I’ve been using Autogenics to help with my really bad insomnia. I guess it is a form of mediation and it really works. I am surprised at how well and how quickly it helped.
Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
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Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#32Yes, a friend who has taken courses on meditation and put me on to this short book:
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Meditation-Pathway-Personal-Free...
I wake early to meditate for 20 minutes before I do anything else. The book describes the technique where you concentrate on a mantra, in this case 'I AM'. If your mind start on thoughts, you gently come back to the mantra but never fighting the thoughts.
The book is pretty short and is a good read for someone taking up meditation (I've never done it before and I found it to be a good primer).
Together with this meditation in the morning, I exercise immediately after. Been doing it for a few months now and I have found that my days get off to a really positive start. I have more energy and less likely to be easily agitated.
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#33The 2 types of meditation that I practice I are mindfulness and concentration. Mindfulness practice has enabled me to become aware of the arising of unskillful compulsions, the habitual patterns of thought which give rise to them and to halt their progress. Concentration practice, on the other hand, builds the muscle of attention so that it becomes easier to stay focused and fully absorbed on whatever target you select. I have found that the combination of the 2 has enabled me rewire less skillful habitual patterns of thought and to replace them with more skillful patterns.
I have found the instruction of Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City to be the most valuable.
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#34I try and practice meditation in the vein of stoics like Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.
If I find myself distracted by a personal situation, I try and dissect it according to what values I hold dear, and how my current and past actions have done to further or detract from those values. This can involve some journaling or talking to myself, so I tend to save it for showers, late nights working, or long drives.
That being said I'm pretty amateur at this kind of stuff, but even the very basic level at which I practice some form of meditation really helps clear my head in the fast-paced and sometimes petty world of tech.
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#35I like to go back to the roots. The original Patanjali Yoga. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dhyana, Dharana, Samadhi. It has been a life long practice, but has worked quite well for me.
If you know Hindi the Patanjal Yoga Pradeep is the quintessential treatise on the subject, including a systematic reconciliation of the six systems of Indian Philosophy.
I've been studying the Pratyahara phase of yoga lately. The withdrawal of the senses inward away from external sensory stimuli. It is quite powerful, and opens you up to the ability to quite literally witness the formation of thoughts from subtle nothingness.
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#36I took the happiness course from Art of Living to learn Sudarshan Kriya. I don't have a regular practice, but when I'm feeling stressed I'll usually do it twice a day. When I wake up and before I fall asleep.
+1
Sudarshan Kriya is awesome
I tried different methods, read books, but couldn't meditate until I did that.
Been doing it for almost 20 years
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#37Meditation is the simplest thing, yet people manage to overcomplicate it. And they need app for that :).
Guided meditation is maybe useful first time. They are distracting and they are disruptive for genuine meditation. I know some people like them.
I don't follow any systems, I like to use binaural waves, often created by myself, and just relax. Mind sometimes runs and it is OK to let it run for a while, then calm it down. Focus on body parts and progressively relax them for longer meditation.
While no sound is required, some background soundscape is good to insulate you from environment.
Sometimes my meditation is focused on emptying the mind, sometimes I enjoy thinking in deep states of relaxation about different things. Both work well. Once you are practiced enough, you can go to deep states without falling asleep. Even if you do, it is not a big deal.
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#38I experimented with a few systems - headspace, calm, some mantra repeating similar to TM. What works for me is just to sit there at my computer seat, eyes closed, with jazz playing on my headphones. Breathe in, breathe out. I do it for at least half an hour before starting work. When you get down to it, mediation is just about forcing your mind to run in subconscious, maintenance mode.
jazz playing on my headphones
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#39Does meditating on biblical truths count? I can't claim to do it day and night, but I did make a practice of regularly recalling biblical truths and reviewing scripture I have memorized when applicable to the situations I face throughout the day, especially with my kids. Very different from Eastern meditation.
"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:1-2
Great resources here: http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/meditate-on-the-word-of-...
Re: Ask HN: Do you meditate and which system do you follow?
#40I am a Karate practitioner of an Okinawan traditional system and our main focus of study is kata, or form work. Once you have learned and become very familiar with the form where you don't have to think about the biomechanics, it can be a moving meditation with the same benefits.
In the monasteries and temples of China and India, where Karate can be traced back to, martial arts were practiced not only for self-defense but for therapeutic benefits as well.
If you have trouble sitting still, sometimes a moving meditation can help. This does not mean you have to go out and study a martial art for 4302842 years. It can be a simple exercise.
Think of a nice 30 minute walk that you enjoy taking and go out and walk. Try to be present and observe your own footsteps. Try to feel the weight shifting from one foot to the other. Notice if the sun is out. Can you feel it on your skin? Does it pick up your energy? Or does it make you tired? What kind of relationship do you have with the sun? Don't just think about it intellectually. Feel it out. Its happening right now (if you're on the walk). Bring yourself back to the shifting of your weight between your two legs.
Meditation is about being present. Its about tuning into yourself, without the filters of your mind. You don't need anything.
Another simple meditation exercise, which also helps to massage the organs with the breath: -Lay flat on your back -Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest -Can you make the hand on your belly rise up as you inhale, without making the hand on your chest move up. In other words, you're breathing into your belly and not your chest. This is a more natural, deeper breath. Repeat for ten minutes, or however long. Even after 10 breaths, you might notice a difference.