Hello dear reader! 😇
Recently I wrote about how to get to know Your authenticity.
Impossible task without first calming Your mind
Today about how to train Your thoughts.
- Introduction
Humanity develops many myths and overinterpretations on various topics.
People pass on information they don't understand well enough.
Same it is with mediation. If You ask a meditation specialist, or watch a TED talk about it, or ask a Buddhist - all have different answers, although they are the same.
Let me give You one more answer, my own interpretation.
- What We tend to think about meditation
The media (or other means of transmitting knowledge), grounded my meditation as inseparable from Buddhism. My belief was that it is available for bald, smiling people in wrinkled orange gowns from the east.
I believed in humbug as it's something sci-fi, only for high level people.
Now I understand meditation as a secular tool for cleaning the brain.
Such defragmentation of the disk in the computer, or update of Your antivirus program.
I made a small scout among my friends. I asked what meditation is.
The answers were very different. They resembled unprepared students in a class, trying to copy answers from homie sitting next to him.
Some said that meditation is a calm flow of thoughts in the head.
Others understood it as silence. Some time ago I was thinking that meditation is when You have no thoughts, like a void in the head.
In line with the philosophy of omnism, we all spoke out of the truth,
but Captain Truth arose only after connecting together these perspectives.
From Your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!
- Meditation have many names
I don't want this blog to be Wikipedia, I want to present my perspective.
So I wont write down what kinds of meditation there are in the world.
If You are curious I urge You, do your own research.
My general definition of meditation:
It's the ability to put Your attention (consciously or not)
& keep its focus on the selected task.
This practice is obligatory especially for hyper-productive, highly sensitive people. I am one of them myself and I know how my inability to meditate has devastated me all my life.
I wrote about how I calmed my thoughts in my previous post, monkey mind.
- How to meditate
There are too many ways of meditation, to grasp them in one post.
So I'll try with the meta perspective.
Chaotic thoughts and lack of focus comes from (monkey mind 🐒).
Your inner Monkey needs to constantly work. Oh how she loves to act!
However, probably no one ever told You, how to guide your Monkey.
Because of it Monkey rumbles with random thoughts, and breaks your focus.
Change the chaos in your head into a productive / creative order.
Start by giving Monkey tasks, only lightly. Do it often, but not for long.
Repeated practice ▶️ becomes a skill.
You should be happy to exercise, and not get discouraged because you couldn't hold out for even a minute. So start with setting the bar low.
How many times have I been frustrated with myself for recommending meditation to others, and like a thoroughbred hypocrite.
At the beginning I couldn't last more than 5 minutes.
Nowadays if I don't want any thoughts - in my head I'm silent.
- Self-awareness of feeling things
You can learn meditation on every activity of life, as an example I will discuss my first exercise I came up with, which I was inspired by Bill Gates.
I listened to an interview with him. Despite this fortune, he cooks and washes the dishes by himself. He calls it his favorite acting of the day, where he masters it, while being in here & now.
Our first exercise will be during washing the dishes.
Nice if nothing will disturb You, so just like in meditation guides You probably watched: First make sure You are comfortable.
For example, not to get back pain during exercise, I tend to spread my legs, so I wouldn't have to stoop.
Give the Monkey tasks just like you did it as a baby. Focus on the feeling when the water runs on your hands, how does the plate feel, and how do you feel the sponge?
If your focus fly away, be understanding like with the dog you teach to give paw. Let Your thoughts pass thru and revive exercise. This time maybe try to focus on the rinse foam. How does it feel?
Change your perspective of thinking from past & future, to the present:
Example of future perspective command:
⛔wash the cup, wash the dishes, I want it to be finished⛔
Correct way of giving commands in the head, in the present perspective:
✔️I grab the cup with one hand, then the other with the sponge.
Next bring hands together and check what it feels like to wipe the inside of the cup with a sponge. ✔️ Just like that step, by step - mindfully.
It is also important to reward Your inner Monkey for doing the exercises correctly. A little spoiler of exercises from future posts on how to reprogram your thoughts:
When we look at the dishes, we automatically think in a negative way.
So many dishes to do! I don't want to wash that much!
You use negative feedback, so Monkey makes You dislike this acting.
Instead, put your focus / attention on just one cup and when you wash it, reward the Monkey by thinking wow! I cleaned this cup, and it's done.
Instead of looking at the rest of the dishes, just pick one I'll do this one now.
Step by step, don't try to see the big picture, it can be overwhelming.
- I once listened to a lecture by the brilliant Eckhart Toll.
He said that people are unhappy because when they want to drink water, they would like to have it already drunk. Wrongful future perspective.
As if they were in the present, they could enjoy how they grab a glass, the feel of it. Next bring glass closer to their mouth, focus on how what it feels like when water go down your throat. Step by step.
Constantly in the present, just like You were a child.
I couldn't find this lecture when writing this post, there is too much of it 🙄.
So I chose different example of a short lecture (10min) on the topic:
When being in the here and now, your inner voice gets happier.
Being present in now, brain gives You dopamine hits with every task done. When you melancholy drift away to past events, or you impatiently think about the future, You skip the process of dopamine production.
How would you feel if you got the job done and your boss didn't pay you?
This is how your Monkey feels, when You do your chores not being in the present.
- Practice here and now anytime
You can practice meditation on anything, for example:
Do you have sad thoughts and you look down as you walk through the city?
Get your attention out of your head! I doubt that it is productive thinking.
Give your monkey a job:
Take a look at the building's façade.
Notice and count the pigeons and how ridiculously short their legs are!
Look for colours, feel how super warm your jacket is on your body.
Jump on the wall and focus on each balancing step.
Turn on your favourite music and focus on the sounds.
Dance to it while enjoying the movement!
I believe in You,
I advise You, to start believing too.
Because You are worthy 😌.
I invite you to read previous posts, CU on the next read!
| The main reason why I started this blog is to tell my story. |
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| I've grown a lot thru my lifetime and learned things I believe should be taught in primary school, as a human right. |
| Teachings about basic human needs, self-discovery, search for passion, cooperation, need of tribe, love, how to grow, healthy lifestyle for both physical and mental health. |