Does anyone have a daily meditation practice? Would anyone like one but needs motivation?

[mangolassi]

Ooh, I feel all shy

I am agnostic and generally confused about spiritual things, but after recovering from a bout of pnd found a great book - The Mindful Way Through Depression. It has a programme of daily meditation, and I've tried in the past, but it's soooo hard to stick to with no support.

The meditation style in the book is 'western insight' - basically vipassana with the Buddhism taken out - but it would be great to have a thread for anyone trying to get started with daily practice, whatever kind of meditation appeals. Even better if there's anyone who actually has a daily practice already

So just where are we supposed to be going in our astral boats? That is my question for the day!

Last night dh was out so I got to sit down and listen to some of my music (opera, which dh thinks is like strangling cats), and while I was listening I tried to be mindful. However all I noticed was how hard it was to be mindful, that I was constantly thinking of all sorts of other things.
But I have found out that one of the things about depression is that a poor ability to concentrate, so instead of blaming myself which I would have usually done, I realised that it is going to take me time to work on this, and that I should start with one little thing at a time, maybe something like unloading the diswasher - although I always get the guilts about the amount of water I use that I hardly ever use it!

Have a good weekend all of you...

And what if you have a phobia about boats or water or anything, could you build yourself an astral car, or even one of those cool ride on lawnmowers?

The possibilities are endless here....

Message withdrawn

It might not be in the book rev but

somebody's selling one

just in case you can't build your own

may i join you? i noticed this thread when it first started but if i put it on my threads there's a much better chance of my coming back to it and reading it all through when i have the time. i'm hoping the motivating power of mn will push me slightly closer to my eventual goal.

i'm actually aiming (in the very long term) for a daily yoga practice, including a short meditation at the end (separate from savansana resting pose). i've done yoga for years on and off but have always struggled with the rest/meditation bits.

i've listened to some shinzen young on the science of meditation, which was very helpful for me as a confirmed atheist/sceptic. but my practical breakthrough came when someone recommended the guided meditations at www.satipanya.org.uk. they use a technique where you name things you encounter - "thinking", "feeling", "hearing" etc. - during meditation, and i find this really helpful to keep me focused and to keep my mind from wandering away from me.

hope to catch up with the whole thread soon.

Welcome mileni and Pitchounette!

This really is a great thread to be on, please excuse all silly talk about astral lawnmowers

Can anyone here help.... I'm new to meditating but when I try it I do feel much calmer. Next Friday I have to go to a small (but formal) works dinner with DH and I"m already getting anxious about it. (I'm prone to getting rather panicky about this type of event). Any suggestions on how to use meditating to cope with this anxiety during the actual dinner.

Please have astral transport on standby so I can whizz off if it all gets too much.

Mine's an astral motorbike. Definitely. A big, impressive ... one.

No time to respond properly, just wanted to say I'm lurking when I can. Lovely to see all of you, especially rev. and i missed boco - please come back

pinkfluffy slippers, the thing about breathing is that you can't leave home without it. You don't need to close your eyes or do anything differently during the dinner, just focus on your breath whenever you feel the panic rising. I don't understand how it helps, but it definitely does. And I'm sure someone else will be along qith more advice soon.

Personally I'd be pretty happy with astral roller skates, as it'd take less types of breath. [lazy] If a boat takes 7 kinds, I'm guessing you could get some skates with only a couple. And I've definitely mastered one kind.

Pinkfluffyslippers, breathing definitely excellent, another idea though, have you heard of 'anchoring'. (nothing to do with astral boats, honest) It's an NLP technique. You need to think about how you would like to feel at this meal. Maybe qualities like calm, confident, relaxed etc. Then think about a time when you felt all these things. Think about a time when you were very calm, imagine yourself there, think about where you were, what you were doing, how that felt, how your breathing was, really try to relive that moment in your mind. Then when you feel in that state, just press together your thumb and finger. This 'anchors' that feeling. Do the same with 'relaxed' and 'confident' etc.

Then, when you're at this meal, if you start to feel your heart beat faster and your breathing become more shallow, just press together your thumb and finger again, and those feelings will come back to you.

I'm sure there are sites that explain this better than me. Maybe google 'anchoring' and 'NLP' if you're interested.

I used this while doing my driving test a couple of months ago. I went to see a friend who is NLP practitioner as i was petrified and really thought i'd mess up due to nerves. When he did this exercise with me i thought it sounded a bit daft tbh, but whenever i started to panic i did it, and felt really quite calm - and passed my test too!

Thank you SO much for all your suggestions, I'd heard NLP was meant to be good but didn't know what you had to do.

The next thing I'm worried about is what to talk about; as the other dinner guests are high brow academics and politicians and I'm there simply as "wife of.." which I find v intimidating. (It also reminds me that I forgot to have an interesting career and now it's a bit late being in my 40's.)

However if the conversation flags I shall entertain them with tales of astral transport..

good luck pfs - sounds horrendous to me but remember you are probably far more interesting than many of them...

I went to my meditation class with the local buddhist group last thursday - i'd been feeling good, nervous but excited in anticipation. The session was very good. We meditated for about 90 mins in total and had nice tea break (what was I worrying about there?!) the meditation was tricky but I allowed myself some flex as it was my first time. However, since that evening I have slept terribly, had tonnes more dreams than usual and ended up being as irritable as ever before today due to lack of sleep and general manicness. Is this a usual reaction to first time meditation?

