Meditation Room

Great idea, dear Welsh Dragon.
I learned meditation with my yoga school (back when I was living in Buffalo) - breath-based, and eventually (but not always) using a mala and a short mantra given by the teacher. Fast forward, I came back to meditation by recommendation of my psychiatrist, to deal with anxiety with depression, and came more regularly back to it last winter.

I try to do it in the morning, before leaving for work - because I know that in the evening, it is gonna fly off with all the to-do. It is either an 8-min timer (because of time constraints) - bearth or mantra-based, or a short audio session (either breath, shakra-focusing, or loving-kindness style).

Personally, I like the "insight timer" app - because it has a timer integrated (I like the option to choose your "white noise" and style of ring), and the audio meditation sessions are quite varied - and free. But I am sure there are other nice ones around too!

My goal is to do it six days a week (I give myself a "pass" day to account for life events, LOL - like for the step goal).

I'm in. Headspace and Calm fan, want to see here a good research on this theme

This is great idea! I am also a Headspace fan.

I’m in!
I meditate twice daily, using the progression from Advanced Yoga Practices—10 min pranayama, 20 min “IAM” meditation. The first session is when/if I naturally wake up in the predawn
—then I go back to sleep.

The second session is after yoga asana practice. The yoga series I use includes a 10–20 minute moving meditation and mantra, but it’s so different from deep meditation that I just do both.

I also use Calm, but just the timed meditation timers for my purposes.

Ooooh, I like that Insight app! Thanks for the tip; I hadn’t tried it before.

I'm in on this!!
I try to meditate daily anything from 10-25 mins. Best time for me is in the morning, before heading out. It sets me up for the day.
I have been meditating for a couple of years and I feel I've only just dipped my toe in the water. I don't want to sound evangelical, but meditation has helped every aspect of my life.
Get your Om on. X

Hello everyone, nice to see you, PetiteSheWolf, Sebastian_Greil, CODawn, BlondeJaneBlonde and Rathgar!

Here's my little story.

I've meditated on and off for years. And I'd like to really get on top of having a regular pratice.

I started out, self taught, using a simple breath counting meditation from How to Meditate by Lawrence Le Shan. (It's a good beginner's guide, though it touches on parapsychology which might make some people uncomfortable.)

I've subsequently tried HeadSpace. In fact, I used it for quite a while, but stopped as I didn't like having to use a machine to meditate. (I think I have an addictive relationship to some sorts of internet use, plus I got into a very un-meditative rage when the site went down for a couple of days!)

I was lucky enough to attend a course in mindfulness and that included guided meditations of various types - body scans, quick "resting" things, anti-anxiety things - which I will make available to anyone who's interested if I can find the memory stick they're on.

I did a mindful yoga course as a result of that. And I've also done a tai chi class and there was an element of meditation to some of the practices in that.

I've watched a load of stuff on YouTube, but I haven't read a great deal.

I'm interested in research on meditation as well as practical stuff. I recently signed up at https://www.vipassanaforum.net, but it's not terribly active and it is very serious. I don't consider myself religious, but a lot of the meditation I have done (the mindfulness courses specifically) was quite tied into Buddhism.

Where this thread goes from here, who knows? I have a load of stuff I'd love to share, and I'll do that.

Like you all I find meditation fantastically helpful - WHEN I REMEMBER TO DO IT!

Thank you for joining in, and thank you for the tips above, some of which I am checking out almost as I type.

Some people can become distracted by teachers who reference chakra or chi, or "the inner guru," etc. Others can absorb it, or think about it as a metaphor, or set it aside to think about down the road. If a meditator gets caught up mental arguments about terminology, that won't be a productive practice for them.

There's a huge variety of material available, so a little exploration can find the practice which is right for you. Some local libraries have audio books or dvds on mindfulness techniques--it's hit or miss. Amazon Prime has some, including Qi Gong, and Tai Chi, and of course there's YouTube.

And when you find something that really works for you, make sure you have a hard copy! There are few thing more frustrating than trying to do that half-remembered perfect practice. Even with a DVD, you'll still be hearing cues you ignored until the 1,000th viewing.

hmmm... you've just reminded me that I didn't meditate this morning ...

Hello daejamurrachan!

Can I ask you, BlondeJaneBlonde, where in that Yoga site I can find the meditation progressions you mentioned? (It's hard to navigate!).

For those who like guided meditations, Ekhart Yoga (who I go on about all the time) have a lot of them, most of which are in this play list:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...7BFD07AC3FD96D

Lots of styles, lots of voices. . . I've done a few of these and most of them I found useful. I think they're a sincere and informed bunch.

Sure thing! Start here: https://www.aypsite.org/10.html

Yes, the site is a bit of a historical piece. In fact, I bought the collected lessons on iBooks—though everything is available on the site—both to support the effort and because navigating all those text links makes me feel I’ve time-travelled to 1995. By the text, it started as a Yahoo! forum, and isn’t that a blast from the past! It has the same “open learning” philosophy as Darebee

I'm in! I'm just beginning with Headspace meditation

thank you, BlondeJaneBlonde (are you blonde, by any chance? ) I will try to take a look at that - and to understand it! (I do much, taking a look at and not really properly taking in - something I hope meditation will help!)

And hello Lele! The more the merrier.

I said I'd share some talks here and that I'm interested in research so here are a couple of Google talks that I've enjoyed. (I first heard of HeadSpace through one of these talks if I remember.)

These are rather technical and long, but I've found them interesting. They're not really about practice so much, though you might get some tips. (I don't want to stir up controversies, and as far as I'm aware these are fairly well accepted and scientifically valid talks.)

I join the flock. I'm practising along the program "Mindfulness" (Williams/Penman).