Lately, I have found myself more and more interested in inner discovery and I wanted to try to walk the path of meditation...
while experimenting, an astonishing fact kept recurring disturbing my routine...
The world interference...
and it's not just about the loud neightbours or the phone ringing or my daughter watching cartoons ( on the PC, we do not own a TV anymore , proudly :) )...
it's just I find myself trying to focus when I finally get some quiet time at night... and I have to put a serious extra effort into it because too many distraction are crowding my head...
Internet, bills, work issues...
I find entertainment to be my biggest obstacle to the path of imporving my meditation skills... since after a day at work and an eving running after an hyper 4 yrs old by myself... I just want to be numb I guess and don't engage my brain cells if not absolutely necessary...
But the rest of the day is so loud and busy...
Is there a time of the day when the world is quiter? Or do we just have to try to turn off all the background noise?
Steli,
Sounds like you would benefit greatly with some of those guided mediation CDs. I use them to get me through anxious moments like you have described, and normally do it for 30 minutes before bed.
Find yourself a nice dark space and work through guided meditations. Particularly the ones that relax you, help you to breathe, and involve positive visualisations.
Meditation 1-2 times per week really works. I'm much happier for several days after. Stress and anxiety are cumulative, so you need to keep doing it to get the full benefit.
I've got some great (local) ones if you need any recomendations, which arn't too sappy or new age.
I find that some quiet time in the bush is a great healer and remover of the background. Just find some nice place on a river bank and just sit and be. It works for me anyway.
I try to find some time each day to at least stop and acknowledge that there is a world around me of which I am a part.
When I have time, I will address east, south, west, north, earth and sky, thank and think about each, then quiet my mind enough to let whatever enlightenment that might be there soak in. This can easily take an hour.
When I do not have time, I just try to find a moment to figure out the directions and let myself settle into center and find my balance and just still my thoughts for an instant. This helps a lot.
If I wake up in the night and am bombarded by my own thoughts I do this and it helps me to relax. Somehow knowing where everything else is helps me from feeling too lost.
I would have to agree with Bluenose. The great thing about my job is that sometimes I get paid to do just that. It doesn't really seem like work. This is, however, effectively counterpointed by standing freezing on building sites in the middle of winter.
Still, it beats sitting in the office. 8)
Oh definitely, outside in a natural setting is the preferred place. But one can make do in a pinch.
In time you'll learn to filter the rest of the world out, but in the meantime my siblings' suggestion of a natural environment is a very good idea. If there is a park or any other area where you can be (perhaps not now in the winter though) it may help. Here the weather isn't a problem and there is a place that fits the bill perfectly, it used to be a japanese plantation and now it's a beautiful zen inspired garden (http://www.morikami.org/).
For now (winter), focus on your breathing and eventually you'll filter out the rest.
I find that if I just let it all whiz past me for a bit, not focusing on any one thought but acknowledging the ones that come to the fore, my mind calms down and I can relax properly.
If you can't escape someplace away from people, just go play in the dirt in your yard, however much you may have of one. That works for me almost as well as going to the mountains.
Thank you all for all your suggestions... it sounds to me like you have much more experience in meditation then me...
usually, my meditation place is the beach... it's where the world can pass me by and I wouldn't notice...
unfortunately I live in Nashville, TN and the beach is not an option :(
I will try to follow your suggestions, Bluenose...
Thanks!
I was one of the founding members of the Louisville Surf Club. Our club motto was "waiting for a wave..."
Perhaps I should start a Nashville Surf Club? :P
Sounds like you are experiencing what is called the "Shopping List" effect during meditation.
Received wisdom is that this doesn't matter. It is a natural effect and normal and common. It is just one aspect of meditation.
The trick is simply, when you notice it, bring your attention back to the breath, or the mantra.
Even if you have to do this a thousand times, you are still meditating, and will receive the benefit.
Stelli, have you tried yoga? It still takes LOTS of practice to shut the mind off, but I find that the physical element helps for me.
I have a really hard time shutting off the constant stream of thoughts, no matter what I'm doing, unless it's totally physically engaging (skiing powder comes to mind). Fishing comes close, sometimes.
PS - congrats on kicking the TV. We still keep one around for DVDs, but haven't had cable in years. Video advertising makes me crazy.
Yoga's good. You can also use other signals to yourself to calm down, like smudging, incence or a candle. (Be careful about the hot stuff with little folk about.)
When my child was very small I used to put my feet in her little sandbox and pretend I was at the beach. It did help a little.
