hey this is my thing:eek::banana::eek:
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hey this is my thing:eek::banana::eek:
Hi this is my Yoga work book. I am 17 years old and am very interested in deepening my spirituality. I have struggeled with addiction in the past and am now a recovering addict with a litte more than 1 year of sobrietey. My sobrietey depends upon my spiritualiy. If i am not sober i am likely to end up in a hospital or dead. Thus I am always looking for new ways to enchance my spiritual journey. I feel that this dream yoga has come into my life now as a way for me to grow and learn more about myself. I am excited to learn this practice as I currently practice yoga a few times a week and somtimes practice Bikram. I also have practiced meditaiton for many years but still consider myself a novice. ( I have adhd and 10 minutes of meditation somtimes seems like an hour) Thanks again Savasina for this wonderfull guide i look forward to working with you.
July 11th: Step 1 "visualize colors"
I had my first experience with this last night. I saw more moving shapes than colors. I have always noticed weird shapes and colors when i close my eyes and I have a limited ability to control these lights and shapes. It was strange and i saw a lot of moving and swaying colors. It was also difficult for me to be mindful of these colors and shapes because my mind wandered and i get lost in thought and forget what i am doing. I had just finished hooking up with a girl friend of mine and i was in an intense emotinoal state. Perhaps that had something to do with it. Still i felt more relaxed after being with hailey and found it easier to seee the colors and shapes than on previous nights
i still am gettin very distracted trying to focus on colors and find it painful to sit still alone with my thoughts
And now, we all know your full name.
or do you? perhaps its an alias ;)
Glad you have started the class, spirituality can enhance life greatly. Your post on visualization will be pasted into the lesson and you earn 50 hall points.
thanks sivasiona but what do i do now?
It looks like you should start at Basic Skills 1. The basic skills are very useful and are needed to do the more advanced techniques involving dream control within an LD. There is enough material posted so far to take up weeks of your time.
"Level 1) Sit in a some what quiet setting, but not a place free of sound. At first just get comfortable and quickly with no special effort determine if any sounds are already being consciously perceived. Sit and just notice which noises you where aware of before paying attention. Now, with your eyes closed, casually explore each noise starting with the most obvious ones. You may first have been aware of the sounds of children playing, and traffic from a near by street. Listen to any of the obvious ones for a moment. Try to visualize in a casual and light manner, what each sound is. Now, your only goal in level 1 is to move around your environment not physically, but with your sense of hearing. You should acknowledge the sounds that were already obvious, then move your awareness of sound around. Try to pick up on the sounds you had not been fully aware of. They will be sounds that are not extremely quiet, and will be easy enough to find. You are simply trying to become aware of the fact that while the sounds were there the whole time, you did not consciously perceive them until you focused.
In an average attempt at this meditation I can often identify about 8 sounds my brain was choosing to ignore. Make a list in your head that tells you which noises you had clearly been aware of and any new sounds that you begin to perceive while meditating. You will find that at most times the world is full of sound we are choosing not to hear."
This is what I will be working on. I will continue after 5 experiences and journal enteries about this meditation
i had an experience with this for 10 minutes in the morning. My friend patrick and I were out in my backyard drinking tea, We tried this sensory meditation in which at first I just kept a very open mind to the world and tried to be aware of anything. I noticed some intresting patterns on the couch across from me. There were a lot of sounds going which was olverwheliming at times. Once i was centered and my head kinda relaxed and i got the weight of the shoulder feeling, i closed my eyes and took in all the sounds. Most prevelant of all was the owl who was doing his usual morning "whowhoo whoo whoo". He was accompinied by his friend the frantic chirping bird who sounded like a high pitched alarm clock. I notice the wind blowing through the trees which reminded me of a soft rain hitting a grassey field. Also i could hear the faint bantering of my mom and sister who were arguing about some skin disease in the kitchen to the right and above where i was sitting. At first all these sounds were simply absorbed and i listened to it as if it was a song. But soon my thoughts arose and i thought about sounds but eventually brought my self back to the sounds.
