Meditation

[SabahTheLoner]

What do you feel when you meditate? Does it help with your goals? Does it help with your mood? How often do you meditate? Why do you meditate?

I'm trying to meditate more often for a more intimate connection to the spiritual I see in the natural world and in the human consciousness. It's sometimes easy to forget to do a simple "blank mind" meditation since everything seems to move so quickly. Almost distractingly too quickly. Meditation is good to ground oneself in the world and helps with treading at a sensible pace. I try to meditate daily but between college, my family and my job, it's easy to become exhausted and not have space to do other things.

 

[Mister Silver]

I tried meditation when I was younger. I couldn't properly empty my mind.

I'm the type of person who has thoughts ever flowing through his mind, and it's exhausting sometimes.

Edit: In college, I would get naked in my dorm room and lay down flat on my back to meditate. I couldn't do the cross-legged sitting thing.

 

[SalixIncendium]

What do you feel when you meditate?

I feel at peace. I feel a mental stillness in which the occasional thought passes by unaddressed.

Does it help with your goals?

My goal when I meditate is to be aware of what is not me and to be what is me.

Does it help with your mood?

Yes. This discipline has given me a different worldview in which I am less controlled by emotion.

How often do you meditate?

I meditate anywhere between 20 minutes to 2 hours per day, every day, length of time depending if I'm working that day or not. I am working on maintaining a semblance of my meditative state at all times, specifically the state of awareness and dharma.

Why do you meditate?

I meditate to know that I am. I meditate to know my dharma.

 

[Twilight Hue]

What do you feel when you meditate? Does it help with your goals? Does it help with your mood? How often do you meditate? Why do you meditate?

I'm trying to meditate more often for a more intimate connection to the spiritual I see in the natural world and in the human consciousness. It's sometimes easy to forget to do a simple "blank mind" meditation since everything seems to move so quickly. Almost distractingly too quickly. Meditation is good to ground oneself in the world and helps with treading at a sensible pace. I try to meditate daily but between college, my family and my job, it's easy to become exhausted and not have space to do other things.

I don't care for it, but that's precisely why I keep trying to put up with it.

You know you "made it" when meditations don't become so much of a bother.

Life and meditation, there's actually no difference between the two.

It's why I keep trying.

 

[Mister Silver]

Life and meditation, there's actually no difference between the two.

I've always thought the same with prayer and meditation.

 

[Windwalker]

What do you feel when you meditate?

The divine.

Does it help with your goals? Does it help with your mood?

Certainly.

How often do you meditate?

Every day, multiple times.

Why do you meditate?

When I need to stretch beyond myself, and when I need to ground energy.

I'm trying to meditate more often for a more intimate connection to the spiritual I see in the natural world and in the human consciousness.

I would direct your thinking that it's not what you "see", but what you sense, intuit, or feel drawn towards. Understand that it starts in a much deeper place than what you see with your eyes.

It's sometimes easy to forget to do a simple "blank mind" meditation since everything seems to move so quickly.

You might want to not try a "blank mind" thing, since I don't think that really realistic. Try looking for a relaxed and opened mind instead, one that isn't distracted by trying to "stop thought", which only leads to frustration.

Almost distractingly too quickly.

Yes, of course. Try grabbing a snake around the neck and watch it wriggle and worm wildly around your wrist trying to escape your imaginary control of it. It doesn't work. Try charming it with a nice song instead.

 

[sun rise]

My forms of meditation is to repeat a divine name and look at an image representing divinity. While doing that, distracting thoughts come and my job is to let them go without attaching any value to them or being distracted by them.

Gradually, over time, I feel closer to divinity.

 

[Epic Beard Man]

I tried meditation when I was younger. I couldn't properly empty my mind.

I'm the type of person who has thoughts ever flowing through his mind, and it's exhausting sometimes.

Edit: In college, I would get naked in my dorm room and lay down flat on my back to meditate. I couldn't do the cross-legged sitting thing.

That would be really interesting walking in on someone like that.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I've always thought the same with prayer and meditation.

Maybe. Meditations come without expectations, or at least it should be.

 

[YmirGF]

What do you feel when you meditate?

I usually feel with combination of both my physical and inner senses.

Does it help with your goals?

The main thing I have developed from years of meditation is an intense focus. In that way, yes, that learned focus does help in slogging through to given goals.

Does it help with your mood?

Hard to say, I'm almost always upbeat and chipper. Part of this I attribute to meditation helping me to gravitate to the natural state of mind which is happiness, part of it is just the way I am wired.

How often do you meditate?

2 times a day, morning an afternoon. However, I can snap into a meditative state in the wink of an eye while doing ordinary tasks, an often do. After awhile, you never really leave the state(s) - other than when driving or operating power tools.

Why do you meditate?

To report back home. I'm a secret agent.