Quote from: Agujjim on December 04, 2008, 02:24:53 PM
PS - congrats on kicking the TV. We still keep one around for DVDs, but haven't had cable in years. Video advertising makes me crazy.
I watch DVDs on my pc... no evil TV in my house...my daughter's well being was my motivation behind it... and what's there to watch anyway?
LOL
I will try Yoga... I was considering it for the longest time...and now more then ever seems like I need to meditate :)
Quote from: stellinacadente
I watch DVDs on my pc... no evil TV in my house...my daughter's well being was my motivation behind it... and what's there to watch anyway?
stelli: good for you!
...and yet...I have extremely fond childhood memories of watching Dr. Who, Star Trek, NOVA, and assorted world arts-music-history programming.
No regrets about that time, nor about similar time now. :smartass:
Quote from: pieces o nine on December 05, 2008, 06:16:20 AM
...and yet...
I have extremely fond childhood memories of watching Dr. Who, Star Trek, NOVA, and assorted world arts-music-history programming.
No regrets about that time, nor about similar time now. :smartass:
I have Saturday-morning cereal commercial jingles burned into my head - can hear them note-perfect after two decades. That's enough to make me hatez teh tube. I did watch lots of quality programming as well, but that's easily replicable with a library card these days, as larger libraries are well stocked with most of the above.
I suspect as big LCD screens keep dropping in price, the line between the computer and the TV will pretty much disappear at our place. For the moment, I'm still using CRT's for both, and the computer monitor is not large enough to watch movies from a comfortable distance. Christie just picked up a multimedia player (standalone hard-drive system to download to, then play to computer) from Korea that is bridging the gap.
Speaking of actual background noise, we live in the concrete jungle with constant traffic noise. Makes me CRAZY!! - we listen to lots of music as cover noise, but I'm sure it disturbs my sleep a bit (the 16 bus routes that stop across the street don't start up until about 5 am, but there's always someone on the road). Also, I don't live close to the mountains anymore where I can escape to a quiet forest when necessary.
I have entire episodes of Ren and Stimpy, Freakazoid, The Simpsons, and Rocco's Modern Life burned into my skull. God, I love 90s cartoons. :mrgreen:
I live on the edge of the suburbs, so we get motorcycles buzzing past, police sirens, jerks with their music up too loud, etc. It doesn't peter out, either, so I have a fan that's on almost all the time to provide white noise.
We're 4 blocks from a major freight railway line, 3 blocks from the 'highway'.
Trains ALL night long, and they sound from one end of town to the other. I can sleep through them, finally.
On the other hand, it's a small town, and traffic other than on the main road is light to non-existent. Well, except when the deer get too close to the road. then the mayor and some of the other biker guys herd them back toward the lake. (As I type this, there are 7 deer lying in my side yard, nibbling on the pecans from my pecan tree. They've been there about 3 hours.)
If we ever re-relocate, it'll be to some small acreage far away from ANY sounds of civilization.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on December 07, 2008, 12:40:08 AM
If we ever re-relocate, it'll be to some small acreage far away from ANY sounds of civilization.
I wish I could afford that... some place in the middle of nowhere in main or oregon...
the sun belt is way too populated for me
You just have to find the right places in the sun belt.
Maine's too cold, Oregon's filling up with WAY too many survivalist freaks.
Central Texas?? Oh yeah, LOTS of miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles...
And the Hill Country there is beautiful. I recommend the South West, if you're looking for quiet. It's pretty, too, if you stay out of Nevada.
Nice place to hang your hat
drive to Tucson-- cringe at all the freaking people wasting the water
drive any direction about 20-30 miles
now that's better
close enough to Tucson but not in Tucson
I have never learned to meditate "properly" however, I have been practising my own self learned way of meditation since I was a kid.
I used to spend the summers sailing with my parents as a kid, I love water the more open the better, I love deep forests too, and mountains but the sea is a part of my being.
Method 1) I close my eyes and visualises a quiet place I've been to and that I'm very fond of.
Most of the time it's one view or another from the smooth rock beach of a very small island in the Swedish Baltic sea archipelago about 200° open horizon a few islets and a couple of lighthouses in a far distance.
Depending on mood I have different views and weather I use: calm summer night with a new moon and stars or a late summer evening with the sky going from peach to indigo with the blinking white lights from the lighthouses at the horizon, these are the usual ones.
Sometime I also dive there in warm, sunlit, crystal water with seaweed in all shades of green, this is a truly happy place and my brain seems to muffle sound by automatic since it knows water muffles sounds that comes from over the surface (yes, sometimes my brain do interesting things and I sort of stand on the side watching...).
