[Closed] Daily mindfulness or meditation?

An old aikido master used to say everyone should meditate for ten minutes a day unless you were too busy, in which case you should meditate for twenty minutes a day.

Download the "headspace" app, grab some headphones and head for trap 1 for 10 mins...Job done! 8)

An old aikido master used to say everyone should meditate for ten minutes a day unless you were too busy, in which case you should meditate for twenty minutes a day.

🙂

The headspace app is a good way to get started - the book is less useful.

Is the headspace app good? I'm hoping for significant mental health improvement!

This thread has come at the perfect time for me (I was actually logging on to the site to start the same thread!)

I'm starting to get really bad migraines again, usually triggered by stress, this week has been bad and right on cue, yesterday was spent curled up in a ball waiting for the meds to kick in)

I downloaded the Headspace App this morning and plan on using it for the first time tonight

I saw the creators Ted Talk and he seems pretty well placed to talk about this sort of stuff

I found Headspace incredibly annoying - to the extent that I spent more time being annoyed by it than using it.

I've had decent results from using [url= http://yogastudioapp.com/ ]Yoga Studio[/url] as by having a physical goal the mental benefits almost get smuggled in alongside.

Waste of time sorting the mind out if the body is a bag of s***, as in poor posture from sitting at a desk, can recommend yoga, bloody brilliant.

On the yoga point. The more yoga I do, the more niggles I seem to find. Probably to be expected after years to neglect. But I find I [i]have [/i]to do yoga now, in order to feel my best.

I've only being doing a it a few months, once a week at first, but now doing more and more daily. I miss it if I don't. I'm more aware of my body now and try to listen to it.

FWIW, this morning: bit of a headache at the desk, so massaged my feet with a tennis ball, now feeling significantly better. Bodies are weird. 🙂

Meditating for 10 minutes a day is fine, and will benefit anyone who does so.
Living mindfully means simply existing in the present, not worrying about the past or future but seeing the beauty in the present around you. Meditating is, for me, just one part of maintaining mindfulness, which helps me to try to approach challenges without fear and to be at peace with the world around me.

This all sounds really pretentious, but it isn't, it's just a way of living.

I just take SSRIs, you get all the benefits of mindfullness / medication but without the effort and only have to remember to take a pill every morning, although I think I forgot this morning hence my head feels a bit odd....

I started using mindfulness after a serious RTA. Brilliant, it comes naturally to me now and helps deflate any sense of stress in most situations.

I also use it on the bike, this is extremely relaxing and you can almost "reset" your mind. Give it a go and stick with.

Fin25, I'd like to try living in the moment but how do you balance this with having to plan for the future?

My work is mainly about planning, so does need a considerable amount of forward looking.

Mindfulness first then meditation if you like it.

Meditation is all in the cushions. You need the right sort of cushions.

Living mindfully does not exclude you from planning about the future, it just allows you to be at peace with your environment, allowing you to plan from a mindset untroubled by stress. This is the essence of mindfulness and meditation, it is about focusing your mind on what is right in front of you, be it your breathing during meditation or any aspect of your environment, so that you can be peaceful and calm when making decisions.
The things we stress about are projected by our minds, they are rarely real. Focus your mind on what is real and the stress will dissolve.

Headspace is OK, but try looking up Jon kabat zinn or prof mark Williams, plenty of stuff on YouTube and Amazon. Fin25 makes a lot of sense - mindfull living is about seeing things as they are, experiencing things as they are and not attaching more to them.

No cushions required.

The things we stress about are projected by our minds, they are rarely real. Focus your mind on what is real and the stress will dissolve.

This. Very true.

This. Very true.

Yes. After using Headspace I found that concentrating on the moment and not daydreaming or attempting to predict the future outcomes / event of my life which where usually negative "what ifs" has been a massive help to me.

Thanks, useful info - I listened to some of prof William's podcasts earlier. A good start I think.

The things we stress about are projected by our minds, they are rarely real. Focus your mind on what is real and the stress will dissolve.

