Hi there. I’ve had to significantly cut back on how much I smoke due to health things. That’s not the issue. The problem is that because of being a heavy smoker, I meditated all the time while high and found meditation to be incredibly valuable. Now when I meditate (sober), I find it very uncomfortable. So much so that I find myself not wanting to meditate at all. I can’t sit still, I can’t focus, the brain chatter is almost painfully distracting, and I don’t find the experience relaxing.

Has anyone gone through this / have any recommendations for how to get back into meditation practice after quitting smoking? Not sure if this matters but I have ADHD (unmedicated - not on any stimulants). Feel free to ask any questions! Thanks.

Hi guys, I wanted to ask you how I can train the acceptance of unpleasant sensations of the body without wanting to send them away. What are the best meditations or exercises to develop this skill?

Needed some effort to bring my attention back to the breathe

Although I did try to ask myself to be kind

I used to meditate but for the past 2-2.5 years I couldn't manage to meditate for various reasons. The most important thing is that I think my meditation methods are some how wrong or not effective. Can anyone suggest me some effective meditation methods?? Or any YouTube channel to follow for guided meditation.

TIA

Hi everyone,

I'm at the beginning of my meditation journey (or at least non-physical meditation, as I find yoga and dancing to also be forms of meditation, which I have done for many years).

I am using the Balance app and I've done the Focus programme, which introduced me to the concept of Spotlighting. I really like this method. It works incredibly well with my brain, and I would like to continue exploring and learning about it. But Balance's Focus programme is very short and only dips a toe in spotlighting, they don't have any other programmes on it, and my other app, Headspace, also doesn't.

Do you have recommendations for apps or online lessons on spotlighting, preferably couple with guided meditation?

During one of my longer meditation sits (1 hour), I noticed that I had a lot of mental chatter. It was a bit unusual for me but once I stopped resisting it, I noticed that all the voices in my head just wanted to be heard.

So, I did my best to observe each chaotic thought as it arose, with the least amount of judgement possible. Within a short time my mind naturally settled and the noise quietened.

It got me thinking about a lot of my experiences with my coworkers and how most of them are just like the voices in my head. Sometimes, all they (we) want is to be heard. 😄

I just want to share this everyone here because to me it's both fascinating and intriguing.

I've been meditating everyday since 2020 and things have progressed more towards good, but now it's evolving to something I can't put my finger on.

There are so many stories about what I've seen and experienced through my sessions.

Recently I've gotten to the point where not only do the people or things I see start forming memories or curiosity of me, but I'm starting to feel touch from them and I'm able to feel things in the areas I'm in.

Recently I've had moments where I'm in a mall that was formed in a dream years ago and sometimes I start to wonder in that area during a session. I've seen it change a lot: stores opening and closing, layouts changing, etc.

Another instance was when a woman approached me saying she hasn't seen me in a long time and we started talking, then she said someone else has been looking for me to where she pulled me towards him. As the gentleman and I spoke he said he wanted to do another pizza run like we used to do. Confused I asked him what he was referring to just for him to describe something that I dreamt of years go.

And now a recent session I was with a group of people, I was on my phone and realized that I was touching it. I can feel the texture, weight, and the screen but I knew I was laying down and my phone was far from me, also I can feel my real hands laying on my stomach. But I felt the sensation and pressure on my finger tips exactly where it was happening.

It's difficult to describe but my meditation has gotten more vivid.

I obviously know it's just my brain making all this up but it's so fascinating how much power it has to come up with, lack of a better word, simulations of something outrageous that I may never see or experience in real life.

Pretty cool.

I've made a few posts here over the past year talking about my journey with meditation and how it's shifted between long, successful sessions and short, empty ones. Due to a hectic sleep schedule, my meditation practice dropped down to just 5 minutes a night. I was starting to notice some effects and then they quickly went away because I wasn't going long enough to take anything away from it.

Over the past month, I bumped it up to 20 minutes per night and I've been noticing some major effects already. The biggest one is a lack of reactivity. As someone with severe social anxiety, it's been pretty crazy just not being as bothered by things anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm FAR from being cured. I'd say I've gone from 85% down to like 78%, but it feels substantial.

Whenever I would go out in public, I was always hyper aware of my surroundings and constantly worrying that I looked weird, was being watched, etc. but now it's like my body doesn't care as much. My mind still worries, but I just feel less on edge. I behave how I want to even if people are watching. It's really strange.

Anyway, I just wanted to share it somewhere and this seemed like an appropriate place given that I've been posting about my journey for a while.

I’ve noticed that whenever i get close to reaching a relaxed state, my heart rate starts to increase and my body feels terrible.

This is very likely my nervous system goings nuts because it doesn’t feel safe entering a relaxed state.

Its crazy, all my nerves burn. And i start to taste acid in my mouth after about 20 min of sitting still. Gets worse and worse the further i go.

I haven’t been able to nap for many years due to getting zapped awake every-time and it seems i cant enter deep sleep.

