I started meditating a week ago but so far it doesn't really feel like I'm making any progress. I try to focus on my breathing but I cannot stop the thoughts and sometimes it feels like my brain is on speed or something. I try to meditate for 15 minutes, do I need more time to calm down and really relax? I live in a city and even when I have my windows closed I can still hear the traffic which is also detrimental. Please help I just want some tranquillity in my life.
Meditation
Robert Martinez
Brayden Sanchez
Cool
Nolan Campbell
Try mixing in progressive muscle relaxation. Instead of solely focusing on your breath, use your breath as your cipher as you notice and relax yourself.
Cameron Nelson
I highly doubt that meditation has any real benefits other than giving zoomers or angry/lonely divorced men/women a reason to take some time off to focus on themselves.
people have just become too obsessed with social medias, being connected to their social circles nonstop that they feel exhausted all the time.
I think people who feel that they need meditation is most likely just having a need of turning off their mobile phones after coming home from work, turning off the tv, videogames & just go out for a walks and doing something unrelated to being aware of things around you.
Zachary Edwards
yes you need more time, at least 20-30 minutes. and get some white noise like nature sounds to drown out the traffic.
Kevin Allen
It's not really up for debate anymore that meditation has lasting effects including changes of your brain structure.
Before you try to silence thoughts alltogether work on simply not verbalizing them first. it's gonna take a while to get used to it but if you work on simply being observant you'll enter a different more peacefull mindset eventually
Tyler Reed
Just remember that Meditation is not concentration. Don't try to control anything. Just let go and listen to your breath don't try and control your breathing just let it happen. If thoughts intrude don't get angry or upset. Just go back to the breath. In out In out just let your awareness stay on that.Eventually all the senses disappear even the breath will disappear.
Nicholas Evans
What this guy said don't fight the thoughts. The more 'effort' you put in, the more stressed and angry you feel because you feel like you're "not doing it right" Just let the thoughts come and go and don't interact with them.
And also put in some headphones and put this on
youtu.be/Y-urmCRs61I
It helps to drown out the excess noise in your head
Thomas Martin
>cannot stop thoughts
don't try to stop them, when thoughts enter your mind, all you have to do is pay attention to them, "notice" them, "entertain" them for a short while, and whatever you thought of will slowly fade into nothing and you'll be clear headed again
>15 minutes
go for 30, and set a quiet alarm that rises in volume from silence
>city noises
put on some generic nature sounds, creek, bird, tibet meditation compilation, whatever
Lucas James
I've been doing it aabput half a week as well
It went fine the first few times but last time was really uncomfortable
I try to let thoughts come and go and focus on breathing but I still dont think I get it.
Been doing it for 45 minutes. The first two times the 45 minutes felt like ten minutes but the last time I couldnt even go on any longer after 30 minutes.
I do it at night when its silent. I guess now that I think about it, last time I had the fan on. Maybe thats why.
Jonathan Brown
Identifying that you compulsively analyze is a little bit of progress. If I’m getting the right picture, you gotta let go of your ego for a bit and work on being comfortable with not having to be anything for a little bit. You don’t have to think or feel all the time, you don’t have to know who you are all the time, or how your life is. Let thoughts and feelings come and go as they please without molesting them. Don’t manipulate your thoughts are try to change them into something else. You have to learn to trust your subconscious. You may be feeding it information and trying to micromanage it. You have no business doing so. It already knows everything you know. You have to get out of the way and let it process things because your literal mind is incapable of the sheer speed, abstraction, and memory management your subconscious is capable of.
Consider that what ‘you’ are is the general manager of several subconscious processes. You provide the willpower and encouragement, and your subconsciouses feed you information that they break down for you. You can’t do it all.
With time you will strike a balance between passive processing and management, but for now work on getting out of the way. With practice you can use your conscious to make light pushes in the right direction as you identify possible pathologic patterns. After each little push try to step back and let your brain process the changes and streamline them for practical application. Do not over criticize yourself for mistakes as you go. Part of the clarity you can hope to achieve with meditation is figuring out what really matters, what doesn’t matter, and coming to terms with the myriad complexity of reality in that while some things have value, they are not all-valuable and can be ignored, if only temporarily, or discarded in favor of being able to achieve greater overall life satisfaction immediately or down the road.
Asher Rodriguez
You're missing the point. You're not supposed to "stop your thoughts"- that's impossible. What you want to do is try to observe your thoughts without getting attached to them. You want to get to the point where a thought doesn't trigger a cascade of emotions. I recommend the book Mindfulness in Plain English but there are also lots of free resources online.
Gavin Perez
>being reprimanded for social media obsession by a fucking namefag
If getting away from screens helped your obsession with online persona, good for you. You’re coming off as a crab in the bucket tho.
William Turner
That's the point you don't try to get rid of the thoughts, you merely witness them the same way you see a boat passing by in the sea... you think to yourself 'ok these are the thoughts I'm having atm and just let it be, slowly start redirecting your focus towards your body again
Carter Fisher
>You don’t have to think or feel all the time,
you don’t have to know who you are all the time, or how your life is.
I'm sorry to bring up drugs but this reminds me of a really pleasant experience I had with LSD last winter. I took 150 micrograms, bundled up, and hiked out into the snowy woods. I found a spot and leaned up against a tree and sat in silence for about an hour. Even with the strong effect of the drug I managed to calm my mind and meditate and I completely lost myself. With my eyes closed I experienced the sounds and feelings of the cold but I had no sense of myself as the person experiencing it. It was like I'd been long dead and the only thing there was the bitter wind whistling through the trees and their branches clacking together. It was profoundly peaceful and I'll never forget the feeling.
Brayden Foster
it doesnt take you 1 week to become fit and strong of body.
your mind is the same way if not much harder to train. give it time and be patient. mastery will come with practice
Dylan Jones
H E S I T A T I O N I S D E F E A T
Benjamin Jackson
120 days.
Jacob Stewart
Of sodom?
Jackson Moore
Try cutting out any activities that would shorten your attention span.
Austin Ramirez
To start out just do it to get your brain off the constant modern world dopamine addiction. It feels GREAT to just sit down relax and not look at a screen or listen to anything for 10+ minutes. Try your best to relax and have clear thoughts but don't stress about it. The focus on breathing thing is just a good exercise to get your mind onto a new topic or eventually off completely. If I have been thinking about something too much while meditating I take longer deeper breaths and hold them for a few seconds while thinking about the muscles in my head and face and moving down the body with each breath until I get to my feet then I try to "feel" my surroundings in the same way with thought.
I hope some of that made sense I feel with meditation its whatever you can get out of it adapt it for you start with a very basic premise that is you NEED in this modern world to take a few minutes every day to relax and slow down your mind. For stress control and general mental health. Just as important as training diet and sleep. There are too many distractions today and they have measurably detrimental effects on our psyche (depression etc) which snowballs effecting every aspect of our lives.