Hate to break up the party but if you ask me it's a bunch of hippy crap. The people I've come across who practice this tend to be self-centred arses who expect the entire world to revolve around them. They also usually tend to be independently financially secure (aka trustifarians) and emotionally fragile. Maybe the two things are related?

I just take SSRIs, you get all the benefits of mindfullness / medication but without the effort and only have to remember to take a pill every morning

🙂

Yes I meditate daily

I find it very helpful

These guides are handy

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/podcasts/

I think you could start with 10 minutes mindfulnes

Hate to break up the party but if you ask me it's a bunch of hippy crap. The people I've come across who practice this tend to be self-centred arses who expect the entire world to revolve around them. They also usually tend to be independently financially secure (aka trustifarians) and emotionally fragile. Maybe the two things are related?

Have we met?

Hate to break up the party but if you ask me it's a bunch of hippy crap. The people I've come across who practice this tend to be self-centred arses who expect the entire world to revolve around them. They also usually tend to be independently financially secure (aka trustifarians) and emotionally fragile. Maybe the two things are related?

Damn and I thought it was helpful

Oh well now you've explained where I'm going wrong I'll go back to feeling rubbish

Am old Rasta once told me: simply take 10 minutes in the morning first thing lying in bed and thinking about the day ahead while drinking water.

At the other end of the day, he had another approach.... But that's another thread 😉

Dazh,
Though it is true that a lot of people have appropriated certain aspects of mindfulness and Buddhist practice to fulfil somewhat materialistic needs, it doesn't mean that everyone who practices mindfulness is a "trustifarian".
I am, however, totally aware that everything I have said on this thread could easily be read as a bunch of hippy crap.

It very easy to get drawn into your thoughts. You are not your thoughts nor can you immediately control them, but you can learn to detach from them and see them for what they really are, which is ramdom, silly, scary, fearful....etc but not neccesarily the truth.

When I had anxiety I practised just sitting down, and leaving every though just be without reacting to them. It wasn't easy as my built in reaction at that time was to run to the docs to seek help of see dr google.

When you react you give them importance, and when they are important you keep checking and getting them. Whan you relax and let them be, you are showing yourself that they are not so imortant, and they eventually fade away.

Its not easy but worked for me.

Hate to break up the party but if you ask me it's a bunch of hippy crap. The people I've come across who practice this tend to be self-centred arses who expect the entire world to revolve around them. They also usually tend to be independently financially secure (aka trustifarians) and emotionally fragile. Maybe the two things are related?

[img] [/img]?

Hate to break up the party but if you ask me it's a bunch of hippy crap. The people I've come across who practice this tend to be self-centred arses who expect the entire world to revolve around them. They also usually tend to be independently financially secure (aka trustifarians) and emotionally fragile. Maybe the two things are related?

Prof Mark Williams, one of the founders of MBCT, would like a word.

Also, for Mindfulness without the woo, Dan Harris has an interesting tale to tell:

Just to chip in, I went on a yoga retreat a couple of years with my wife, who is also very much into mindfulness. To my surprise I very much enjoyed it and felt pretty good by the end of the week too, although I'm sure a week away from work in the mountains in Andalusia also played a big part.

Whilst there, someone offered to run through some meditation exercises. Personally, I couldn't get on with them and found I wasn't able to clear my mind of thoughts.

However, another chap at the retreat taught Tai Chi and ran through some basic sessions which I found much more beneficial, concentrating on the movements and breathing was quite relaxing, so this might be another avenue to consider 🙂

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book, it should be compulsory reading for everyone.

