Has meditation helped any of you?

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Meditation has helped me in my life.
I'm a total newbie at it, and only I've been going through books (so I don't have a proper teacher).

But even then, I've learned how to notice certain qualities of my thoughts. Most importantly, I've learned how to separate the emotions from my thoughts. For example, thinking about my flaws and the dumb things I do without starting a spiral of self-hate.

If you're a kind of person that's really hard on yourself, I think meditation would really help you out.

All in all, I don't think it'll hurt. I see it like physical exercise. A little bit goes a long way. And you don't have to go all-in, and make it the focus of your life. Just like most of us won't get to be Olympic athletes - most of us won't get to the level of Buddhist monks in meditation.

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>>17699389
I had issues with panic attacks. Psychosis level stuff. Have mental illness running in the family so think it had to do with that. Began meditating 4 years ago. Have only had three attacks in that time and they were hardly psychosis level. Other than that it helped me with anxiety over death and social situations. Best choice I ever made.

It's not a miracle cure. Everyone is different, so I can't guarantee that you will have as profound experience with it as I have had. However (like Dan Harris says in his book) to say it will make you 10% happier is probably fair. And if you're anything like me you might gain way more than 10%.

Good luck.

>>17699389
I think it might help me, but I keep like.. procrastinating doing it....

>>17699389
OP you're supposed to drown out all senses and thoughts. It should be like waking rest time for your brain.

Not OP, but what are good sources for a total beginner? I want to try it out, but have no idea where to start

I discovered meditation in my youth, literally. I never read any books or anything, I just one day noticed that shit that I did to calm myself was meditation. It does help, but it wont change your life; see it as a coping mechanism to help you go through your life while a proper therapy takes its effect. But it definitively can help.

>>17700819

The idea is to leave your mind entirelly blank, This is usually very hard, especially when you're trying for the first time, so a good idea is to begin focusing on something that doesn't tasks your brain very much. Focus your mind on a simple sound (that's what mantras are for) or play some soft, relaxing music and try to focus on it. Meditating is basically "rebooting" your brain so don't try to focus on it too hard, the idea is to let your mind "cool down" for a moment.

>>17700819
Also make sure to focus as many kinds of external stimuli as posible. If you can get a sensory deprivation tank it would be awesome, but just shutting the blinds, turning off the lights and your phone and laying in a comfortable position should be enough.

Being able to quiet a loud mind and allow yourself to think more clearly takes time and practice. Don't worry about it too much.

Just my experience with Meditation. I've been doing it for around 7 months.

For the first 6 months I saw constant improvement. Clarity of thought, less unnecessary anger, unimportant things stressed me out less, my purpose/what I wanted in life was clearer and I was better able to control my thoughts.

Now things have changed oddly and I'm almost worse than I was before in some aspects while keeping lots of the benefits. During meditation, I get tired of it very quickly and just say to myself "Fuck it. If this activity doesn't want me to think, I'm going to think about whatever I want" in a sort of weird rebellion.

Recently I have identified the ego (I believe) and I want to continue meditation, but it's near drudgery most of the time. I hope this phase passes. I'm almost justifying my ego in ways in rebellion against forcing myself to meditate every day, so I'm taking small breaks and cutting down on meditation sessions. It feels as if two forces are tugging at each other for power and it's draining attempting to listen to the logic of both sides, and anxiety inducing knowing that I have to make a choice of what to follow sooner or later.

I know that's a lot of weird information, but I hope it'll help some of you .

Meditation just generally helped me with anxiety, especially when I realized that I could do it pretty much anywhere. I got really good at calming myself down with just breathing. It's good for keeping yourself in the present, and for pulling your mind away from your body. Overall I don't think self awareness can hurt you.

>>17700819
There's a bunch of resources but I'd say try doing nothing for 10 minutes with your eyes closed. Focus on your breath and if you get lost just go back to your breath. You're going to get distracted so don't get frustrated over it, just go back. If you think it'll help you can repeat a word or something to stick to for the ten minutes. It's about observing your thoughts and letting them pass by, they're just thoughts.

>>17699389

meditating before going to bed helps me fall asleep faster.

I used to have a hard time falling asleep, staying up and thinking about falling asleep bit not actually falling asleep, but if I meditate right before I wanna go to bed, usually my mind is ready to just release and drift into sleepiness immediately.

The whole less anxiety thing is nice too.

>>17699389
I sometimes do that "micromeditation" thing when I am feeling really stressed out, randomly tired, disoriented, whatever. It helps.

I sit up straight, take slow deep breaths, close my eyes, and count to 20 in my head. If I get distracted or think of something else, I start again until I make it to 20.

It helps for the moment, but I am not sure it makes a long term difference.

This is suprisingly serious for a thread on /adv/.