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| I've been "solo" meditating for so long that I need your help on this. I know it sounds strange :-), but please hear me out... I'm putting together a free online help guide to meditation, and I need your input. If you could choose your category (thinking about starting, beginner, or advanced) and give me some input, I'd be very grateful:
If you are thinking about starting to meditate: What are your concerns about meditation (if any)? Anything keeping you back, or did you try once and it just didn't feel right? What kind of information/advice do you need?
If you are a beginner (less than a year's experience): How long have you meditated and what kind of problems have you had? Good/bad experiences? What kind of information/advice would you like but is hard to get an answer to?
If you are advanced (over a year -- how long?): Do you need any information that you can't find in any books? Any information you'd like to deepen your meditation practice?
If you prefer to send me your response through a Personal Message, please do. Thank you very much.
Best wishes,
Oz
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| I finished the meditation help guide (for now). Any feedback would be great, good or bad. In either case, I hope you enjoy it:
http://www.meditation-techniques-for-happiness.com/meditation-help.html |
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Member
Posts: 26
| Great to find a free meditation help guide!
What I've read is interesting, and written in a good way. As I read more, I will be able to give you better criticism, and thoughts, if it's needed.
If you want to, I can answer the question you wrote in your first post. Though, I now it's a bit late for that, since you're already finished  |
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| Thank you. It's never too late! Your answers/advice would certainly be helpful and greatly appreciated. |
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Member
Posts: 26
| Hope this is useful
Oz1 - 2008-12-06 6:35 PM
If you are a beginner (less than a year's experience): How long have you meditated and what kind of problems have you had? Good/bad experiences? What kind of information/advice would you like but is hard to get an answer to?
I have meditated for a year.
Problems:
One of my greatest problem have you read about (http://www.yoga.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=28425&posts=3&start=1).
Another problem is that I over a period of time had a hard time staying awake during my meditation. I got drowzy and started to fell a sleep, even though I had slept enough the night before. Though, this works better now.
I don't really know how to finish my meditation in a good way. I don't want to shock my body and mind, and wake up to fast.
I have a feeling that I wan't to acheive something with my meditation. This might sound positive, but I want my meditation to lead to something so much that it stands in the way for relaxation and awareness.
Bad experiences:
Over a period of time, parts of my body got very tense during the meditation. This made it harder to keep my awereness.
Good experiences:
When meditating I often feel deep happiness.
For me useful information/advice:
Meditation was something new for me, it still is, and I am still not used to being an observer. It's scarry in some way. Therefore I think it helps to get uplifting comments, like one of the topics in your help guide: "There's NO failure in meditation!" (http://www.meditation-techniques-for-happiness.com/meditation-help.html). |
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| Thank you for the great feedback! I'll give you some feedback right away regarding the topics you mentioned:
Falling asleep - very common. If you are rested and still fall asleep, it might mean that you are not observing, rather letting go of yourself and your surroundings. This can be a nice way to fall asleep (for a person who has problems with it). Falling asleep when you don't want to usually goes away as the mind becomes more clear and interesting to observe. Like you said, it works better now. It's a matter of practice.
Finishing your meditation: A great way is to direct your awareness at your body. Feel your relaxation for a minute, how heavy your are against the chair/floor. Then do a couple of gentle muscle contractions of your calves or your fists, and sense how they are waking up, and how they relax when you let go of the tension. The tense-relax is a component of progressive relaxation, which is nice to use during meditation if you feel tense - there's a script on my website. I sometimes use it during my meditation, especially in the beginning, because my days tend to be hectic and I want to calm my mind through my body. Mind-body feedback.
Personally, I like to finish my meditation by looking out the window for a minute and see the trees, perhaps a bird, the people or whatever is out there, look at my family photos, and just smile and wish them all well. It makes me want to be amongst them and not just meditate all day!
Achievement: You are becoming mindful of how your mind works. Very nice! Progress is in our genes, the need to succeed. See your meditation as a break from the need for achievement, the tension and stress. Rest and recovery make you achieve more. Meditation is rest and recovery for your mind and body, and so you achieve more outside of your meditation when you let go of the need for achievement within your meditation. Sounds logical, doesn't it? I hope so. Science makes meditation simple and understandable, and very powerful. But it's power is in the compassion of letting yourself relax and take a break from distress and goals.
Probably the least known aspect of meditation is how mantra and mindfulness interact. Federer, the great tennis player, has a stunning ability to use mindfulness - moment-by-moment awareness - during his games. When he makes a mistake he learns and lets go, when he wins a ball/set (a mantra/specific point of focus), he resets his mind. Again and again. Top athletes do this, and the professor in ''A beautiful mind'' saves his mind by using mindfulness to accept his schizophrenia and the 2 characters haunting him. There are tons of examples and not enough time. Mindfulness is the key, with it comes compassion and proper action. Meditation this smart way is just practicing these powerful qualities without the need for action.
Thanks again for the splendid feedback, I will use it to provide better and more uplifting information on my site.
Best regards,
Oz
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Member
Posts: 26
| Thanks for the good feedback! It's interesting.
Here's some more thoughts that might be useful for your site:
Let's say that you one day have two choices: you could meditate as usual, or spend time with a friend that really appreciate your company. By choosing to meditate by you self, this person feels let down and hurt. Spending time with the person would bring you happines since you enjoy his company, and he would get happy. Instead of traditionally meditate at that certain time, you could be observant when spending time with him, almost like in a meditative state. Thus see things for what they are, let happiness in, enjoy what you are doing, and be in the present moment.
If you want to live a "meditative life" (don't know the significance of a "meditative life" really), would it be the right choice to sit alone and meditate, and let your friend down? Is it not really more important what happens in your life outside the meditation, than while meditating? How do you extend your meditation, from sitting down traditionally every day, to live a more meditative life?
You acctually touch this in your post:
Oz1 - 2009-04-15 8:26 PM
look at my family photos, and just smile and wish them all well. It makes me want to be amongst them and not just meditate all day!
These thoughts are meant to be usefull for your site. But feel free to give feedback to them in this thread, if you feel like it! |
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| Hi again! You wrote: ''If you want to live a "meditative life" (don't know the significance of a "meditative life" really), would it be the right choice to sit alone and meditate, and let your friend down? Is it not really more important what happens in your life outside the meditation, than while meditating?''
Meditation means awareness, so being aware of letting your friend or anyone else down will affect your meditation. I think what happens outside the meditation practice is more important. If your external life is a mess, meditation easily becomes a mess!
You also write: ''How do you extend your meditation, from sitting down traditionally every day, to live a more meditative life?''
There's free meditation and mindfulness exercises on my website. Everything you perceive is meditation/awareness. Best wishes to you.
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Your Help is needed on developing this free meditation Help Guide
