Replicon, Putting your zafu on your bed might make you sink down too much, it depends on your bed. If you have some soft carpet that might be better, or fold up a blanket and put you zafu on top of that. It's more important to be comfortable than to be completely straight. It's very important to feel rooted, this is another reason why I like the ground better than a bed, being closer to the ground makes you feel more stable.
Try leaning forward then back slowly until you find a comfortable position for your spine. You can do the same thing side to side. It also helps to lift from the lower occipitals, but whatever you do just don't strain to hold the position.
OP, meditation can help release stress, but it is not stress release. You can do this with breathing but that isn't exactly meditation then. Find where you feel stress and with each exhale, "exhale" the stress, the feeling. Watch it leave your body. If you are feeling a lot of stress it could be helpful to do this for 5 minutes before you meditate. Mediation will reduce stress as well because it is not a stressful activity and it gives the body a break. It also basically helps you do anything that you are going to do in life, you will be more efficient and create less stress.
From what I understand, meditation is watching yourself. Becoming intimately aware of you right now. I watch my breath and when thoughts creep up and I get lost in them I just come back to the breath, back to what is right here and now. It teaches you to really appreciate each breath. We take so much for granted and get pulled all around by our ideas of what should be we lose sight of what is right now. Meditation is a way of reconnecting with that, with yourself. And it doesn't stop when you get off the cushion, in each action in your life practice being deeply aware of what is right now. When you eat, eat your food, don't be thinking about the stuff you're gonna do later. Appreciate it for what it is.
I occasionally see "visions" but it's always weird shit, like shapes and shadows. Sometimes everything starts to have this weird hue to it, bright colors, greens and pinks and purples. But these like anything else are just phenomena, they will rise stabilize change and vanish like anything else. They've never been useful, but sometimes kind of interesting, but even when they are they're kind of just a distraction, like if a car drives by with the music blasting. Don't get too caught up in them, just stay with the breath or whatever the object of your meditation is.Visions don't mean that you're doing it right, nor that you're doing it wrong. It's just something that happens if you sit there long enough.
I practice zazen. From what I understand they're are 3 different kinds which have different objects. There is breath work, koan study, and another one where you basically just are aware of whatever comes into your field of consciousness. You start with breath work to develop stability and equanimity, then do koan study to develop wisdom, then you just sit and whatever comes into you field of awareness is transformed. I don't know enough about this 3rd kind to properly explain it, I still mostly do breath work though Ive always kinda jumped around, I read koans before I started meditating regularly.
There are other kinds of meditation too, but I highly recommend starting with the breath. You can count it if that helps you stay with it. Count each exhale, or some people will count each inhale and exhale if they get distracted really easily, that's how I started. Count to ten then start over. I used to see how high I could go but I realize that was kind of stupid now. Or just watch each breath. I've read that counting the breath is not mediation and while this makes sense to me I also think it helps when you're first starting out.
I also highly recommend you meditate with your eyes open. Otherwise it's likely that you'll just space out or fall asleep, which can be nice, but it's not meditation. Keep your eyes on a spot on the floor or the wall. See what is in front of you but don't become focused on it, looking at different details in it.
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