Meditation, mindfulness, and awareness thread -- Not a good excuse to smoke WEED
114 replies, posted
It's funny how opinions work. In my case it seems like I've gotten detached from the things I like and new stuff I try because I think too much about if I like it or not. Since I think about it too much I end up forgetting to actually experience the thing I'm trying to form an opinion on so in the end, all I'm left with is a confused impression because I forgot to experience it. I'm starting to understand what mindfulness really is doing to me now after I've been doing it for 65 days. I'm learning to stop thinking about what I feel about something but simply feel it. If I put my hand in a warm coffee cup, the goal would be to stop thinking about the sensation I can feel because why bother? My hand and fingers in that case is already telling me all I need to know and I don't need to put a single thought into it.
I've found it to get more and more difficult to maintain my mindfulness habit after these two months as well. I've had to drop my sessions down to 10 minutes a day now since I get so restless and impatient. I've quit midway into a few sessions due to frustration but always completed it later in the day because I feel guilty for skipping.
Just discovered this thread, and I know I'm late on the discussion, but I did want to add a bit of caution. Of course, this is not to detract or dissuade from meditation, but rather food for thought. Stuff to keep in mind.
When people link to studies about meditation, often what the study is doing is focusing on a short-lived exercise among a select group of people, or they are looking for benefits without truly considering any potential costs. Psychology is a field in dire need of research, and meditation is a subject in dire need of critical research. And we as a society are infatuated with studies and use them as the basis for incredible claims like acid cures depression!
The risk of meditation is disassociation, depersonalization, and derealization. Actually, in some practices of meditation, it's almost called for. The idea of ascending out of this reality, or looking at your emotions of being somehow foreign, are the major culprits in my opinion. But even just your simple 10-to-30-minute meditation exercise for starters can be enough to send some people overboard if they've got latent or ignored problems. And then there's people who promote an entire lifestyle focused around meditation on an ever increasing scale towards tranquility.
Again, I'm not ruling out meditation and I do think it helps but there's definitely a correct way to go about it. For one, people should understand that to be mindful of their emotions mean to experience them, understand them, but not treat them as being in anyway external to who they are. For two, people should understand that there is mindless meditation, and that evoking a trance state for so long can be a degrading escape from your problems. People aren't meant to be in a permanent trance, and that should never be your goal. And three - and this is the big one to me - people should really think about what they want from meditation. Some people are taught that their periods of meditation need to extend longer and longer and that they need to be getting more and more fulfillment out of meditation, but I don't think people always realize it. It's my opinion that your every day average Joe could benefit from some specific types and practices of brief meditation, but past that is a very potentially sunk cost perpetrated by people that deserve to be scrutinized. (Note: that link is just an example and not representative of this thread in any way.)
So consider your sources. Really think about your lessons. Figure out how much of meditation you want in your life. Beware of the mental pitfalls and stay within this reality. But, don't be so afraid that you don't keep an open mind.
That's sort of what I've mentioned earlier on in the thread. That certain types of meditation can potentially be highly hazardous to someone's psychological composition and how certain types of it may have quite probably been used to make people obedient or subservient.
Which is why I would also like to repeat for people to exercise extreme caution when it comes to meditation and occult related practices without being thoroughly aware of what they were designed to accomplish to begin with.
And people may ofcourse occupy themselves with reducing the practice to a dry empirical exercise all they want but it does not change its origins.
If you feel that you are getting fucked up and feel that your mind is getting filed down or destroyed rather than being nourished by whatever you are doing then you should probably stop. The point should be to DEVELOP the mind, not to enter a state of gradual existential surrender that decays your neurons.
lmao what kind of meditation have you guys been doing, sounds hardcore
i've just seen it as a good way to relax
It can get pretty fucked up depending on what it is, but if you did not notice much of anything other than relaxation then whatever.
I mean before Headspace I've never been able to meditate, it's just been nice to have something to guide me into focusing on the moment and just relax.
people are talking about the risks and all I am wondering is where the hell is my ego death?
It's just that to the people who do not want to head in that direction, the experience would probably be quite undesirable.
Meditation is a good way to relax. The problem is who's teaching you, what's being taught, and ultimately what you do with it. (You could also just read the link I posted to answer your question - or, you know, even just my post.)
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you do - if you're doing something obsessively to escape from your problems, it's not good. And meditation can definitely be abused to feel out-of-body in a voluntary zombie state that affects your being.
Furthermore, there are many schools of thought that prescribe meditation as a means to disconnect from this reality as well as your emotions and ascend above it. (Thus the existence of "Transcendental Meditation".) There's schools of thought that also teach that you can gain superpowers and other ridiculous nonsense. And, or course, there's people willing to teach people to meditate themselves into that zombie state described earlier to take advantage of people's heightened suggestibility.
If you're careful and you keep a grip on your reality and yourself, you have better chances of getting what you want out of it. You sound like you're doing exactly what I said most people should do with meditation - that's fine - but people get sucked into bizzare things and have been since the 60's when the US really became fascinated and fixated on Eastern religion. But that's another story for another time.
I just tried it today. If anything is gonna get me back in to meditation it'll be Headspace, I'm really liking it so far and would recommend it.
So, my problem is just putting aside 10 minutes for this every day.
I have the 10 minutes, I have the time, but I don't have the willpower to sit there for 10 minutes usually. I go to the gym daily, I cook every day and night, and I do general housework every day. I just never have the motivation.
