A thread for those starting, re starting and practicing meditation

[puds11isNAUGHTYnotNAICE]

Following on from my earlier thread, I have started this thread as a support place for those embarking on, re starting and practicing the art of meditation.

Please share your stories, tips and progress

It's time to relax.

I'm going to start again tonight. I tried the '100 breaths' meditation but got a bit bored by 20 ..!!

If anyone can share a visualisation or something to focus on, that's be great! I'd prefer to try without podcasts if I can, so I can meditate anywhere!

Good to hear Miss I am also going to start tonight for my first ever meditation! I'm excited

I don't know about visualisation, but hopefully someone will be along soon who can help you

Miss, in yoga we used to visualise a river, flowing, the sounds you can hear like birds, what's on the river banks.

Also I have a relaxation cd and that talks you through going down ten steps counting them as you go, backwards from ten, then entering a garden and picturing what you can see in the garden, taking a seat and looking around you and listening.

Sounds good Loopy do you also use music?

Thanks loopyloou! I might give that one a go tonight - I tried thinking of a sunny beach once, but got distracted trying to 'design' it!! A river sounds much calmer

I have got a cd of waves and music and another meditation cd but haven't used them for meditation. I tend to meditate when we've gone to bed.

I'd like to try.

I used to use a guided meditation CD to help me with pregnancy insomnia - haven't meditated since. It was a good CD - totally zoned me out - but having headphones in was a pain.

Try it tonight Misty

Tried it for the first time last night. It was amazing! I felt really good. Only did about 3 mins, but I intend to work up to a longer time.

Just restarted the Headspace app, did ten minutes just now.

Now I guess the challenge is either getting DS to nap reliably, or getting DP up 10 minutes earlier so I can meditate in the morning. Not sure which is easier!

I have the Headspace app too, not used it yet, is it good?

Well done Slightly

Do you feel better for it?

I did about three minutes yesterday evening! I felt really calm all evening! it's definitely given me the boost I needed to keep at it!

I only managed a minute in bed, was too tired. But I felt calmer afterwards.

Thanks for starting the thread puds. I will do some later this afternoon .

Yey Miss I felt great after mine too. I was ready for a good sleep. Unfortunately I had an unexpected phone call that lasted quite sometime, however without that I think I would have slept soundly.

That's still great Loopy, I am planning on gradually increasing the length of time.

No problem colette, it's nice to have people to do it with

I did a three hour meditation thing yesterday at a Buddhist centre. We did 20 minutes of the mindfulness of breathing, 20 minutes of loving kindness meditation & a 15 minute walking meditation. I felt fantastic afterwards!

Wow schlock I am impressed! Now you mention it i think there is a buddhist centre near me

Are you a buddhist if you don't mind me asking?

Does anyone teach meditation to their children?

I'm not a Buddhist but I find the teachings fascinating. I would have thought most Buddhist centres do some kind of intro courses or sessions for meditation. Guided meditation makes it much easier to begin with because it takes the guess work out of timing or remembering what you're meant to be focussing on and you'll get pointers on posture, where I go no-one seems to use the lotus position (thankfully, I doubt my legs would bend that way!).

I've done a few intro to meditation sessions now, yesterday was great because it was relatively cool compared to the temperature outside and neighbouring garden had a water feature which made a perfect sound backdrop. There's always plenty of tea on offer between meditations and payment is voluntary as Buddhist teachings are free, they just want to cover the costs of running the centre.

The added advantage is of meeting lovely calm and friendly people.

Oh that sounds amazing! I think i'm going to have a look at going to my Buddhist centre. I think just spending time there would help me relax

Thank you for sharing

I started going to a mediation course at my local Buddhist centre just over a year ago and love it - they in blocks at different stages in the year and I found it so beneficial. I've been really crap at meditating for the last few months tho (11 weeks pregnant and been feeling so awful I just haven't been able to motivate myself) however I really want to get back into it so will try to use this thread for inspiration.

The technique I used is called middle way meditation. Basically you spend time relaxing body and clearing mind and then you visualise a bright object at the centre of your body. We sometimes use the 7 bases of the mind technique to get to the centre, but I usually just focus on their straight away. Sometimes I just focus my mind there instead of visualising an object - it seems to be easier on some days to do one or the other. I've found it a really useful technique so definitely want to start doing it again.

Sounds good miss Please do use this thread to encourage you

Congratulations on your pregnancy

loopy I'm enjoying the Headspace app so far, I'm only on the free first 10 sessions though. One tip - the mindfulness buzzers don't actually work properly - they're meant to just randomly give you a little snippet so many times a day. Unfortunately the app can't count so I had it set to two, turned them off entirely after 5 or so in a row...

Miss I did an 8 week mindfulness course when pregnant last year - ended up missing some as I was just too tired. It was good, though have to say the bump didn't meditate along with me so I'd get totally distracted by a sudden backflip midway . The attraction for me was that the course was explicitly secular - I didn't want a religion/spirituality based approach, it's just not me.

pud Interesting question about teaching meditation to children. DS is a bit young yet, but I remember a primary school teacher telling us that children in Japan all learnt meditation & then getting us to pick a spot on our desk & focus on it for five minutes. (I can remember looking at my desk & hearing lots of furtive rustling as lots of small children tried to get comics etc out to read under desk, think 5 mins for 8 yr olds was maybe a bit ambitious!)