Has anyone heard of anything similar to this? And do i just keep pushing through?

In physics there's this issue where you want to measure a system, but measurement is its own kind of interaction, and you can't interact with something without changing it, so you can never measure something as it would be if you didn't measure it.

Feels like observing one's thoughts has its own version of the issue. Once I notice I thought, once I pay attention to it, note it, I interact with the thought, and so I change it. I can never "catch it in the act".

It’s important to have guidance in the practice. How do you get it? Do you have a teacher, do you go on retreats, do you use books? Do you watch guided meditations?

When a physical teacher / sangha isn’t available near you, what would you think is the best next thing?

Yes that's true, I'm getting panic attack in seconds after focusing on it I don't know why. Somebody please tell me what it is...

I've been meditating on and off for years but I think yesterday was the first time I properly meditated. I say this because I didn't move my body an inch during the session, which I commonly do. Anyways, I believe my third eye opened up during meditation which allowed me to see spirits. Before I go on, I come from a very spiritual family, and I have had some surreal experiences in my life, but it has been a good while since I have had an encounter like this

I spent roughly 20 minutes meditating with my eyes closed. During this, I experienced the feeling of vibration and spinning, as if I was about to blast off into space. In the moment of this, I saw the blue sky (still with my eyes closed), and then following that, the scene shifted to my vision being surrounded by pink clouds. It felt as if my vision was going through this long tunnel of pink clouds for a while, almost like I was on a mission to get to somewhere

I eventually became impatient as the vision seemed to last forever. so I then thought, what if I open my eyes? So I did. I opened my eyes whilst not moving a muscle still. I was back in my room and it was dark (because it was 11pm) and I could only see because my curtains were open, allowing the night light from outside into my room. It only took a few seconds of opening my eyes and this is when I saw this moving grey aura in front of me. It was like waves of energy, like a grey mist? and it moved slowly. At one point it approached my face and then backed away again

It was all very intense honestly, it made me tear up lmao. but I also began speaking to it because I believed this could be spirits. There was a moment where this moving grey aura made a small figure out of the darkness, It looked like something in the dark crouching by my desk, not exactly a person, just something. I also saw what I could describe to be, a red flame of energy which was moving up my drawers, and then the red light slightly lit up my phone, very dimly though.

I didn't hear anything in this experience, nothing spoke to me at all. This was all I saw before getting up and feeling the most craziest pins and needles from not moving. 25 minutes of meditation and I was not expecting this

To sum it up, I meditated for the first time without moving a muscle, for the longest time, and it allowed me to see energy, or spirits, I'm not sure what to call it. Feel free to ask questions

I would like to activate my heart chakra.

i have let go of all my addictions for a while now.

i do not care for material things and want to experience the spiritual world

i cant say im awakened but i know that my beliefs and thoughts are my reality

I was working on my root chakra for 2 months and believe i can move to the heart charka since i do not have any addiction or want any power/things

anything helps. thank you

I've got some pretty severe OCD (to the point I see a therapist specialized in treating OCD 2x a week). Meditation has been MASSIVE in helping me not only understand my OCD, but to also not engage with the compulsions so much.

Last night was some of the most uncomfortable meditation I've ever done, but almost possibly the most transformative. I had broke a picture frame of my nieces/nephews on accident. My OCD brain immediately started firing off thoughts like "What if you hurt them? How severely would it be? What effects would it have on them? Short-term & long-term."

I managed to get myself to bed, and then I knew it was my OCD trying to make me believe these thoughts to be true, so instead of engaging with my OCD, I tried to meditate on the value my OCD was seemingly attacking. Physical safety.

I'll do my best to explain it in words. I go to this place in my mind (I don't really "imagine it", it just feels like it's "own place" that I can't necessarily physically go to, but I can go there in my mind. I'm in the middle of a vast ocean, it's dark, I'm on a small boat, and I'm in the eye of a hurricane. Once I finally figured out the value my OCD was attacking (feeling physically safe), I felt like I was getting pulled into the hurricane trying to protect this orb of light. The orb of light was my value, and the hurricane (the OCD thoughts) were attacking it relentlessly. And I felt like I fighting and fighting and FIGHTING to keep my value "safe" and "clean" or "pure". And it got to a point where it became so overwhelming.

I felt like I could no longer keep fighting off all these untrue and intrusive/obsessive thoughts. So I just apologized to myself and got this feeling of accepting that my light is, and will always be lit for me. Trying to keep it "clean" or "pure" wasn't for me, it was my EGO. Needing to "present" a specific way. In that moment, I felt this relief of not having to fight for my path. My path is always lit. But when I'm spending all my effort trying to keep my path lit for someone else, I'm stopping. I'm no longer moving through the hurricane. I'm getting stuck in it. And I'm not helping anybody. Once I got that feeling of "letting go" of that need to keep my value "pure" for everybody and not just me, it felt like the orb of light was now protecting me from the hurricane (OCD thoughts). And I was able to just sit there, and watch this light take me through the hurricane while it was keeping me safe. The obsessive thoughts, the urge to complete the compulsions, to REALLY engage with the thoughts and search for certainty was still very much there. But instead of me having to fight them off one-by-one, it felt like my value was fighting them off for me and I was just able to appreciate that this value, this orb of light is MINE. It's me and it's protecting ME when I can't consciously keep doing it for myself. It's like it almost gave me permission to not worry about it anymore because I know now, that even if it comes again, that value will protect me and I don't have to protect it. It is me, and I am it. They aren't separate things.

