meditation quesitons

[omgsh]

ok so ive tried countless times to meditate, all i get out of it is a feeling of just tiredness and groggyness. I have tried several different ways. at school we do yoga every other wednesday and after we finish we meditate for a while (thats not the only time i try to do it) but after were done i sometimes hear some kids say how good it was. And all i get out of it is just a 10-20 minutes of sitting there with my eyes closed. If people who are so inexperienced and have never even tried meditating before can get to that point in meditation why cant i? Theyve never even tried it.. I really really wish i could but i havent gotten much further then feeling relaxed. Is there somthing im not doing right? or is my mind too active? I think i could have adhd or some other disease that has me screwed up but idk. I often have trouble sleeping and cant concentrate. And im almost always tired. Im kind of stupid. do any of those things have to do with the ability? i posted a thread before about this, and i think i rmember at least 1 person saying somthing like maybe meditation isnt for me. But i really want to be able to But i think the sleeping thing may have the most to do with it. Because i sometimes just cant sleep for no reason, even after staying up till 4 or 5 am the night before. Sometimes its cause i am just thinking about random stuff, and sometimes i just feel like moving around alot even though im tired. Is it possible to get rid of a sleeping problem? oh yah, i cant remember dreams at all usually, like almost never, the only time i do is when i sleep in till like 1pm. ANd when i do i usually forget it that day. i feel like im really annoying posting questions and stuff like this.. So sorry if it bugs you.

[Darkmatters]

If you're tired it can be almost impossible to meditate properly. If I don't get a good night's sleep I find I can't concentrate, and like you said I end up pretty much just sitting there trying not to fall asleep. In meditation you're not supposed to get groggy like that... you're supposed to maintain concentration on something, like your breathing or a mantra or something. You ought to try it with some meditation music on... try a search for meditation music. There's a lot of good stuff out there that will help. Also try Binaural Beats, also known as Theta Waves or Brain Sync. You should be able to download some off the web somewhere. But I'd say the most important part is to make sure you get enough sleep beforehand.

[Sylph]

And all i get out of it is just a 10-20 minutes of sitting there with my eyes closed. Same thing happens to me, but I don't have any sleeping problems. I don't know if it's just the way I taught my mind to work earlier in life or if I'm just not getting it...

[Hijo de la Luna]

Meditation isn't always passive. Don't compare yourself to others you have no idea what really happened in their minds. Yogi Bhajan, the guy who brought kundalini yoga to the west said it best. He said, "meditation isn't peaceful. When you meditate you are sucking out all the shit in your head. that is why you put candles, incense, pictures & nice music". This is not an exact quote. However, I think it it speaks volumes. To me it means that meditation is about learning to focus. When you learn to do anything it can be frustrating. When you learned to ride a bike you fell more than you rode the bike. When learning to meditate first cultivate unbending intent. What I mean by this is commit to meditating everyday. It doesn't matter if it is only like 30 seconds everyday. Second learning to focus doesn't mean that when you get bored or distracted that you have done anything wrong. It is about returning your focus or maintaining it for as long as you have committed to. Start small. Meditate everyday for 1 minute when you wake up or take 3 full breaths and make them feel good. When you fail keep going. So what if you can't mediate for hours on end! How many times can you meditate for three breaths or 30 in a day? Wouldn't that be even better? Anyway my friend when you fall of your horse get back on, keep riding, & take breaks to enjoy the sights along the way Happy Trails

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Just sitting with your eyes closed is hard. You may need to try other techniques to develop concentration first. You could try looking into your eyes in the mirror and looking deep behind your pupils and asking yourself "who am I really?" and feel where you are looking in your own head. feel where you think you are behind your eyes and look into that spot. It will get deeper and deeper. Or you can concentrate on a candle flame. Notice that when you have a thought your concentration comes off of the candle flame. This will show you what the point of meditation is. It is to having a direst experience of reality without the filter of the mind. Notice when your attention wanders the candle flame dims, not on its own, but because your thoughts come in between you and the flame like a thin cloud between you and the sun. You can focus on anything, a mantra. Most people misunderstand mantras so they just go on repeating them mindlessly. This is dangerous as you are putting yourself into a hypnotic trance and thinking that you are meditating. The way to practice mantras is to focus on each syllable and feel each syllable and the shape of each syllable and to remain present with each syllable at the exclusion of everything else. After some practice, you can then go on to dual awareness: complete awareness of the world around you without being distracted from your object of focus such as mantra. Then you can go throughout the day meditating, but start at the beginning, first things first. I actually find it easiest to meditate when I am walking!

