Tag: meditate

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This is part of The Daily Meditation Experiment, where I am practicing one school of meditation per week to understand the overall structure & effects of each.

Meditation Method: Mindfulness (Vipassana)

I sit on a cushion, eyes closed, for 20 minutes, listening to theta wave binaural beats.

I breathe deeply & naturally, focusing on my breath and on allowing my thoughts to pass through me without capturing me.

When thoughts do capture me, and I notice them, I label the thought broadly (e.g. plan, worry, memory), and return to my breath.

If I am able to achieve total empty mind, never for more than the space of a few breaths, I feel my mind open and relax, while I notice my breaths & the total emptiness of thought between them.

Adherence: 71%

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Daily Meditation Experiment - Momentum - Pre-Experiment

This is part of The Daily Meditation Experiment, where I am practicing one school of meditation per week to understand the overall structure & effects of each.

Meditation Method: Free Style

I sit or lie down, eyes closed, for 5-20 minutes.

I listen completely to a song OR feel my body’s emotions and focus on accepting & solving them OR I do a century count of 100 deep breaths OR try not to focus on anything at all OR something else.

Adherence: On & Off

I practiced free style meditation from April 28th to May 24th. My longest streak was 9 days, and I meditated for a total of 22/27 days.

Results & Thoughts

I’ve seen some impressive results. I’ve gotten perspective on a lot of seemingly huge emotional problems, had entire days where I was calm simply because I had meditated, and discovered how hard it is to quiet the mind and not be taken over my thoughts or emotions.

  • Increased & lasting calm.
  • Reminded that everything will be okay.
  • Big problems made not so big. Solutions created.
  • Almost always feel better after meditating than I did before.
  • Learned that quieting the mind is difficult.