Meditation Anyone?

09 December 2019, 08:57 PM

CHAS

Meditation Anyone?

I found that in my local AA group everyone in the group but me
meditates regularly.
One guy recommended Transcendental Meditation. It may be the best, but I got the teacher with the tiny, soft voice and had to ask him constantly what he said. I got my $$ back.

Suggest an alternative?

Have been reading about meditation and trying other methods.

09 December 2019, 09:07 PM

wtg

I went the TM route probably 30 years ago. They teach you the basics but I think the whole thing is pretty scammy; glad you got your money back. You can get the same or better training elsewhere.

I love Jon Kabat-Zinn. He was featured in Bill Moyers' PBS program Healing and the Mind.

https://billmoyers.com/series/healing-and-the-mind/

https://umassmed.edu/cfm/About.../Kabat-Zinn-Profile/

He started a program called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and you can find places locally where you can go through the program.

https://umassmed.edu/cfm/mindf...ind-an-mbsr-program/

Also, I just looked and found that there seems to be an online version that you could maybe take a look at? I see it's not cheap, either...but I would think it's definitely more worth it than TM....

https://umassmed.edu/cfm/mindf...courses/mbsr-online/

There are lots of his guided meditations available on You Tube. The 45 minute full body scan is really good.

--------------------------------
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training

09 December 2019, 09:46 PM

CHAS

Thank you, wtg for the suggestions.
Transcendental Meditation does seem to be a scam. It uses a lot of studies that are questionable to make claims that are BS.
Then again, my lousy lesson resulted in the deepest meditation
of any of the methods I have tried.

09 December 2019, 09:58 PM

CHAS

quote:
Originally posted by CHAS:
I found that in my local AA group everyone in the group but me
meditates regularly.
One guy recommended Transcendental Meditation. It may be the best, but I got the teacher with the tiny, soft voice and had to ask him constantly what he said. I got my $$ back. They had already agreed that I would get the teacher with the loud voice.

Suggest an alternative?

Have been reading about meditation and trying other methods.

09 December 2019, 10:15 PM

Steve Miller

Every time I’v tried meditation I’ve ended up making mental lists of the things I need to do once I stop wasting time meditating.

I don’t think I’m the target market.

09 December 2019, 11:25 PM

CHAS

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Every time I’v tried meditation I’ve ended up making mental lists of the things I need to do once I stop wasting time meditating.

I don’t think I’m the target market.

When are you going to retire?

10 December 2019, 12:10 AM

Steve Miller

Six months and I’m eligible for Medicare. Two years and I’m eligible for a social security upgrade.

Neither one of my parents lived to see 75 and I have no reason to expect I’ll live any longer than they did. I quit smoking before they did, is that enough?

We shall see and I promise to post about my situation on the way out. I will say I am the only one of the guys on the men’s trip who takes no daily medications.

I am SO ready. The fire in the belly it takes to run my small business is gone, gone, gone.

10 December 2019, 01:26 AM

RealPlayer

CHAS, it's possible to just do it on your own. I used to do it but got out of the habit; I wish I'd stayed with it. It takes mental discipline, and it's going to take at least a couple of weeks, doing, say, 20 minutes a day, to start controlling your mind. You don't need a guru, but you do need to practice.

If it's still not happening after a couple of weeks, you can always look into the other suggestions.

10 December 2019, 07:21 AM

Mary Anna

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Every time I’v tried meditation I’ve ended up making mental lists of the things I need to do once I stop wasting time meditating.

I don’t think I’m the target market.

Ditto, ditto, ditto.

I realize that my inability to muster the discipline to do this means that I probably really need to do it. There is certainly an abundance of chatter in my head all the dang time. Perhaps it is the nature of what I do, as some of the chatter is brainstorming a new story or listening to my characters talk to each other inside my head or troubleshooting a problematic plot point.

However, I began to feel better about my failings in this respect when someone I respect said that we get many of the same benefits while doing tasks that tie up enough of the mind to quiet the chatter. Playing the piano is one of those things, and remembering that may prompt me to do it more. When the weather is good, gardening will do it. Yoga will do it, but probably only when I'm practicing by myself and not when I'm in a class or watching a video.

