I would love to get some conversations going about #meditation. I’m not sure how well this platform supports such things, but the best way to find out…
I started a practice some time in the mid 2000’s. I kept it to short (10-15m) sits, but managed to make it a consistent habit within a year or two. I like Headspace and similar meditation apps as a starting point, and recommend them to people if the topics comes up.
Around 2018, I started with The Mind Illuminated, which is a more structured approach based on the book of the same name. This involved longer sits (20-60m), with some clear guidelines. I feel that my sense of equanimity improved dramatically around this time, and many facets of my day-to-day life along with it.
While I did reap significant benefits, I did not progress through the stages outlined in the book. This led me to a more metta-based practice called Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation or TWIM, which is my core practice now. This has raised my baseline level of happiness quite noticably, and has also driven more “moral development” in terms of how I see the world and my place in it.
Does anyone else here follow one of these practices? Anything you’d care to share about your practice?
@IAmErik I am Erik, too! I've been trying to make a formal meditation practice stick for over 30 years, but I always fall off the cushion. How do you stick with it?
@erik365
Hello fellow Erik-with-a-K!
I know that it is really common to start a practice & then drop it early on. I did exactly that several times!
I think there are a few reasons that it stuck after the first couple of years:
- I noticed the benefits early on, so I felt that it was a valuable use of time.
- I came across advice that told me it usually doesn’t feel like anything is happening during a sit (particularly until it is a habit), and I found it convincing enough to believe.
- I read a lot on the subject, and tried a lot of guided meditations (YouTube and Insight Timer). That really helped accellerate my practice, since I need to have a logical reason for spending time on it every day.
- I made a rule that I would sit for just 5m per day. That was easy enough that I was able to build up the habit.
@WhenIsayJ @IAmErik I like Insight Timer too.
@IAmErik @erik365 insight timer is a great tool, I use it every day. Often guided meditations, sometimes the timer.