[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Happiness-How-Happens-Contentment-Mindfulness/dp/1907332936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426787185&sr=8-1&keywords=happiness+the+happy+buddha ]Happiness and How It Happens[/url]

Don't be put off by the references to happiness, Buddism or any of the 'hippy crap'. It's only short (you can read it in an afternoon) but it will explain mindfulness better than anything else I have every read.

dazh - Meditation is quite a subtle thing IME.. You have to be fairly emotionally mature, in tune with your body and receptive to it.. It's not necessarily gonna work immediately for narrow minded or emotionally retarded folk, or people for whom daily suffering is viewed as a badge of honour, or people who view change and progression as something to be frightened of..
And you're absolutely right, emotionally fragile people will undoubtedly benefit from it..
I'm very emotionally fragile and if you wanna make judgements about my background and lifestyle based on that then you're very welcome to do so.. We can go out for a ride any time to discuss your feelings on the subject, I'd find it [i]very[/i] therapeutic and you'd certainly receive an education at the very least 🙂

I was in a psychiatric unit for quite some time as a kid, and errr, certain drug based treatments were withheld for a number of reasons.. Basic yoga nidra guided meditations were used in 'relaxation classes' and it certainly helped chill me out under what many would consider to be very extreme circumstances..
I've returned to yoga and meditation many times in my life and my partner found it extremely useful when undergoing chemotherapy for cancer..

Headspace is great if you wanna avoid the mysticism and John Kabat Zin and Mark williams make the connections between mindfulness and Buddhism easier to understand..

[i]Hate to break up the party but if you ask me it's a bunch of hippy crap[/i]

Look at me. Am I a hippy? I'd break your nose if you called me one!
But, my girlfriend bought me The Sleep Book, which teaches mindfulness and meditation techniques, purely to help get a good night's sleep. And it works. For the first time in 10+ years I sleep all night every night. I've only read half the book too!
If that makes me a hippy.. no, it doesn't. So f off.

I got [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-practical-guide-finding-frantic/dp/074995308X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 ]this[/url] after increasing anxiety and panic attacks, related to increasing workloads and stress. Comes with a cd and link to audible version. Recommend.

Sorry didn't mean to offend anyone. I'm really not making any judgements, each to their own etc. That's just been my experience of people who I know practice it. I guess it's not even related to the mindfulness thing, maybe they're just self centred arses anyway?

I happily admit that I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to this stuff though. If that makes me narrow minded then so be it. It seems to me there's a lot of money to be made telling people how to deal with problems which they'd probably find ways of coping with them anyway.

BUT HOOOOWWWWWW?!?!?!?1

My life is strewn with cowpats from the Devil's own Satanic heard!

my missus confuse my mindfulness as "plodding a long in lar lar land"..

Search mindfulness in plain english free pdf by B Gunaratana
Probably the best book ever written on the subject in my view.
It's a wonderful tool to have in your toolbox when the going get's tough.

Download the "headspace" app, grab some headphones and head for trap 1 for 10 mins...Job done!

Just go easy on the deep breathing in there....otherwise you'll get some odd looks when you come out!

+ 1 for the Headspace app. Find it really good and some of the animations are great for making sense / explaining things. My wife and I do it together and this makes a big difference having a support and someone to bounce ideas off. Most of these things are based on the same techniques but just done in a slightly different way. It is just finding the one that suits you. A bit like getting fit, there are loads of way but ultimately it is exercising your heart , lungs and muscles.

Audible from Amazon has a free trial. You can download a podcast for free. I downloaded a guided meditation by Bodhipaksa a while back which I really liked. I think audio stuff is hit n miss - it'll depend if you like the voice/style. Hence a free trial is useful. Meditation/timeout etc is a big part of a healthy lifestyle - but very hard to get into a routine of - I struggle to.

'Serenity Now' is supposed to be very effective.

10-15 mins meditation should be fine.

If you do more you need a Master Yoda to guide you in case you go crazy.

+1 for Jon Kabat-Zinn. It can take a while to get to what he's on about - but that change in mindset is the benefit

[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wherever-You-There-Are-Mindfulness/dp/0749925485/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1443541754&sr=8-3&keywords=john+kabat+zinn+mindfulness+meditation ]Wherever You Go, There You Are[/url]

Also +1 for yoga.

These things are centuries old. They're not just new fads. They're popular right now because a lot of people are feeling like life is hard. This stuff has longevity which to me, at least, suggests there's something in it.

Give it a go and see if it works for you?