When do you meditate?

[Kyle]

So I've decided that quasi-meditation is an important factor in my life. I define it as- not quite mediation, but that meditative state where you're distracted with something that's a habit, but you can let your mind wander freely over its thoughts. I used to achieve this only in: yoga or while driving home and listening to certain music. I now achieve the same state on the treadmill.

Anyhow, I think this is important for my mind to kind of crawl around with issues nagging me and come to terms with them. And I don't stress about it or anything. I let my mind do what it needs to do. It feels so refreshing after I'm done.

I'm wondering if anyone else has a similar experience or practice.

[akiva]

I try to meditate 5 or more times a week, usually about 20 minutes each. It works really well for me. It works best if I can do it in the afternoon--by evening I'm usually too sleepy--but I can't always do that.

[Mrs.Darcs]

I used to do a form of meditation when I was younger when I would picture a place I knew well in as minute detail as I could to sooth my mind and refocus on stuff. I liked that.

Now any form of meditation gives me a panic attack. Just looking at yoga poses can also put me into one. I may be just a tiny bit broken.

[akiva]

I forgot to say what kind of meditation--I just do basic mindfulness meditation.

[Phoebe]

Self-hypnosis. It's the golden road for anxious brains struggling with other forms of meditation. I went to a professional to learn, which is important due to the quackery in this category. Basically, you need someone who does actual research, and I don't know, but maybe there are legit people posting the how-to online. Going to one real session in person is good investment because can be reduplicated later as required.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

Any meditation related to "mind quieting" is a non-starter for me and often leads to bad outcome. This may be related to some forms of OCD. I would advise against trying to quiet thoughts or not-think, if that's an issue... All those "empty your mind of..." or "focus on this one thing..." activities can be a disaster.

One other quick note: this sounds weird (and I don't fully understand it - basically, different emotional and cognitive systems in brain get involved), but it makes a big difference whether you envision going "up" or down. Most meditation is about going up or no special change in position - if anything, a free floating. Self-hypnosis that involves a visualization of "descent" may yield a better outcome. If you experience anxiety related to a freely floating mind or thoughts, or if you have existential issues, the descent is very helpful.

[Phoebe]

[Mike]

I enjoy mindfulness meditation--seeking a quiet mind but observing how it wanders. I find it relaxing and helpful. I don't do it very often.

More often, I like the free-association wandering that Kyle talks about. Usually it is while driving without any music or podcasts, because I find that sort of wandering thought process to be most productive when I do it out loud. I usually start off with a story idea or game idea I'm thinking of. Or maybe a podcast segment I'm thinking about. And then I just talk. Sometimes, I actually make an effort to stay on topic, but most of the time, I let myself freely wander, because I usually discover something in the process.

[El Jefe]

Every time I can smoke on the home property. This isn't a Jeff snark answer for a change. It is legitimately what quiets me down. When I'm at home, I can smoke leisurely, leaning on my car at the bottom of the driveway or the low half-wall in the back of the carport in bad weather. Just take a good eight or ten minutes to enjoy one, rather than the usual three or four. That's how I shut down the wandering brain, and often how I find the solutions for long-plaguing game related problems.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

I don't know this for sure, as I'm just going on what you said before and every case is unique and I'm not a doctor, but that is a common OCD issue, so it makes perfect sense that your plan is working. Keep doing it! The OCD person is trying to avoid this constant jabbering of anxiety or intrusive thoughts or whatever, but turning it off as non-OCD people can manage to do may make things even worse, while just learning to sit with it and let it roll is a solution.

Caveat: sitting with your anxiety or ruminations or math patterns or whatever can be profoundly uncomfortable, so small doses of practice might be needed. I.e. I wouldn't expect anyone to reap instant success this way, or take it all on at once. But I mention it because making a 180 on this was revolutionary in my life. All the trying to "just relax" and "not worry about it" and "let it go" is a disaster, reinforcing the idea that your mental life is bad and requires restraint or elimination (i.e. that your obsessions deserve a compulsive response). For other people, maybe that stuff works great and they can relax that way.

[Zen]

I practiced meditation YEARS ago and have started testing out a biofeedback program that we got because it was suggested for our daughter. It seems pretty good. I'm pretty sure it is a mindfulness meditation type of thing, but I'm not sure. It includes a thing that you clip on your earlobe and plug into the USB drive so it measures your progress. (Though, for someone with fibromyalgia, the earlobe clip thing does hurt a bit... I wish it wasn't quite so... clippy...)

I will probably pass it off to her this summer. I haven't been keeping up with it. I have too many things that I distract myself with when I sit down at the computer... Like RPGs... or visual novels... or... or... or this place! (Not to mention writing my novel... which I should get back to doing...)

[Iantha]

At bed time, as I'm laying in bed every single night. I have a hard time slowing my brain down enough to get to sleep and so I've developed a really good breathing technique for me. I let my brain go where it wants, how it wants, but in the background. In the foreground I focus on my breathing, slowing it down, making sure it's deep enough, and my thoughts naturally seem to quiet, slow down, and I drift off. I've been doing this for about a year now and it's been nice.