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Guided meditation for beginners

quietkit.com

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Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#11

Post by jupiter90000 »

jahbrewski wrote: post #8

Curious to hear from folks who have consistently meditated for a prolonged period of time (6mos+). What effects have you noticed?

Don't do it as much now, though have consistently over long periods in the past. Some benefits I experienced (subjective):

- Thoughts do not have a grip over how I act as often. - probably related, lower likelihood of compulsively doing things.

- Feeling more collected and relaxed in traffic and 'stressful situations.'

- More likely to be able to pay attention to who I am talking with, what I am doing, etc, right now instead of thinking of things besides that.

- Start of realization that who I am is not the internal dialog and procession of thoughts. This one is hard to explain. I think I am certain things due to my thoughts; that's just my thoughts though.

- Noticing that thinking constantly about things using language puts reality into categories that are essentially made up.

Anyway, your experience may be different. I highly suggest trying it.

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#12

Post by curun1r »

cptvideo2 wrote: post #9

There’s also a well-known affect on blood-pressure (lowering) that comes from the breath control that’s at the core of most meditation practice. http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/stress-raising-your-blood... I don’t think that the cause of this is completely understood, but CO2 is a potent vasodilator. I’ve seen hatha yoga (physical yoga) practioners ditch hatha for prana-yoga (breath yoga) because they said it's a…

One small nit to what you've said. Breath control is core to yogic practices, as you've mentioned, but it is not part of most meditative practice. Meditation typically involves breath awareness, but specifically not control. The idea is to observe the breath as it is, not how we would like it to be.

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#13

Post by scorpioxy »

jahbrewski wrote: post #8

Curious to hear from folks who have consistently meditated for a prolonged period of time (6mos+). What effects have you noticed?

It slows down my mind. Enough to better grasp ideas and emotions. It helps controls any anger outburst or that rush of the thoughts you get when something upsets you. It teaches you to let go.

The thing is, every one will benefit differently from it. Nobody can really tell you what it feels like, you have to experience it.

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#14

Post by michaelsbradley »

For those who might be interested in additional resources, a classic treatment of discursive meditation in the Western Christian tradition, a.k.a. "mental prayer," can be found in the Fifth Treatise (pp. 247–354, original numbering) of Fr. Rodriguez's masterpiece:

https://archive.org/stream/PPCV-Manresa#page/n273/mode/2up

And here is a fine essay on Lectio Divina, written sometime in the early 2000s:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QcuUot_6BQ3jgj1wJtsx-C5Y...

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#15

Post by ben174 »

I'm probably an ideal candidate for meditation because just the thought of it is nearly unbearable. "Wasting a whole ten minutes doing nothing?!"

But it's hard for me to get past the feeling that it's a waste of time. As someone who is on public transit for two hours a day, and an owner of a nice pair of noise cancelling headphones - I wonder if I could make use of that time by doing this. Guess I'll give it a try.

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#16

Post by kylek »

jahbrewski wrote: post #8

Curious to hear from folks who have consistently meditated for a prolonged period of time (6mos+). What effects have you noticed?

Fairly anecdotal but for me it took just over 4 months of sitting on my butt (once or twice for about 20 minutes a day) before I "got" it. Once whatever it is that clicked for me, I was able to step into a deep state (deep for me, anyways) in about 5 minutes.

I've fallen out of practice (and am failing to keep my new year's resolution!), but I would very much like to get back in to it. The resilience it can provide almost feels like having a secret weapon.

YMMV. Ehipassiko!

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#17

Post by chillwaves »

jupiter90000 wrote: post #11
jahbrewski wrote: post #8

Curious to hear from folks who have consistently meditated for a prolonged period of time (6mos+). What effects have you noticed?

Don't do it as much now, though have consistently over long periods in the past. Some benefits I experienced (subjective): - Thoughts do not have a grip over how I act as often. - probably related, lower likelihood of compulsively doing things. - Feeling more collected and relaxed in traffic and 'stressful situations.' - More likely to be able to pay attention to who I am talking with, what I am doing, etc, right now…

> - Start of realization that who I am is not the internal dialog and procession of thoughts. This one is hard to explain. I think I am certain things due to my thoughts; that's just my thoughts though.

This one for me is huge. You are not your thoughts. Took a really long time to understand.. it's almost like I am two people, the one who is thinking and the one who observes the thinking. Helps me distance my emotions and reflect on them in a more rational way (not obsess over mistakes, or worry too much about the future).

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#19

Post by seltzered_ »

michaelsbradley wrote: post #14

For those who might be interested in additional resources, a classic treatment of discursive meditation in the Western Christian tradition, a.k.a. "mental prayer," can be found in the Fifth Treatise (pp. 247–354, original numbering) of Fr. Rodriguez's masterpiece: https://archive.org/stream/PPCV-Manresa#page/n273/mode/2up And here is a fine essay on Lectio Divina, written sometime in the early 2000s: https://docs.goo…

To add on, I've been interested in Vinay Gupta's approach to meditation, which he recently codified/packaged with some other folks into an app: http://cuttingmachinery.org

It basically revolves around an hour of meditation, but switches from mantra, to open awareness, to feeling negative emotions in 10 minute intervals. I'm probably not going to say this correctly, but I believe the intent is to get beyond just the ability to feel calm but have a better awareness of things (how we interact in the world, our emotions, how much it really matters, etc.) in our lives. There's also a multi-part podcast interview of him (which led to the app) starting at http://futurethinkers.org/enlightenment-vinay-gupta/

Re: Guided meditation for beginners

#20

Post by scorpioxy »

AznHisoka wrote: post #3

Has anyone experienced an improvement in any physical diseases/ailments from meditation?

Sort of. I have an autoimmune disease affecting my thyroid. When the thyroid is in hyper mode, I tend to get anxiety and panic attacks. Meditation has helped me a lot with those if the flareup is not severe.

Because the result of meditating can be less stress overall. And stress is known to "aggravate" the immune system. It might lead to better wellbeing when talking about autoimmune diseases. But they do progress slowly so other factors could also be at play here.

Unfortunately, not much is known about autoimmune diseases. There are a few theories(strong immune system, weak immune system, virus, contaminants..) but nothing conclusive yet. I try to stick to published and peer reviewed research when looking up information rather than mommy bloggers but not much is known for these diseases.

Overall, I'd say introducing meditation as a frequent practice has been a positive thing in my life. Whether or not it helps with any chronic disease.

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