When I'm in a very foul mood I let my mind go to a beach further to the east on that little island with sharp black rocks, and I let it storm, nothing calms me down as raging water, here the imagined wind and thunder of the waves rolling in cover all outside noise.
Method 2) quick one. I think of a colour (usually green, blue, purple or white) I say the name of the colour and I visualise on the inside of my eyelids, if another thought pops up I force myself to erase it with the chosen colour, more or less drown it in a bucket of paint :mrgreen:, or let it fade in white light.
I learned how to shut my ears off but after a little incident when I fell asleep like that and the ears reminded shut all night and well into the next morning despite the alarm clock going of like a aircraft alarm I stopped using it and forgot the method... :-[
I use soft in ear ear defenders instead. ;)
My standard method is to visualize a basic door-in-frame, turn the door handle, and step through to a favorite place, experienced with a fair degree of realism. This method is, technically, wrong as it will usually put me to sleep when nothing else will... I took a little break from it after doing insane overtime while under insane stress at an insane company -- and suddenly became convinced one catalog editing night that if I stretched my hand out behind me I would actually touch the 'door' handle, right there in the office! Couldn't decide which would be worse -- no door handle (OMG I've lost my mind and started hallucinating!) or (gak!) a door handle!
:scared: :giggle:
My other reliable method is to close my eyes and breathe slowly and deeply, until I 'see' sunlight shining down on me. Again, meditashun, ur not doin it rite, as this also helps me sleep during insomniac binges.
If I ever embrace Buddhism, I shall be remembered as the "Sleeping Monk"... :Zzzz:
I can not lay down and meditate- I go to sleep-however sometimes this is the point.
As I have tinnitus I have would love to be able to turn off my ears- I do alright ignoring it and redirecting my hearing but it is never off.
I like some noise when I meditate- I know- I know but it is because of the ears. Ocean is a good sound-or running water. I can then enter my mind -- I sort of visualize what i can only term as a sea of cream of wheat cereal-- it isn't water and it isn't sand and it isn't air- it is warm and creamy and fluid (emotionally- I don't really swim in it) but neither solid,air or liquid-it is all- if I am fortunate to get deep enough in then I can either A go to sleep or B remove the rest of my thoughts to it and let go of some stress.
I also find it useful to begin making a large and detailed plan about something in my mind-it might not be what is bothering me just something and as I build on the ideas and details and make lists and draw and add to it my mind leaves the trouble issue(s) and focuses on whatever I am making and eventually i will either go to sleep or just travel a while and come back calmer.
Quote from: Agujjim on December 06, 2008, 06:51:36 PM
I have Saturday-morning cereal commercial jingles burned into my head - can hear them note-perfect after two decades. That's enough to make me hatez teh tube. I did watch lots of quality programming as well, but that's easily replicable with a library card these days, as larger libraries are well stocked with most of the above.
I hears ya, Sib! And guess what? Painful lyric retention doesn't fade with time- I can still hear stuff from the early 60's! Luckily, it comes in useful at times. Like when watching "Jeopardy".
I use meditation TO fall asleep, sometimes. I acknowledge the four directions and earth and sky and let it be like a bubble all around me that I can make huge to include everything, or small and snuggly. I don't know why, but it calms me. I guess I like knowing where the heck I am, as opposed to lost in thought.
It helps to remind myself that I'm part of the All, the Great Everything. And it's part of me. And so are you.
Me? I haven't got cereal jingles in my head. I've got Ren (http://ren[/url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ren_and_Stimpy_Show) screaming about rubber nipples and not brushing his teeth* (http://www.megavideo.com/?v=HQR80I0N) and The Simpsons theme song in my head. I suppose jingles were out of style then, since all I remember is sayings.
*That episode, to this day, still scares the living daylights out of me...especially the nerve ending fairy.
My method: focus on one thing and let everything else slide past. Sort of like I'm sitting in the center of a vertical wind tunnel, and everything's going upward and releasing. It usually works, if someone has decided I'm allowed to sleep that night.
edited to fix the urls
Thanks for sharing all these methods with me... I have tried in the last few days to wait until my daughter is asleep and then sit on the couch with a candle on my coffee table... it actually seems to work!
I still have to 'fight' to keep my mind shut... but I guess this will improve in time (I hope!)
What I've been taught is 'don't fight intrusive thoughts, acknowkedge tham and let them go'. Works better for me...