I really enjoy this type of meditation, thank you so much Savasona it is much more doable for me. Simply listening to my breath is just too dificult right now
Yeah, there are so many active or interesting meditations. The get real quite and stop thinking stuff is actually not a good place to start, but that seems to be what many people teach.
I did another 10 minutes today and listened to some of the sounds coming out my window. At first my body was very tense but i realized i needed to refocus and i took a deep breath and simply listened. If there was a mantra this would be it "i am listening". Still my mind wandered about. Still some of these thoughts seemed benificial. I remember thinking that perhaps i had over complicated my meditation. I seemed to have the conviction that every experience needed to be some deep thing. This false image of what meditation was would distract me and lead me to beat myself up because i felt i was not fullfilling this imaginary way of meditation. I came to know a better understand of "what is" and see that the things about me are what they are. I do not neccesarily need to expect them to be something or or something less than that.
Good, the wandering mind is a funny thing. Getting familiar with how the mind wanders is a great first step. No need to be to rigid or hard on yourself. The first thing is simply to experience your senses, which you are doing.
ii agree my mind really wandered today, i kept fantasizing about my girlfriend and then was like how the hell did i get to thinking about this. It is pretty difficult for me to stay focused and i even ended up checkin the timer for my meditation and leaving 30 seconds early. my initial reactions was to judge this as a bad meditation and beat myself up. but i have heard wise people say there is no good or bad, its just your experience. so i am going to try and get a taste of what that feels like and just accept where i am in my meditation
i meditated for 10 minutes closing my eyes while sitting crossleged on a meditation cushion. i listened to the sounds. At first my mind competed with the sounds of the outside world. In the morning, my mind is especially loud and makes my body feel rushed, and agitated. But as i quieted down and relaxed to the sounds of the world, i realized how much quiter the sounds outside were. How much simplier they were, and calmer then the chaos going on in my head. Everything seemed to just kinda come and go as it wanted. I still had the occasional distracted thought, but today i was more in tune than usual
Quote:
Originally Posted by whitedreams
Wonderful! that is good progress, good for you.
thank you i will keep doing the sound meditation until you give me the okay to advance.
I have been consistently meditating this week every morning for 10 minutes. I am also going to try and meditate before going to bed now for 10 minutes because i find it really difficult latley to fall asleep cause there just seems to be so much on my mind. As for this mornings meditation, i did ten minutes laying down on my bed. I closed my eyes and had some light meditation music going in the background. (http://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/8/heart-lotus-shindhu/) Great music, very peacefull, and free! it was difficult for me to relax. My mind is either focused on events that have happened, or are going to happen. I had this inpsired thought "allow yourself to relax" This resonated with me because my default seems to be stresed out mind on the go. It is foreign to me to feel peace and serenity. I also thought during my meditation that "i need a few more minutes in meditation" then i sort of scolded myself and though "your in the meditation right now you fool! why don't you just listen to the pretty music?" I do not know if laying down had anything to do with these extra thoughts but whatever it was, intresting experience
I did another 10 minutes this morning. And i was very relaxed yet very distracted by my thouhts. I got lost in a very vivid stream of thoughts and forgot that i was meditating. When i realized i was meditating i had to kick myself back into gear and say listen to the sounds. i then reclosed my eyes and heard the loud chirping of a bird outside my windown accompinied by the soft exhale of my breath. I was still for a few moments but soon got to thinking o i don't have enough time whats the point? i wasted to much time. blah blah blah time. But do i have a point? Do you think that i should perhaps increase the time spent meditating so it is not as big a deal if i wander in my head?
