How and why do you meditate?

[Ivan]

I am curious as to how you involve meditation in your routines? I personally really enjoy using the Wim Hof method:

1. 30 breaths in and out as quickly and deeply as possible
2. At the last breath exhale as much as possible, and hold your breath (or lack thereof) for as long as possible
3. When you can't hold it in any longer, take the deepest breath possible and hold it for 15 seconds
4. After 15 seconds, exhale and begin from step 1 again

After about 3-4 rounds of this, it feels like I am getting 'high' on oxygen, and during the 2nd step, I can think and properly reflect on whatever I wish to focus on, or just let everything be and focus on slowing my heart rate to make the retention last as long possible.
I haven't been able to properly engrain meditation as frequent habit; I tend to either do it daily for weeks and then I just stop and don't do it for a while and constantly flip flop.

How do you guys meditate?

 

[mograph]

I set a timer using the Insight Timer app on the phone. I sit in half lotus. For a while, I was doing it for twenty minutes, now less. I did it regularly for a couple of years, now it's not so regular.

Pretty much, I do this when stray thoughts arise:

• bring my attention back to my breath
• attend to my surrounding visual, auditory sensations
• pay bare attention to thoughts without judgement

So, you could call it mindfulness. I wouldn't call it Vipassana, because I don't really focus on internal sensations in a systematic manner.

The long-term effect has been a greater sense of clarity outside of the practice, and I see my life with a bit more equanimity.