Me too. For me, it's snatches of imagery. Watch 'em, but don't focus on them.
(http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/pieces_o_nine/cloud1.gif) (http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/pieces_o_nine/cloud3.gif) (http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/pieces_o_nine/cloud2.gif)
...clouds pass through the sky...
one calmly sees them go as
...thoughts pass through the mind...
Quote from: pieces o nine on December 11, 2008, 05:30:58 AM
(http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/pieces_o_nine/cloud1.gif) (http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/pieces_o_nine/cloud3.gif) (http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/pieces_o_nine/cloud2.gif)
...clouds pass through the sky...
that is so beautiful pieces!
one calmly sees them go as
...thoughts pass through the mind...
Goody, more haikus!
That one's very relaxing.
inner peace may be
found while using photoshop
the smudge tool is nice
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wun ov me scurvy frens sent me "Thee Path t'Inner Peace" an oi will share it, serenely, wiv awl y'awl.
QuoteThe Path to Inner Peace
I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me and we all could use more calm in our lives. By following the simple advice I heard on a TV show, I have finally found inner peace. A doctor proclaimed the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started.
So I looked around my house to see things I'd started and hadn't finished and, before leaving this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of shhhardonay, a bodle of Baileys, a butila vocka, a pockage of Prunglies, tha mainder of bot Prozic and Valum scriptins, teh res ofa Chesescke ana box a chocelts. Yu haf no idr who fkin gud I fel. Peas sen dis orn to dem yu fee ar in ned ov inr pece.
That sounds like the path to rest in peace...
;) :mrgreen:
I've just thought on...
One of the surprising things I discovered when I first started 'meditating' was that there is always music playing in there...
Usually 'classical' in nature (though not usually identifiable - more sort of generic 'Italian Polyphonic' style) Usually orchestral, sometimes brass band and occasionally guitar. Always instrumental, never with lyrics.
Anyone else experience something similar?
If I wake up before the alarm goes off, there is always a song playing in my head.* It is a different song every day --[ranging from classic rock to childhood hymns to classical to jazz to...]-- and I've thought now and then about writing them down to see if what (if any!) pattern or relevance they may have.
(http://forums.di.fm/images/smilies/music-smiley-004.gif)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* not the one that will come forth from the clock radio, however.
I get it, too, once in a while but usually it's techno, so I have tom find a way to quash that (remixes of Madonna's Die Another Day are not conducive to inner peace).
Techno? yes sometimes I hear techno-- I do hear music and it differs from time to time.
[youtube=425,350]ZjWviwKA1yE[/youtube] -- she leaves so many in the dust even today-
Music has a very firm place in my inner self- my spirit if you want- music is the expression of the heart. This 'little' brown girl from Texas really did a number on my heart and not just because she was the embodiment of someone who my daughters could look up to as Latinas-- she was most assuredly not J. Lopez the look was right for the movie but that's as far as it goes.
:offtopic:
Erm, for something closer to cumbia (fusion, although at the beginning you can hear the real thing) you can listen to Cabas:
[youtube=425,350]tvAgDLwsmVo[/youtube]
;)
/ :offtopic:
:offtopic:
we are being naughty
good choice Zono-
i likes it alllllllll
We aaaaaaare! What of it?
I need to practice more. :P I still need to find a reliable way to turn off the DJ and/or rock band for non-sleep meditative purposes.
Anyone else ever get that? You get like two or three strains of different songs and they overlap in your head? Or is that just me again?
Hearing more than one thing? yes indeed I do that.
Especially since I discovered
"Shaggy the Shoggoth" (http://toadfishmonastery.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=32&topic=395.75) 'reply #80 on page'
Christmas will never be the same again.
It is fantastic!
Quote from: Scriblerus the Philosophe on December 16, 2008, 04:23:17 AM
We aaaaaaare! What of it?
I need to practice more. :P I still need to find a reliable way to turn off the DJ and/or rock band for non-sleep meditative purposes.
Anyone else ever get that? You get like two or three strains of different songs and they overlap in your head? Or is that just me again?
Oh yeah, I've had that.
I think you can turn them off by practcing outside in nature at least once a week. Try standing with your knees slightly bent and face a horizon. Keep your back straight and your eyes open and just Be. Ignore any interfering noises. If the internal sounds begin, just brush them away and start over. If you can manage this just for a moment, you can work your way up to several moments. You'll get it.
Sometimes when I've done this I've put myself into a brief trance-like state. It feels like getting an hour of sleep!