[IndigoGhost]

My secret mantra (Others rarely use it) Yin ~ In / Yang ~ out. Visualise the words, it works a charm.

[Flashdance]

Have a read here: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ght=meditation

[Rocky90]

Dear omgsh, Hijo de la Luna is absolutely correct. Tho I will have to add that I personally don't think it takes years to meditate properly. It is a "once you get it, you have it" thing. Once one finds the focus point in a meditation session (can take 3 seconds to 45 minutes) the struggle for concentration ends and one feels like a one-directional electricity cable and it becomes pleasurable. Finding the focus point can be tricky and frustrating sometimes but if one persists he will succeed eventually. kind regards, Paul

[Darkmatters]

Last night I was feeling like crap... really bad day at work, tired... almost didn't meditate, but I know one day off can easily turn into a week off, a month... or never doing it again. So I decided a few minutes anyway, even if I can't concentrate. It went like I thought, no concentration, so I decided to work my chakras. I was surprised to find they responded a lot better than I expected - especially the third eye chakra! When I finished them I returned to the third eye and sort of kept it active as I went into mindfulness, and now I found I had very strong concentration. Stronger than I've had before in any meditation session in fact. The coolest part... the entire front half of my brain felt like it had turned into a huge eyeball that fit snugly inside my skull and was turning this way and that, but unable to see anything.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Giant eyeball! Meditating is just like listening closely to your favorite music, except without the music. Pay attention to what you are doing when you are listening to every note of a song, a song that you love, that turns you on. That is meditation. Just grooving with the now. You are not trying to achieve anything when you listen to a song. You are not trying to get to the end of the song. You are just being thrilled in the moment. How do you do that without music? That is why some people chant Ommm and let it fade into silence when they meditate. Or they strike a gong and listen to it as it fades into silence. They keep listening to the silence after the reverberation of the gong is inaudible. All meditation techniques involving sound or mantra are like this.

[shana47]

Hello friends The basic idea generally associated with why people meditate is that during our day we are constantly subjected to sensory input and our minds are always active in the process of thinking. We read the newspaper, study books, write reports, engage in conversation, solve problems, etc etc. Typically, as we do these normal activities we engage in a constant mental commentary, sort of an inner "The Drama of Me." Usually people aren't fully aware of all the mental thought activity that we are constantly engaged in. Meditation allows all this activity to settle down, and often results in the mind becoming more peaceful, calm and focused. In essence, meditation allows the awareness to become 'rejuvenated'. Meditation can be considered a technique, or practice. It usually involves concentrating on an object, such as a flower, a candle, a sound or word, or the breath. Over time, the number of random thoughts occuring diminishes. More importantly, your attachment to these thoughts, and your identification with them, progressively become less. The meditator may get caught up in a thought pattern, but once he/she becomes aware of this, attention is gently brought back to the object of concentration. Meditation can also be objectless, for example consisting of just sitting. Experiences during meditation probably vary significantly from one individual to another, or at least if different techniques are involved. Relaxation, increased awareness, mental focus and clarity, and a sense of peace are the most common by-products of meditation. While much has been written about the benefits of meditation, the best attitude is not to have any expectations when practicing. Having a sense of expectation of (positive) results is likely to create unnecessary strain in the practice. As well, since meditation involves becoming more aware and more sensitive to what is within you, facing unpleasant parts of oneself may well be part of meditation. Regardless of the experience, the meditator should try to be aware of the experience and of any attachment to it. Thanks for all friends Have a nice day

[waving on oceans]

I would suggest focusing on the breath while quieting the mind. While you are doing this watch your inner thoughts, try to settle them to where you are just listening, no talking going on inside. If you have still been following your breath, you may notice it has changed on its own. Its more drawn out, slower. As you take in this more slower paced energy people usually report a feeling of well being, or being refreshed. It took quite a long time to even figure out what I was doing before I got to a point where i understood enough that I could actually accomplish anything. Most of my initial experiences with meditation were often trying to figure out what I should be doing lol, it can be subtle. Its a subjective realm.

[kulananda]

Ther are so many kinds of meditation. It needs to be tailored to the individual.Pick a goal for yourself, what you want from the meditation, and then look up stuff online. Once one finds a path/tradition then there are more resources to be had.