(cld of course be because I seem to be forgetting to take my anti-ds these days, and keep having to take them next day when I remember)

anyway, am going to try to get back into reading pema chodron and my mindfulness in depression books, they seemed to keep me on straight'n'narrow last time

hello new guys, and thanks for link to the satipanya centre - I'm going to download some of the audio files when I am ready. It's an interesting site.

mangoL. louieS - how about we plan to start the 8 week practice around the end feb/start of march? or even earlier if you like? (I have a significant bday party [for myself - it involves a zero] at end feb, but might do me no harm to have started before that rather than waiting til after)

Okay, this may become a mammoth post as I have time and a computer...

peanut - congratulations on finding your Buddhist group, I hope it works for you. I'm happy to start the 8-week course as soon as you like. Second thoughts, maybe start next week so I have time to prepare dp and figure out a good time (we need to set aside 30 mins or an hour every day).

katie - you set up your own meditation group! That's so impressive, congratulations! Incidentally, I did that daft beliefnet quiz the other week, I turn out to be a 100% match with the liberal quakers. I think that's cos they don't care what you believe.

louie - I hope you're feeling positive about your dx, and well done for taking the steps necessary to find out.

Btw, I think that what you describe when you meditate is virtually everybody's experience, and not because you're doing it wrong, or less well than anybody else. (I'm referring to a post from ages ago, sorry if I'm making no sense). I wanted to quote JKZ or someone wiser than me but can't remember clearly enough. Anyway, if you're meditating and you start thinking about something else, then realise that you're thinking about something other than your breathing or the music and bring your attention back, that's it. You're already succeeding. That is meditating. Meditating isn't an altered state with no thoughts at all (at least not in the beginning, and not in my experience). It's just getting to know your thoughts by observing them instead of being in them. Noticing how pointless they are, and how they go round and round... it (eventually) helps us to take them, and ourselves, less seriously.

Speaking of which, my astral motorbike is very, very sexy, rev. It's simultaneously transparent and rainbow-hued, and as I walk towards it I lose a stone. I'm going to breathe myself skinny.

Pitchounette - you're very, very welcome

peanut, o fellow piscean - my birthday is on 27th and i am one year short of a VERY significant birthday-with-a-zero in it ARGH!

mango - lovely post, thanks. the highlight for me was 'i'm going to breathe myself skinny' LOL

everyone else - hello and thanks for all posts - i continue to come back to this thread regularly, it's really helping me.

had a second meditation meeting chez moi in living room again today - lovely to be feeling more comfortable with everyone each time we meet and be getting to know one another more. it was an interesting experience meditating inside with candles flickering while a snow storm raged outside!!

back soon - thanks for the constant inspiration and little nuggets of wisdom i find in this thread all the time! xxx

aaah now Katie123 - am an aquarian actually - bday is feb 10th but will be away (running far far away - can't face it ) so having party after I get back on 28th...

is your significant birthday divisible by 4? mine is...

feeling quite low today, not sure why. Got to go and read some of that kabat zinn book again. It seems to be just a mood thing though - have been trying to see the thoughts and let them go but there don't seem to be any - just lowness...

I guess twill pass

glad to hear your meditation group went well, is it a daytime thing then? must be I guess. What a lovely way to spend some hours with a storm outside. I was on a hill in a park in central london with lots of other people who couldn't get to work and it all felt a little bit "pagan" - wrong word but I mean we were all at the mercy of the weather and were all out celebrating in a way with kids off school, sleds, hot chocolate etc - it was out of our control. I like when we are forced to step outside the norm like that. But it always makes me dwell a little on what the norm actually is, and how is just a symptom of society.

hhhhmmmm..........

have a happy (snowy) day friends

peanut, aquarian friend (we can still be friends i have decreed that's the generous buddhist-leaning soul i am these days) my significant birthday is indeed divisible by 4 - next year. i am also having a party on the 28th! i felt i had to mark the last of this decade's birthdays! i will think of you and chink glasses with you through the ether. i liked your description of the pagan-esque hillside scenes v much. i have felt a bit low today as well - something to do with feeling lonely, i confess, which, rationally, i shouldn't ever have cause to do, being surrounded by an army of friends and my little family much of the time. as we all know that isn't completely protective against feeling alone though, it's more an existential angst that descends from time to time and which i have learned will pass, eventually. sometimes i get quite appalled at the fact that we all go through this life alone. (and then i hurriedly pick up a book or email a friend or post on MN and am fine again!distracted from the abyss!)

yes the group has met twice on a monday morning - i don't work mondays, lucky me, and most of my quaker pals are about 4 decades older than me so no problem there - but we're making the next one an evening one to be more inclusive.

justa i loved what you were reflecting on just now. i was in the snow too today and had no such philosophical internal meanderings at all - i was torn between being stunned at the beauty of it all, and desperately hoping the kids would let me run inside out of the cold soon for a cup of warming tea!

must go back soon xxx

What is the sound of one astral boat launching?

Hurray! You've found me again I had taken my helicopter up for a loop the loop and got sucked into the cosmic flux.

I am off to sleep now: DD was up last night with a "night-time picture inside her eyes"!
I also had a very long, horrific and convoluted dream with amazing detail in colour and having what I can only describe as a plot and a cast. I love dreams.

.
For a beautiful mantra which I was delighted to find yesterday click here.
Just let it flow over and round and within. It's as beautiful as you are

Namaste