tea_and_stones (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tea_and_stones) wrote,@ 2007-12-11 10:12:00 |
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Meditation
I started up with meditation about a month ago, after reading "Meditation For Dummies." Weirdly, I'd never read a book on the subject before. This one seemed to give a flexible overview for newbies such as myself, and made a very good case for meditating regularly, what with all the mental and health benefits involved. As a long-time insomniac, they sold me on meditation's ability to make the mind more relaxed and less stressed, enabling one to sleep!
-One way to meditate, I gather, is to focus on your breath. Keep returning your drift to the center of your attention. This seems to work well for me as a basic grounding technique, especially for grabbing a short meditative state at a bus stop, or whatnot.
-They also wrote about the concept of the mind as a "clear sky." So, I sometimes use that idea quite literally, visualizing open sky around me and letting the thoughts that pop into my head drift to the bottom of the globe. Overall, this is very good for clearing the mind, though one is still left with the sky interfacing between one's mind and the outside world.
-One of my own techniques is to focus on the hands to clear the mind, as the hands are energy points of a sort, and representative of power and control over the environment. Again, this seems to work well for grounding.
-Sometimes I can get my mind into an immediately-still state just by an act of will. This does not tend to last too long, as I inevitably think, "wow, my mind's finally still!". ;)
-Finally, another technique that sometimes works well is to concentrate all my attention in a tiny space in the head, leaving my mind open and perceptive to the outside world. Again, this only works for a short while, but it temporarily eliminates the mental chatter that "screens" perception from what is actually in front of one's own senses.
Overall, I am very much enjoying meditation. It does seem to help calm the mind and give one a sense of balance and control. If "energy follows attention"--a phrase that struck me as very enlightening the first time I saw it in a cheesy fantasy novel--then it seems that meditation allows one to work better with energy by learning how to work with attention.
This is already proving useful in real life; for example, in interviews, it seems I can better relax my busy mind and do a cleaner job of balancing my energy with the other person's, leading to a smoother flow of conversation and being more "present" in the moment. This is especially helpful to introverts like myself who have finite levels of energy in the social sphere.
I started up with meditation about a month ago, after reading "Meditation For Dummies." Weirdly, I'd never read a book on the subject before. This one seemed to give a flexible overview for newbies such as myself, and made a very good case for meditating regularly, what with all the mental and health benefits involved. As a long-time insomniac, they sold me on meditation's ability to make the mind more relaxed and less stressed, enabling one to sleep!
-One way to meditate, I gather, is to focus on your breath. Keep returning your drift to the center of your attention. This seems to work well for me as a basic grounding technique, especially for grabbing a short meditative state at a bus stop, or whatnot.
-They also wrote about the concept of the mind as a "clear sky." So, I sometimes use that idea quite literally, visualizing open sky around me and letting the thoughts that pop into my head drift to the bottom of the globe. Overall, this is very good for clearing the mind, though one is still left with the sky interfacing between one's mind and the outside world.
-One of my own techniques is to focus on the hands to clear the mind, as the hands are energy points of a sort, and representative of power and control over the environment. Again, this seems to work well for grounding.
-Sometimes I can get my mind into an immediately-still state just by an act of will. This does not tend to last too long, as I inevitably think, "wow, my mind's finally still!". ;)
-Finally, another technique that sometimes works well is to concentrate all my attention in a tiny space in the head, leaving my mind open and perceptive to the outside world. Again, this only works for a short while, but it temporarily eliminates the mental chatter that "screens" perception from what is actually in front of one's own senses.
Overall, I am very much enjoying meditation. It does seem to help calm the mind and give one a sense of balance and control. If "energy follows attention"--a phrase that struck me as very enlightening the first time I saw it in a cheesy fantasy novel--then it seems that meditation allows one to work better with energy by learning how to work with attention.
This is already proving useful in real life; for example, in interviews, it seems I can better relax my busy mind and do a cleaner job of balancing my energy with the other person's, leading to a smoother flow of conversation and being more "present" in the moment. This is especially helpful to introverts like myself who have finite levels of energy in the social sphere.