Spend as much time as you can and still enjoy the experience. I can now enjoy an hour or more, but itt should never become a responsabilty that is a burden. You are learrning every time, even when your mind wanders and you then catch it, that is part of the learning. You are doing fine. Keep coming back to the sound based excerise but go ahead and experiment with another skill for awhile. try one of the other versions or look at another lesson. Spend a week on the new stuff, and then try this one again. Good work.
thanks again sivason. This class has really helped me improve my meditation skills and i just wanted to remind you that your offering a great service. Your time is much appreciated :)
Last night my girlfriend slept over and we both sat down near cande lights and incencse and it kinda just happened. Nobody said anything but we both just went into meditation. we sat across from eachother on cushision. It was at times hard to not get caught up in the ego of it "oh i bet i can meditate longer than her" haha but i was able to pull myself back to the moment. As well as listening i was ultra aware of the dim light candle light that flickered upon her face. Her eyes seemed to glisten and i began to feeel her energy. We kinda of giggled and laughed at first just lookin at eachother without saying anything but as the meditation progressed the energy in the room really picked up. My eyes seemed to be magnetically attracted to her face and as i lookeed at her my vision started to shake. My eyes teared up and her face seemed to vibrate with the cande light. I grabbed her hands and could feel her energy traveling up my arms and in my body. After a while we kissed and it was like so orgasmic. I have never been so engulfed in the passion of a kiss. USualy il be thinkin about shit but this time i just felt her warm soft lips on mine and my hole body tingled. we kept kissing and i became short of breath. We eventually made our way into the bed but i think i will spare you the details haha. Anway really awesome mediation and just showed me that you can make meditation what ever you want
This is great. You had a moment free of that peskky wandering mind. It is very cool you actually felt her energy.
(Lesson 1.2)
"Try to visualize in a casual and light manner, what each sound"
completed 15 minutes of meditation sitting down on the cushion cross leged. i tried to listen to the sounds of my cat breathing, the birds chirping, the wind sailing by, but i was distracted by some of the sounds in my head. Oh i gotta do this on ebay, or oh now im gunna fantascize about sex, bla blah blah. but i seemed to bring my self back to the sounds gently with out to much repremending of my self. and i was able to do brief visulizaitons of the cars passing by, my cat meowing, amongst other things.
spontaneously went to a park today to meditate and found myself rather contemplative. It was nice diggin my feet into the thick bark and dirt that had accumulated from the trees. i was scared of the men who walked there dogs and feared they would see me alone and think i was a loser. I brought myself back to the moment and afterwards felt very relaxed and calm.
completed 10 minutes listening to music meditaiton. My mind was mainly focused on the music. I realized it is important that i kind of shake my legs out and stretch before i meditate. being in a comfortable position really improved my meditation. afterword i read some inspiring readings about self love. And i saw that i have often been much to hard on myself in my effort to become a better person. I have failed to love my self for who i am now. that is okay and i am working on this activlely. I am enough exactly as i am today and will continue to grow and develop slowly.
"Judge not" also applies to yourself. I am glad you realize the way you have been thinking harsh thoughts about yourself, and intend to change. In the path to spiritual health, the first step is to stop hurting yourself.Quote:
Originally Posted by whitedreams
I should like tatoo this accross my chesst haha thanks sivason! I have also really tried to stop engaging in "battles" with my wandering thoughts. My mind immediatley thinks about issues that are very provoking to me, and it is challenging to just let the thoughts just be thoughts and not put important meaning behind themQuote:
Originally Posted by sivason
You may actuallly be stumbling on to a very important truth here. In the quest to calm the mind and limit the random wandering of the mind, you will find that thinking about not thinking, is really never going to work. You can not battle the wandering mind, because the battle itself is the mind wandering, and sometimes can seem to make it worse. It takes something more subtle than a battle. A good first step is just to become more familiar with how the mind wanders.Quote:
Originally Posted by whitedreams
it was difficult for me to sit still on my cushion. it is difficult for me to sit still at any point in my day. I am going to practice sittiing still being okay and letting the mind do what the mind needs to do. mean time i can practice listening to the sounds of the world and visualizing there image
I did a guided meditation this morning and all the things she was saying were so nice. It focus on a visulization of my best self in a garden and me going into the garden asking my ideal self what do i need to accompllish to get tehre. my best self didnt answer or i didnt answer i don't know how much i was involved with it, buti realized i am very serious and my self love is low. i can love my self and be okay as i am which is challenging especially in the morning. also i have not really had any lucidd dreams lately
guided meditations may be a good way for you to learn to sit still. They engage the mind, and help people learn to visualize, plus often have good messages.
