Getting the blood pumping and the body sweating helps me relax and feel better about myself. After high intensity interval training, I get a nice boost to my self-esteem.

 

[resilient]

@Sergio88, I'm 2/3 through Core de Force dvd series. It's a blend of boxing, kickboxing and muay thai. After I finish, I want to start Tai Cheng dvd series to target my sciatica lower back issues that still linger from sitting all day and studying all night. Good question about the source of anxiety. Most of it stems from the major career transition I'm involved in. It began 1.5 years ago around the time of my marital separation, yet still has 2-3 years to go to be realized. Being in limbo right now has made my self-identity feel anxious. Also, I'm trying to navigate dating/plate spinning after coming out of a nine year relationship while re-establishing my self-identity and what I want from my life for the next 5-10-15 years in terms of financial goals and self-realization. Thanks for the embedded video, I'll check it out.

 

[BlueAlpha1]

The one thing any atheist who is into meditation will tell you is the one downfall is all the new age, yogi, metaphysical, mystic, woo-woo stuff about a "spiritual realm", "the third eye", or becoming "one with the universe". Please don't fall for the snake oil scam that is the Deepak Chopra school of meditation. Use a Sam Harris or Alan Watts style of meditation instead. Meditation can be explained purely by biology, chemistry, and physiology without all that extra nonsense that caused meditation to have a negative stigma for decades that it is only now getting away from.

 

[resilient]

@Sergio, that video was amazing. I can't believe Bruce Lee did that all that ping pong game with a freaking nun chuck. Wow! It's like he wasn't even looking at the ping pong, he just moved fluently with smooth actions and no jerky recalculations. I admire his body build and overall inner game character he had. He died young, but man, amazing how he always gave zero fs. I'm 142.8lbs right now, down from 162 a year ago and staying around 3-5% bodyfat last time I checked. The MMA style workouts is helping a ton with definition. The meditation at night before sleep is an added benefit. I lose myself extremely easy when it comes to LTRs, so I hope I can stay single long enough and have a ton of hobbies and social circles so I'll be much more balanced the next time I decide to enter a LTR. As far as your ex-fiance goes, it's better that you found out now and stuck to your boundaries about her ex lingering than going down the wedding isle on uncertain ground with doubts. Kudos, man!

@BlueAlpha1, don't worry, bro. I'm Christian, so I'll always be skeptical of all that terminology and like you said, woo-woo stuff. If I can use meditation as a source of awareness to disconnect from racing thoughts, my prayer time with God will most likely improve in intuition.

 

[ubercat]

http://factsfromfiction.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/the-bruce-lee-ping-pong-video-cool-but.html?m=1

 

[resilient]

Interesting story, @ubercat. Too bad the ping pong video was faked with digital editing manipulation. Bruce Lee was still an amazing dude though.

Update
Guided meditations are still going well for me. Doing them before I go to sleep helps me wind down and practice gratitude and mindfulness for the day and what I'm learning or experiencing lately. It's helping me sort through any latent anxiety/depression/self-rejection thoughts that may come up.

 

[resilient]

I came across this article today reading Reddit and was floored with how much meditation affects the prefrontal cortex.

"Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquility, nor is it attempting to be a better person. It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes."

- Chogyam Trungpa ​