Mind Over Matter: The Meditation Club

Here is another one I have written as @Gauri03 expressed in her OP that anything that would help in Cognitive health is welcome here.

Stimulating Gray Matter

Viswa

 

My reasons for meditation are to get a handle on these:

1. Lack of focus. I have the attention span of an infant. This pervades and negatively impacts all aspects of my life. In my case, I found that visualization is a good technique for improving focus. When I meditate consistently, my concentration gets better.

2. Negative thoughts. Rumination is the death of me. I can work myself up into extremely negative emotional states over past incidents or future worries. This usually happens when I am doing routine chores like washing dishes, cleaning, cutting vegetables... tasks that don't need any thought to perform. I am now trying to be very mindful (like I described washing dishes in a previous post) so that I can spare myself the torment.
Mindfulness meditation with breathing as an anchor - When I am consistent with it, even during the rest of the day, I can catch the rogue thoughts that are prone to bother me and stop right there.
Practicing the mental noting method at random times during the day has helped with my meditation.

3. Impulsiveness, anger: The gap between event and response that was mentioned and well covered by previous posters.

 

Quote/Poem of the day.. hope it is relevant. (I don't know the significance of August 6 in the author's life, so I am assuming it is of no importance. If anyone knows, please let me know)

--------------------------------------
They knocked on my door on the sixth of August:
nobody was standing there
and nobody entered, sat down in a chair
and passed the time with me, nobody.

I will never forget that absence
that entered me like a man enters his own house
and I was satisfied with non-being:
an emptiness open to everything.

Nobody questioned me, saying nothing,
and I answered without seeing or speaking.

Such a spacious and specific interview!
--------------------------------------
--Pablo Neruda

 

It has taken me until very recently to even acknowledge I have issues to fix. Think I ll go with your points 2 and 3, and 3 being my first priority to tackle. Patience and slowing down with my thoughts and actions. Then in the long run, learn / develop / practice, resilience and compassion.

Oh Also,

^^ this like a micro mini every day objective something!

 

Today over lunch conversations, 'Silence' topic was brought up and I remembered your post.

“When you’re starting a song the only thing you have is silence and silence is pretty damn sweet. Once you start making some sound, it better be good because you’re ruining the silence that makes you feel good and relaxed. I feel like you can only make a sound if it’s better than silence… [I’m] very conscious of the power of nothing, the power of nothing being there. You’ll notice it’s still about the best thing anyone playing with me on a record can do is just stop playing. Because you got this instrument in your hand and it’s really fun to make the noise with it, but it means so much more when you’re not playing it.” - Bill Callahan.

 

Day 3. 18 mins.


(I find the bars very distracting myself. Too lazy to type everyday minutes for the week as you guys. Think I ll post all at once for the week, just on Saturdays maybe. )

 

I know in material world nothing could be achieved without a goal. With regard to reasons for meditation, the negative thoughts, impulsive reactions such as anger, lack of focus are all coming from the mind. How do we give a command to the mind that is home for those responses to eliminate them through meditation?

I have a feeling that the calming down the mind should be done without any objective and all other benefits should be derived as a byproduct. The objective is to become a better person and enjoy good health and well-being with no motives.

When the mind faces the conflicting command, it resists and prefers to remain without any change. On the contrary, if the mind sees the calming of the mind exercise as for its well-being, it doesn't see it as a change.

Please share your insights and we are learning a lot here, thanks to @Gauri03.

Viswa

 

We might be speaking of the same thing. I envision a better, healthier version of me as being an attentive, more positive person. I have merely listed the attributes that I am currently lacking so that I could open discussion about specific meditation techniques.
Of course when a person is actually meditating, there is no chance of focusing on the specific goals as that would not be meditation.

 

I would call this as notes to self, please feel free to correct my understanding.

Basic level of meditation>

Adding big goals to meditation destroys the very purpose of meditation for a beginner. When we attach goals to meditation, unconsciously we begin to mediate our thoughts; a little cut here, a little add on there and a small patch in between and in this process we forget to meditate and we end up as jugglers of thoughts. Mental monkey becomes a powerful player here and destroys our very purpose of meditation.

The initial focus of meditation could be simple stilling of the body, aligning breathing and to become aware of our power to control these physical processes. Most of us will observe that this practice itself gets challenging. One may begin with 5 minutes and extend it up to 15-20+ minutes. Some practitioners suggest keeping the spine erect as a basic requirement. While some accept that meditation can be done even by lying down (personally I consider this as relaxation more than meditation.)

In the next step, we may simply observe the thoughts that come and go through our mind without trying to actively mitigate or mediate. This is tougher than anything we can imagine. Hold on to this practice patiently irrespective of the results. During the practice, repeatedly you become aware of your wandering thoughts but try and try again to focus. If not anything you achieve slowing down of your heart rate and reduce BP. Calmness descends as the BP comes under control. Conscious and unhurried breathing helps to maximize absorption of oxygen into the bloodstream and also to expel carbon-dioxide from the body and health benefits become evident. Conscious slowing down of the system and improved oxygen absorption leads to better health of body and mind. Stress levels reduce. Through regular practice of this one can experience mental calmness and learn to control personal weaknesses like impulsiveness and anger.

One could also depend initially on external mediums like guided meditation, specially created music or some chanting to remove or reduce active thoughts from the mind and divert it to stay still. This works well for a basic practitioner of meditation.

Does mindfulness or being in the present qualify as meditation? Maybe, as it helps to rein the thoughts thereby calming the mind and increasing awareness of our body and mind. This practice definitely helps to control stress as active and random thoughts are not encouraged.

Once a regular practice is built into the system further levels like introspection, deeper analysis of some spiritual thoughts could be attempted.

Spiritual experiences are a different ball game altogether. Some may experience flashes of it after some practice and some may never. Seeking and focusing on spiritual experiences perhaps requires a different set of practices under normal circumstances.

 

That first step is the toughest. It was for me too.
Rest is cake walk. (Not really)