Meditation

[rabbit]

I don't meditate everyday but when I do it is a good experience I could be in a trance for well over an hour or have a short but very refreshing meditation session ever month or so. I rather mediate once in a while instead of everyday. Try pranayama (yoga) or deep breathing. Try counting the breath. Try following the breath. There is as many meditation techniques as there are meditators, so try as many techniques as possible. Everyone is different. What might work for me might not work for you. Keep trying and you'll succeed. Even if you feel like you aren't meditating because you can not turn off you thoughts you are still meditating because you are trying.

 

[TaiChiTJ]

Another avenue of approoach is Betty Erickson's meditation technique. If you want to generate some kind of outcome, i.e. better performance in class, remembering all the self defense techniques you have been working on, bring more joy into your life, or whatever you should bring that to mind before you step through the technique (that's how I was taught) or they say here you can bring it to mind once your in trance.

http://www.ericksonian.info/BETTY.html

 

[davemitchel]

Maybe meditation in motion for you. Do you practice T'ai Chi? I wrote an article on meditation and part of the research looked at different strokes for different folks. Busy and active people like yourself is often better suited to T'ai Chi instead of meditation. Just a thought.

Peace
Dave

 

[pete]

tai chi BECOMES meditation in motion, only if one learns HOW to meditate and integrates it into their movement. it doenst just happen by itself.
true, there are those who can find their meditation in movement easier than standing still, and vice versa, but a good teacher will guide you towards both. stand like a mountain, move like a great river.

 

[Cruentus]

This is kind of a weird thread in a way...

But I thought you were asking for some good books on the subject?

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Zen Living" I think would be a great start for you, Lisa, in that it seems that you would be looking for practical ways of involving meditation in your life. There is also one on Meditation.

From that, or any starting point, there are a lot of different directions you could go.

My belief is that it isn't so much the "technique" or "method" that matters, but the "You" that is behind it.

Considering this, I highly recommend anything by Alan Watts, particularly "Still the Mind," (I think it is called). Thomas Merton is good for contemperary Christian Contemplative meditation. Also books by Osho, Gyatso, and especially the Dalai Lama can be particularly good.

But really, there are a lot of different directions you could go...

 

[buyu]

Hey lisa well like you i havent had much luck with my meditation but hey we keep trying ,i have come to find that there is different ways of doing it music pictures storys of you walking in the forest um picturing your body as a empty vessel filling it then emptying it takes pain spots away which is cool well ive found that trying to mimic a relaxed state by trying to trick the mind into thinking that your doing it like a bath sometimes works but i do know posture and comfort are important to start with aswell as breathing even if you just focus on your breathing .I have book which i havent quite finished yet but it is written by a fellow martial artist called Glenn J Morris its called Path notes of an american ninja master it is good and takes you thru stage by stage its good because its relevant to what we study um Skanktron you would beneifit from it cause it tells you how to deal with the sweating and over energised feeling its just the tip of a ice berg
thanks lisa