thanks sivason, in the mean time is there anything i can do to increase my lucid dream frequency. I have perfect recall but just cant seem to obtain lucidity. I havnt been doing many reality checks. Do you reccomend any particular method or somthing to couple with the meditation??
I recommend using a simple mantra with the word dream in it as you fall asleep. Breath in (I am) breath out (dreaming). So you repeat 'I am dreaming' dozens of times inside your head at bed time, and it sticks in your mind. mantras at bedtime are IMO the best tool for becoming lucid. Increase the number of mental reality checks you do. The physical ones like counting your fingers are fine, but start mentally questioning your very existence many times a day. Just stop and make anhonest effort to determine how you can tell you are not in fact dreaming. It increases awareness and you will get good at spotting things that mean you are dreaming. Just really look at how you feel and the things around you trying to spot or feel any thing strange.
thanks so much i will give this a shot
i met an intresting man on a bus ride to go river rafting. He was an asian man it was hard to understand what he said but it seemed like he was there to guide me for a reason. He spoke of "being the observor of the mind" which reaffirmed what i have been attempting to do. Now i work on noticing when my mind is out of whack, mostly in emotional times like when i am doing somthing uncomfortable like a workout, walking to a place where i dont know people, or laying still in my bed. My mind has a tendency to focus on the pain. allowing it to do so can be challenging because when i realize i am judging myself its like my mind just stops all thougths all together. as if i was a parent and my mind was a child and i caught my mind red headed doing somthing naughtey then immediatley the child just freezes up. its like the mind is not allowing me to observe it. perhaps this is me overthinking it. idk what do you think?
Getting to know your own mind is very challenging. i am not sure what you are experiencing, but the fact that you are noticing your mind reacting to you observing it, is great. Keep working on it. Try talking to your self in your thoughts and explain to your mind, as if it were a child, why you would like to change certain things. Do this with the compassion of a wise adult mentoring, instead of an older brother scolding.
Hi sivason, sorry for not posting for a while... i have sorta slipped away from my dayley meditaiton practice. i suppose i could be more aware during the day and speak to my Inner child with more compassion to get started again. I don't know i jus feel like ive become stagnant and am falling away from my spiritual practice. i guess i need to just take the action wat do u think
Well, remember you wanted to work on being kinder and less hard on yourself. So, it is like thinking "damn I was trying not to think."
You should move forward as much as you can, but do not let yourself be depressed or frustrated. You are human and just need to accept who you 'were' with hope for who you 'will' be.
Think about the example of thinking/ not thinking. If you try to meditate and stop your mind from wandering, yet you realize you just spent 5 minutes thinking about dumb stuff, you can respond in two ways. The wrong way is to be frustrated and THINK 'oh crap, I suck at this, I was not supposed to let my mind wander,' which is, infact, letting your mind wander more. The correct thing would be to remember what you want to be doing (not wandering) and calmly rreturn to the process.
Good luck, you will go in and out of spiritual times. When you 'wake up' from a darker time, just remember what you want, and resume the steps to get it.
