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[Oppo]

been meaning to try the meditation thing for a while now. I need a good starting point. I'm not into crystals and shit, purely interested in mental health. I hear Mindfulness is the way to go. where do I start?

 

[NotSelf]

How To Meditate

 

[super-famicom]

The Meditation OT is pretty helpful: http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=721226

I meditate on and off but reading some of the OP was good for me.

 

[Orayn]

This is basically the only thing keeping an undiagnosed anxiety disorder from fucking up my life. Whenever I feel stressed, I just try to stop and take inventory of what's going on: My breathing, my heart rate, my recent behavior, and most importantly, the thoughts running through my head. I evaluate which ones are a reasonable response to what I'm experiencing and which are overreactions. Just taking a little time out to think about it helps immensely.

 

[Nivash]

You could get one of Jon Kabat-Zinn's books. There are apps too, haven't tried any myself though. It's not too hard to get into - catch up on the overall principles, get an audio file for early session instructions, try to integrate it into your weekly routine and you're good.

Here's an audio book link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/149151891X/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[orava]

Well for starters, I thought this short was pretty good at informing the basic definition and what "mindfulness" actually is.

http://bigthink.com/videos/rasmus-hougaard-on-mindfulness

 

[malingenie]

Well for starters, I thought this short was pretty good at informing the basic definition and what "mindfulness" actually is.

http://bigthink.com/videos/rasmus-hougaard-on-mindfulness

I love it. It is how I view the practice. We are learning to focus. To be here. I can see the effects its having in my life.

 

[Persona7]

i use an app called pacifica

 

[Oppo]

awesome. thanks space cadets

 

[Speely]

One specific thing that has helped me tremendously is learning to not attempt to suppress thoughts by force of will, as this often leads to focusing on said suppression, which is it's own distraction from mindfulness. I put errant thoughts in bubbles that are entirely divorced from my own experience and let them float away, recognized and self-contained. This helped me remove the stress of "fearing thought intrusion." Was a big roadblock for me since my mind is always in overdrive. This approach helped me focus on separating thought from just "being" quite a bit.

 

[malingenie]

One specific thing that has helped me tremendously is learning to not attempt to suppress thoughts by force of will, as this often leads to focusing on said suppression, which is it's own distraction from mindfulness. I put errant thoughts in bubbles that are entirely divorced from my own experience and let them float away, recognized and self-contained. This helped me remove the stress of "fearing thought intrusion." Was a big roadblock for me since my mind is always in overdrive. This approach helped me focus on separating thought from just "being" quite a bit.

The bubble system is literally what I do as well! I quickly label them and let them float by.

 

[Any Questions]

audio Dhama

Go now

http://www.audiodharma.org/

Welcome to Audio Dharma
This site is an archive of Dharma talks given by Gil Fronsdal, Andrea Fella and various guest speakers at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Each talk illuminates aspects of the Buddha's teachings. The purpose is the same that the Buddha had for his teachings, to guide us toward the end of suffering and the attainment of freedom.
These talks are freely available to download or listen to. Please help support this service with a tax-deductible donation.

 

[The Wall]

A very, very simple way to start is to begin paying attention to your breathing. Then make it longer and deeper, through your nose. In count, out count.

 

[thepotatoman]

One specific thing that has helped me tremendously is learning to not attempt to suppress thoughts by force of will, as this often leads to focusing on said suppression, which is it's own distraction from mindfulness. I put errant thoughts in bubbles that are entirely divorced from my own experience and let them float away, recognized and self-contained. This helped me remove the stress of "fearing thought intrusion." Was a big roadblock for me since my mind is always in overdrive. This approach helped me focus on separating thought from just "being" quite a bit.

Personally, what works best for me is suppressing the thoughts and forcing yourself to think of something else like you might to ignore the pain at a cavity filling did work for me. It's not the easiest to start, but over time your thinking habits do start to change.

The big key for me was analytically being completely certain that those thoughts are not worth ever thinking about, and to have confidence that not thinking those thoughts were 100% the right thing to do.

I don't know how much mindfulness I actually practice because it can sometimes sound more like a religion than a mental health treatment, but I do know that some of my biggest mental health breakthroughs have come from using mindfulness techniques. Not through meditation practices, but as a new way of thinking about things in general.

 

[meltingparappa]

What has made a big impact for me, at the advice of a regular CBT therapist, was to make use of an app called 'Headspace.'

Unsubscribe from their emails and ignore all their ads, but sneaking in the ten minute exercises has helped me quite a bit in processing some difficult events and dealing with sudden influxes of stress on the spot.

The big key for me was analytically being completely certain that those thoughts are not worth ever thinking about, and to have confidence that not thinking those thoughts were 100% the right thing to do.

This is definitely a breakthrough. It's obvious on the surface that you should simply pick your mental battles, but actually working to flex your mental muscle to have the strength to recognize that just because a thought keeps coming up, it doesn't have a validity that means you should give it serious consideration. Being able to recognize instead of avoiding it but then giving it space to dissipate, especially during at a time of crisis, is an incredibly powerful tool.

 

[Mecha]

Thích Nhất Hạnh focuses a lot on mindfulness, you might be interested if you are fine with hearing tips from a more religious source (he's a Buddhist monk).

 

[Zantetsuken]

It's similar to mindfulness, or it's probably the same thing, but Eckhardt Tolle has a book called The Power of Now as well as videos on YouTube.

 

[Daingurse]

A mantra helped me out a lot with mindfulness meditation, when I was learning it during DBT. I just focused on my breath and repeated the mantra in my head, "Everything is perfect just as it is." Made it much easier for me.

 

[BumRush]

This is basically the only thing keeping an undiagnosed anxiety disorder from fucking up my life. Whenever I feel stressed, I just try to stop and take inventory of what's going on: My breathing, my heart rate, my recent behavior, and most importantly, the thoughts running through my head. I evaluate which ones are a reasonable response to what I'm experiencing and which are overreactions. Just taking a little time out to think about it helps immensely.

Excellent post.

 

[Surface of Me]

This is basically the only thing keeping an undiagnosed anxiety disorder from fucking up my life. Whenever I feel stressed, I just try to stop and take inventory of what's going on: My breathing, my heart rate, my recent behavior, and most importantly, the thoughts running through my head. I evaluate which ones are a reasonable response to what I'm experiencing and which are overreactions. Just taking a little time out to think about it helps immensely.

One specific thing that has helped me tremendously is learning to not attempt to suppress thoughts by force of will, as this often leads to focusing on said suppression, which is it's own distraction from mindfulness. I put errant thoughts in bubbles that are entirely divorced from my own experience and let them float away, recognized and self-contained. This helped me remove the stress of "fearing thought intrusion." Was a big roadblock for me since my mind is always in overdrive. This approach helped me focus on separating thought from just "being" quite a bit.

These two posts hit the nail on the head for me. Just taking time to evaluate the thoughts that are clearly absurd when you think about them and let them pass on by helps so much.

 

[Oppo]

i use an app called pacifica

just grabbed this over dinner, seems promising, thanks. I respond well to structured push notifications.

 

[Arkos]

Thích Nhất Hạnh focuses a lot on mindfulness, you might be interested if you are fine with hearing tips from a more religious source (he's a Buddhist monk).

Love this guy. Miracle of Mindfulness is a great intro (super short)