I'm trying to meditate more often for a more intimate connection to the spiritual I see in the natural world and in the human consciousness. It's sometimes easy to forget to do a simple "blank mind" meditation since everything seems to move so quickly. Almost distractingly too quickly. Meditation is good to ground oneself in the world and helps with treading at a sensible pace. I try to meditate daily but between college, my family and my job, it's easy to become exhausted and not have space to do other things.

My advise is to do what you can. Quality, not quantity, though like with sleep, a routine is good. It's all about priorities. When it becomes important enough for you, you will make time for yourself.

 

[Jedster]

@SabahTheLoner
What do you feel when you meditate?
I turn of my outer senses and experience the inner version(s).
. I see light(inside), hear (celestial?)sounds, experience the inner sense of taste, and an overall experience of deep peace & love.

Does it help with your goals?
It makes me want to bring that experience into everything I do. (A work still in progress )

Does it help with your mood?
See previous answer.
If I am on a downer or have a particular problem, I can distance myself and usually see a solution. Or else I just remain miserable, for short time.

How often do you meditate?
I totally agree with @YmirGF 's answer to the question. Find your own pace.
I have found that trying to meditate when tired is a waste time. Better to do 5 mins, when alert than struggling while tired.


Ediited to add:
Why do you meditate?
Here is a song that says it all

 

[Quetzal]

What do you feel when you meditate? Does it help with your goals? Does it help with your mood? How often do you meditate? Why do you meditate?

When I meditate, my body feels heavy. It is an odd but strangely relaxing feeling. I don't put any effort into holding my body in a rigid position so it tends to relax, which is what leads to this feeling. Meditation helps me focus and keep a sound mind when things go wrong. This is a recent habit that I have picked up, but so far it is going pretty well. It is a noticeable difference.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Sorry I didn't address this part of your post...

I'm trying to meditate more often for a more intimate connection to the spiritual I see in the natural world and in the human consciousness. It's sometimes easy to forget to do a simple "blank mind" meditation since everything seems to move so quickly. Almost distractingly too quickly.

What helped me the most was a focal point. If the mind thinks of one thing, it tends not to think about random things that pop into one's head. When attempting to silence the mind, you may wish to focus on your breathing. Concentrate on the falling and rising of your chest and belly. When a thought does invade, just let it drift by without focusing on it. Don't force it out, as that shifts the focus from what you are already concentrating on.

Meditation is good to ground oneself in the world and helps with treading at a sensible pace. I try to meditate daily but between college, my family and my job, it's easy to become exhausted and not have space to do other things.

Many make the mistake of thinking that just because they aren't in a quiet area undisturbed by noise or visual distraction that they cannot meditate. Of course, having a quiet place to meditate alone is optimal, but it's not necessary. There are methods in which one can meditate while sitting a crowded room, riding on a train or other form of public transportation, walking down a sidewalk or path, or practically any other activity that doesn't put one at risk (such as driving a car, operating machinery, or walking along the edge of a cliff). All meditation requires is a focal shift.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I've always thought the same with prayer and meditation.

It depends on how one prays and what one prays for.

 

[Quetzal]

I've always thought the same with prayer and meditation.

I have heard of folks having this sort of experience with prayer. I never did myself, though.

 

[Windwalker]

However, I can snap into a meditative state in the wink of an eye while doing ordinary tasks, an often do. After awhile, you never really leave the state(s) - other than when driving or operating power tools.

That depends on what type of meditation you are talking about. Mindfulness practice while operating power tools or driving through heavy traffic is a good thing! Much better than replaying some script of the mind about what happened the other day at work or something, not being present in the moment, and slicing your fingers off with a circular saw. But if you're talking being enraptured in divine ecstacy and weeping rivers of tears as you are being released from the clutches of your ego, well, best not do that while flying down the highway at 80 mph. You can't see the curves that well with your eyes filled with tears.

 

[Quetzal]

But if you're talking being enraptured in divine ecstacy and weeping rivers of tears as you are being released from the clutches of your ego, well, best not do that while tearing down the highway at 80 mph.

Well, you see, what would have been great to know a few hours ago. BRB, filing a police report for what they are calling "vehicular manslaughter".

 

[metis]

What do you feel when you meditate? Does it help with your goals? Does it help with your mood? How often do you meditate? Why do you meditate?

I use walking meditation pretty much daily and "coffee meditation" (sitting down and sipping while letting my mind wander) occasionally, and most often it's "contemplative meditation" whereas I'm focusing in on something and trying to get down to it's "nitty-gritty".

It definitely helps with my mood in that it tends to relax me and it has helped me with putting forth my "goals" into plans of action. .

 

[pearl]

I don't think it possible to 'empty' ones mind. But one can bring oneself to the present, which is necessary to meditate. There are simple exercises that help.Once in the 'present' the use of a mantra will help to bring you back to the present and awareness when the mind begins to waunder again.

 

[DavidFirth]

I once went to a church where everybody meditated for about 10 minutes or so. I got nothing out of it. It was just like regular prayer to me.