thanks sivason i really needed that i have been back on track and am really working on nurturing to that inner child. also just being aware as much as possible, i see mostly everything as an oppurtunity to be in meditaiton somtimes i choose not to but hopefull with time i will choose to
I am back. After a dark spiritual vacation I have decided I don't want to digg any deeper. On friday I heavily contemplated relapsing and commiting suicide. I had a plan and really freaked my self out. I know when I am seeking to better myself spiritually those type of thoughts do not provoke me. SO here I am. I feel like i have taken 2 steps back from all the progress i have made. I just tried to meditate for 5 minutes and was very unfocused. nonethless im just proud of myself that i took the time to meditate. I am going to commit to 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes before bed. for now thats all im able to handle. during those 5 minutes i am aware of my self. I really want to focus on developing greater self awarness. I have becomme overly dependent on my girlfriend. I wish to love my self first and express love to her without being dependent upon her love. PLease Sivason, is there any meditation that can guide me in this direction. Thank you
The most basic would be a positive affrimation mantra. Come up with a sentance that states how you want things to be. In your 5 minutes of meditation repeat it a few times. Make it worded as if it was already true. Something like this, "I am a complete and indipendant person, who knows what I want and the right way to get it."
thanks i meorize my affirmation which is "I am a self aware, courageous, confident, and happy person. I allow my inner child to express it's innocent and loving nature. I love and accept my self completely as I am now" I'll keep you updated thank you
That is a great affrimation, good luck.
Hi Sivason, I know it has been a while since my last post but I was reading through this old work book today and decided I'd like continue practicing dream yoga. i feel lately i have been having trouble tuning into my intution and i think dream yoga can help me follow my inner compass a little more closely. so if it is okay with you i would like to resume. What do you say?
hello, i am going to just go ahead and take the lead on this one...i hope you approve though
a noisy world level 1
i noticed a lot of sounds in this morning meditation that i usually don't pay attention to. there was a plane that seemed to travel slowly over me for a long time. it was very crazy and i imagined a bird on fire flying over me. i also hear a chouir of birds and sounds from inside the house. i noticed my mind has a tendancy to wander about and think about the sounds, but i was (at least a couple times) able to bring my attention back to the task. by the end of the 8 minutes however, i was quite exhausted
ANW 1
this morning i spent 8 minutes attempting to listen to my surroundings. I heard the sound of a bus/car outside my window accompanied by several birds chirping. i noticed a feeling of sickness in my stomache. i think it is because i did not sleep enough and at too much this morning. however, i was able to take a couple deep breaths during the meditation and relax. the sounds around me were like reminders for me to stay relaxed.
here is progress on stage 1...i am going to compose it in big clumps to save space on the forum
September 4th
I meditated 8 minutes after warming up with some yoga. I heard 3 sounds: bird chirping, car honking, and a car driving by. I imagine the bird when it skawked flashing it’s wings and talking to another bird.I find my mind was plannin about what future things i would do with meditaiton.
September 5th
september 10th. BACK ON TRACK
first time i have meditated in a while. getting high as prevented me from following through with a lot of meditation. i wake up to late in the morning and need to save medicating for bed time purposes only. in the morning it just makes me to lazy. also dont use it for parties
1 time a day maximum. should be used wisely. anyway
the meditation was lots of thinking about how getting high is getting to be to much. i definetly want to calm it down and re-focus on myspiritual development. that is alot more important then weed. i was able to sometimes hear the birds chirping but mostly it was brief phases. from now on i will put my legs on the wall to stretch my hip flectres, i will close my eyes and try and just listen to sounds while being still
September 11th
tried meditating on the wall with my legs up to stretch my ham strings and it was really difficult to concentrate. also its 1pm and im just getting it started. i feel a lil bad about that. but anyway…fuck its time to get it going. sivason was right, this journey is more complicated while on drugs and stuff
September 12th
meditated for 8 minutes. this meditation was on time in the morning cause i went to bed on time. i felt deeply connected in some moments of the meditation. i could really see the blackness in my eye lids. i felt that the biggest distraction was the noise from my thoughts. the ooutside world noises were a nice reminder to return to the present moment
September 14th
Meditated 8 minutes. very little focus on sounds but it definetly calmed me down. i was all upset and depressed cause i thought that i was smoking to much weed. the meditation helped me return to the moment and accept exactly where i am at now. still i need to smoke less weed. this is ridiciulous