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've been praying the rosary as a semi-regular practice for the last year. I fell off for a while though and need to pick it back up more regularly. I don't know that it did anything for moral development, but when I was practicing regularly I did a better job of pausing and trying to understand the world than reacting to the world.
@ClayDowling
I would call that an “absorption” meditation practice. It can be a wonderful way to both notice and quiet your thoughts.
