So I’ve been using meditation as a tool for the last few months. I had previously had little to no interest in this subject but as everyone on here will be able to relate to, desperate times require desperate measures. I thought why not? Can’t do any harm, might as well.
It’s not been a revolutionary turning point, it doesn’t solve any problems, it won’t bring them back. But it does give me a tool for relaxing my thoughts, for letting things loose inside my head and just acknowledging them and letting them go. When I first came to it I did it everyday, some days the results were better than others but usually there was at least a little bit of awareness of me, my situation, what I was thinking.
I only ever use the same guided routine, it’s not something at the moment that I’m ‘getting into’. I’ve linked below to the one that I use, a guided session by Tara Brach. It’s just her talking gently, guiding you through the process. Hope some people get some use out of it.
I too have done meditation and also through my hypnotherapist. I still on occasion listen to her on my phone. I used them a few years ago and found them very useful but just lately I feel blocked and can’t relax enough. I’m always on alert! Definitely something I will get back in to.
Yes, it’s definitely something I sometimes ‘force’ myself to do, for me it helps with the anxiety, doesn’t make it go away but just gives a bit of a watering down. I dropped off using it the previous few weeks but using it again at the moment, mostly to see where I’m at and re establish a wee bit of a routine/habit with it.
Agree with what you say and from my experience it can bring some peace when thoughts can get overwhelming. I believe as we have taken a knock we need to try and build up life force again and somehow this does it. Two or three yoga stretches head to knees for instance can unlock grief lodged in the body and can be good to do before meditation. Clasping hands behind back then lifting arms towards head is good for releasing as well. Good to see you are all doing this as we need to take extra care of ourselves.
Also on same subject life force depending on what stage you are at, order in some greens and fruit - no need to go to shop - and whizz up into smoothie. If you can’t manage that have grapes and nectarines at side of chair.
Appreciate that Ali. I know you were saying it to walan but I have listened to it and it has really helped my day, especially the colours merging into one another. Not learned yet how to do links but Paul McKenna has a hypnosis on YouTube I can mend your broken heart. Haven’t listened to it yet but respect his work and he’s helped me with other things.
I tried meditation when I was younger but my mind was always so active that I usually just gave up.
I recently had a few sessions with a counsellor and she suggested a form of mindfulness breathing which for me was just concentrating on the in and out of slow, regular breathing - saying ‘in and out’ in my head as I breathe, or sometimes counting my breaths.
I wasn’t really expecting it to work but it’s been amazingly helpful for me in bed of a night when I’ve been wide awake and very distressed.
It definitely calms me and stills my thoughts, and often I’ll wake up a couple of hours later without being aware of actually dropping off to sleep.
I find it also helps me feel closer to my late and much-loved partner (if that makes sense) xx
Thanks @Ali29 that looks really interesting, I’ve listened a bit but will try it out properly over the weekend. Funnily enough I think I may have practiced a form of this myself when I go for my very irregular visits to the dentist, I always imagine I’m on a beach in India, it really helped for that. Ta x
@Ava3 the session I linked starts in exactly the same way, breathing technique, focus on the breath, then guides you further into the moment from there. as you say I now use the breathing technique if I recognise I’m feeling stressed or anxious. As with you it really has helped on occasion. I think with meditation and very similarly mindfulness, it’s showing you how to become aware of what you are thinking at any given moment and then being able to identify that, allow it to pass on and away to some extent. No expert here, just my observations and very minimal research.
@Water I actually started with yoga first, I say yoga but really it’s a very easy set of yoga stretches for neck and back pain. I work at a computer and that coupled with a lot of the inactivity of early grief left me wrecked and in a lot of physical pain. I had to try something so just googled yoga for beginners and have used this video ever since:
As you say I tend to do this before doing the meditation, the 2 of them together usually shift the morning blues and let me get on with the day a bit better.
On another point, if you want to link something:
When you hit reply and you have a little typing box (don’t know the technical name, sorry, just the box you write your reply in), at the top of the box there’s a little bar of symbols, the one that is 2 chain links is the linking command. It will take you to a separate pop up box, the top line is where to paste the URL (address page of the website etc. you want to link to), the lower box is for typing a description, like I have above “Yoga for beginners ……”, hope it helps, any problems just ask.
@Walan@Ali29@Ava3 thank you @Walan for pointing us in the direction of Tara brach. I have a couple of her books and she talks about grief. As regards the meditation I particularly appreciated the way it starts off with a collective aum so you know you are in community. I also enjoyed the fact that she asks you to smile, which can be very powerful, and something Thich Nhat Hanh does ( he recommends her books). I liked how she asks you to be in the present moment, in your body, though acknowledging thoughts can and will come in. Someone I’ve found helpful recently is Chris wark on holistic healing saying stress (in our case in grief) can be caused by negative thoughts/emotions such as eg envy of others with wives or husbands, guilt around a death. He’s on YouTube and talks about the power of forgiveness (ourselves and others). Naming the various emotions seems to help you detach a bit to help healing.
@Walan only just seen this. Thank you for your time and attention regarding links. I shall experiment. Also will have a look at the yoga you mention in a bit.
@Water thanks for the tips, I’ll have a look at them. I’ve always been rather sceptical of this side of looking at life, but as you get older and as you experience loss and go through the associated shift in perspective, I’m coming round to being less dismissive. I read a book recently “I am a strange loop” by Douglas Horfstadter. He’s involved with AI and the mathematics behind it, he lost his wife and went back to his previous writings to find where she was, where she could be. From my limited understanding, it’s basically a mathematical philosophical treatise on the nature of consciousness, how it is formed and where it resides. He is at pains, sometimes, to strip out the spiritual aspect of what he discusses but much of it really does equate to my very limited understanding of Buddhist philosophy, but described mathematically. It’s quite dense and a lot of it was above my understanding but it might be of interest.
I have been doing Angel Mediation for a long time especial at Night time & l have got deeper into it lately & find it really has helped me.keep me grounded & l get a sense of peace that l am not alone.& l am moving forward.its 9 Months now & l do have good days.
@Ava2 It’s really hopeful when you find something that helps, I really wasn’t expecting much from meditation but it seems to help and I like the view it gives me.