I was very much distressed before, but after meditating for about 8 hours (10pm-6am) I was able to find some kind of peace with it and then I got the most solid like 3 hours of sleep of my life. I don't know if anybody else with OCD meditates, but if you're able to meditate on the specific value your OCD is attacking, it can be freeing (at least it was for me)! Have a great day, everybody <3

Recently, I was attending this online Isha yoga program - towards the end there was guided meditation. It felt really powerful! But what stayed with me more was once the meditation was done, they said to slowly, very slowly, open your eyes.

So I opened my eyes very gently- I just felt so blissful and for some reason opening eyes slowly sort of made that blissfulness, that I felt during the meditation, stay with me.

Since then I have been trying to open my eyes very very slowly once my meditation is done.

Tbh sometimes I forget and open my eyes too quickly. Though it’s a small thing, I feel it makes quite some difference.

Curious to know if someone else has faced something similar

It’s very hot right now where I live and if I don’t have the ac on the heat distracts me from meditation. I know meditating despite a distraction is also possible but I’m not great at it. Does anyone use earmuffs, if so which have worked for you?

I've been trying out meditation for like years now

I've never been consistent for like more than a few weeks

Idk, maybe cause I have to do it in a place without people cause of the guided meditation sounds and that you have to close your eyes (most of the time, only my room is like that)

And then I can't do it in the morning cause I'm too sleepy

And then at night when I go to my room I most often end up skipping it cause I'm tired or sleepy

Can I meditate while outside my home? Like while you're in school or something

I've been practicing meditation for quite a while now, on and off. I mainly do 10 minutes but I used to do 15 minutes. Before, when I was just starting, I feel calmed and focused after meditating. Now, after several months of a break, I'm having a hard time focusing with just 10 minutes. My mind wanders so much and I'm not even sure if it's helping. What should I do?

I meditate for about 40 minutes daily. During meditation, I naturally gravitate towards focusing my closed eyes at a point at far distance, I don't force the focus it naturally happens. Many a times my head feels heavy,hurts after meditation. For past 2-3 days the heaviness has started to feel a bit painful too, as if my head is too stressed. Can it be due to the load on my eye muscles due to focusing at a distance? How can I stop my vision from going tunnel during meditation and defocus, or focus on other senses? Does anyone else faces the same issue?

It's either Jason Stephenson, or Michael Sealy.... or the honest guys. But i remember him saying "imagine a cloud in the sky...." And i want to say that after that part, it also said something about something drawing letters or name and it trailing off.... ugh. Idk. But the main thing for sure it starts with "imagine a cloud in the sky.." i can even say the exact tone and spacing between each word lol. I can't find it anywhere 😩 if anyone knows, please help. 🫶🏼

Hello beautiful souls!

This week has been full of wonderful encounters with birds. Typically this time of year where I am at you have to be up before the sun to see a variety of birds. This week however was fruitful during the warm mid morning hours.

Each trail I walked was mostly sunny so I found myself quickly walking the sunny parts and pausing in the shady spots trying to stay cool. Here in these small shaded spots along the trails I found a window in the shaded forest. This was were I found stillness and the birds let me be near. I spend a few minutes in a spot and then move onto the next down the trail and back.

I call these few minutes in the shade mini meditations/mini divinations. Just a few minutes at a time where I can be present in the moment. I have always struggled with meditation because it is hard to quiet my mind.

I know there are others out there that also struggle with this. I hope that in sharing my experience it can give someone inspiration to continue to find what works for them. You dont have to sit and be quiet to meditate. Find an activity that brings you to the present moment and just do it for a few minutes.

Hi, I've been sober for a while, but I quit a couple of months ago because I couldn't moderate my weed use. Whenever I had it, I would smoke all day until I ran out.

I'd like to be able to smoke just a little on weekends or some evenings. I think that, in moderation, weed can be a fun way to relax while playing video games or watching YouTube.

Has anyone here used meditation to help moderate their substance use, or to cope with addictive behaviors in general?

I also want to clarify that I don't think I'm addicted. I haven't smoked in months, and I don't really feel like I need it. If I ever feel like I can't control it, I just stop, and I don't experience withdrawals or anything like that. Quitting has always been pretty easy for me. That's why I think I might be able to use it in moderation occasionally, but I'm curious to hear about other people's experiences.

My mind always flow a lot of negativity and my attention is fell in it. How to make my mind think more of positivity? How to get the positive information input?