I know for everything else in my life I just say "Fuck it" and do it, despite having no motivation. I struggle with that here.
Have you tried Headspace? Without it I wouldn't have the patience either.
Meditation doesn't need to be a long, involved process that you have to plan out. Meditation is simply awareness and checking in with yourself. It can be as little as one minute a day. It's as simple as taking a few deep breaths while driving or being aware of the shifting of weight you feel while you're walking. The important part is to not beat yourself up for not doing something. If you miss, be non-judgmentally aware and accepting.
Headspace is a great gateway drug. It gives you all the tips you need to start and comes packed with tiny 3-4 minute sessions that you can pop off at any time. That said, if you don't feel like making the financial plunge, look around on Youtube and Spotify for some free meditation podcasts -- they're just as good.
tbh I've been pretty satisfied with the 10 free episodes you get
I've always meditated in silence. I didn't even really think people listened to things to meditate. I guess I'll have to try that. Sounds weird.
Hey guys, I just finished reading a pretty popular book called "Why Buddhism Is True" which sounds kinda memey, but it's basically a brief look at the purpose of meditation and how evolutionary psychology has come to similar conclusions as some Buddhist teachings, which is what piqued my interest.
One of the core ideas is that natural selection has designed us to be perpetually unsatisfied and distort reality in whatever way best serves the handing down of our genes, and not necessarily to be happy, and the fact that Buddhism similarly links unhappiness to our perception of reality.
There's an NPR interview with the author which I'd recommend even if you're not interested in the book 'Why Buddhism Is True' Explores Links Between Evolutionary Biolo..
I see some people claim that meditation can cause DP/DR, is there any specific types of meditation that are "riskier" than others? I'm asking because I've suffered from DP/DR since mid 2014 along with a psychotic episode in early 2015 which permanently worsened my DP/DR and made it chronic. It was very disorientating at first but it is something I've gotten used to, even though I can feel it just as much today as I did when it got real bad.
I've come to terms with it somewhat as I don't think too much about it anymore but it's still something that bothers me a bit. Since I already suffer from it and I'm doing mindfulness through Headspace, I'm a little worried I might make it worse after reading about the connection between it and meditation. Do I have any reason to worry?
It highly depends on what you want to do with meditation honestly. You sort of do have reason to worry given that certain forms of mediation are designed to achieve ego death which I guess can be interpreted as a form of DP since there is no longer a "P" atleast for some time.
If you are not interested in that and feel that your current self identity is falling away then you should probably pick a type of meditation that does not do that.
Hello, everyone!
I only found this thread today.
I have been practicing mindfulness meditation daily for the past month, and I have a few questions since I am a complete beginner.
My main questions are: what exactly does the exercise that I describe bellow do; does it help me in solving my problem (which I explain bellow) and is it dangerous in any way? I read some of the posts from the previous pages of this thread warning that some forms of meditation can cause harm. I never considered that meditation could cause harm until I found this thread today.
If the exercises I am doing don't help solve my main problem, then what kinds of other benefits do they have?
I got the particular exercise I am using to meditate from the following video:
https://youtu.be/6p_yaNFSYao
Basically, I focus on breathing; specifically, I focus on the point between inhaling and exhaling. I don't try to block any thoughts from coming in; I do what it says in the video; I just let my thoughts pass.
I do this exercises for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening.
I also added a modification to this exercises. I got the idea of this modification from the video bellow. For the first two minutes of the exercises, I focus for a few seconds on different parts of my body in the following order:
I start with my palms, my arms, my shoulders, my heart, my stomach, my legs and finally my feet.
I feel like doing this for the first two minutes helps me focus more on the breathing afterwards.
I got the idea of this modification from the following video:
https://youtu.be/J6k8PGpOaHQ
There are many reasons why I am mediating, but the main ones are to help me focus more, to help me stop daydreaming and to relieve my anxiety.
I have lots of problems focusing; I often start daydreaming, and I often continue to daydream for hours. My daydreams are very detailed; they often have a story. My daydreaming habit is really getting in my way when I study, when I work, when I do house chores, and even when I am showering or trying to fall asleep. In fact, it sometimes takes me several hours to fall asleep because of how much I daydream before I fall asleep.
I do not voluntarily daydream; mt mind just slips into a daydream randomly.
It takes me twice as much time that it should to study. I often get my work done, but again, it takes me a huge amount of time,
I also experience a lot of anxiety.
I think the point is that cannabis isn't a good idea because it becomes a crutch if you need it to meditate.
Well, meditation is an act of discipline exploring either relaxation, insight, loving-kindness or mindfulness as a culmunative progressive skill that can become conducive to happier living conditions while practiced. Meditating on THC isn't much of a crutch as it is incorporated to the addiction or habit, depending on perspective, and it seems to produce experiences that is not really conducive to a practice beyond the experience itself. I've had a meditative practice during alcohol dependence long ago, and it didn't really give me much other than more functionality within the addiction. What I am simply trying to say is that meditating on THC have either two outcomes: It produces an experience within the meditation that cannot be used outside the session more than as a reference to a psychedelic experience, or it increases the functionality within the addiction/habit. Maybe even both.
Weed is fine, try nicotine withdrawal on for size instead. Currently I'm at the stage where I want to punch a hole in the wall and tear my fucking own face off.
Weed is fine.
Definitely agree with this, meditating on cannabis doesn't really do much compared to sobriety and most of the thoughts that come and go are just... weird. But not very useful.
Yoga and meditation are great way to relax
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