Honestly, I think I get some of the benefit of a meditation practice from my writing practice.

10 December 2019, 09:23 AM

wtg

Deciding not to meditate because your mind wanders is a bit like deciding not to take up tennis because you could never win Wimbledon. Or to not start running because you could never finish a marathon.

Everyone's mind wanders. It's OK. It's all OK.

Kind of a fun read is Dan Harris' Ten Percent Happier. His description of his extended meditation retreat is a real eye-opener.

He's got a website with a blog and podcasts, too....

https://www.tenpercent.com/

Even a few minutes each day has benefits. Here are a few breathing exercises that you might try.

https://www.drweil.com/health-...ing-three-exercises/

10 December 2019, 10:52 AM

pianojuggler

I tried TM in the 70s when it was The Thing. I tried it again many years later and I had some satisfaction with it, but just for a short time -- maybe a couple weeks or a month. I have tried three or four other methods of meditation or similar practices. Again, for me, all of them seemed to work well, but for no more than a month.

A couple years ago I even went headlong into Zentangle. It was wonderful. Then within a month or two, I was overthinking it and even stressing about it.

Recently I was chatting with an old friend, talking about lowering stress and blood pressure and stuff and she said that she spends ten minutes a day in a quiet room watching a candle. I'm going to try that for a while.

The next best thing I've always found is listening to a good, familiar piece of music. usually with headphones, sometimes not. Usually Scarlatti or Bach. A couple of the 'cello suites, Brandenburg 4, 5, or 6, and recently I reconnected with violin partita 3.

10 December 2019, 11:56 AM

piqaboo

I've been trained in both TM and mindfulness.
Mindfulness to me only helps in a specific moment if I remember in that moment. TM puts me where I have a better chance to remember the other stuff in the moment.
The making of lists etc, its all part of it, just notice and go back to the meditating.

My personal experience of TM is that there is a bucket full of stress and when the meniscus level of stress breaks, all hell busts loose. TM lowers the level of stress in the bucket, even w all the wandering thoughts, worrying, list making etc that comes while I'm doing it. When I meditate consistently, I notice, but more disturbingly, so do other people; after a week or so of consistent TM, people start saying things like I sound happy.

10 December 2019, 11:58 AM

CHAS

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:

I am SO ready. The fire in the belly it takes to run my small business is gone, gone, gone.

I know about that.

10 December 2019, 12:00 PM

CHAS

quote:
Originally posted by piqaboo:
I've been trained in both TM and mindfulness.
Mindfulness to me only helps in a specific moment if I remember in that moment. TM puts me where I have a better chance to remember the other stuff in the moment.
The making of lists etc, its all part of it, just notice and go back to the meditating.

My personal experience of TM is that there is a bucket full of stress and when the meniscus level of stress breaks, all hell busts loose. TM lowers the level of stress in the bucket, even w all the wandering thoughts, worrying, list making etc that comes while I'm doing it. When I meditate consistently, I notice, but more disturbingly, so do other people; after a week or so of consistent TM, people start saying things like I sound happy.

That is why I have continued TM with the bit I learned. Will take a local $10 class on mindfulness meditation. Have been reading about it and expect to prefer TM afterward.

10 December 2019, 12:01 PM

Nina

I've meditated off and on for a long time. I do think there are personalities that are more suited to it than others. I am one of those people who is very good at blocking out distractions, which I think helps.

I did the TM thing--a total ripoff and scam, in my opinion. But one thing I did take away from it is the idea that your mind will wander. What you are trying to achieve is to acknowledge the thoughts that are shooting across your brain, but not "follow them." Just let them happen. Controlled breathing helps a lot. Having a focus helps as well--such as focussing on your breathing (either rhythmically, the sound, or the physical sensation of in/out).

I do think it's a worthwhile thing to do, but it does take discipline. There's all sorts of medical research to support the benefits of meditation.