everythingisnothing

Besides the spiritual effects, Meditation gives you the benefit of building a core habit once you’ve established meditating daily for a few weeks/months. This can help to stack habits to effortlessly transform life on a long-term basis.

I‘ve done a zen retreat for 5 days and it was one of the most challenging things in my life. I left with a few hours of deepened presence and a few insights about projection and impermanence. But it was not worth it, so that I would repeat it again. I didn’t notice a backlash though. Instead I organized my own retreat with a friend and we had our own schedule, integrating mindful movement, the option to fall asleep and sit against the wall. It gave me almost the same presence I had after the zen retreat and it felt more like love and joy. I would definitely repeat that!?

Hey, the last few days I‘ve coached a few people for free and noticed how I lost passionate feelings, felt melancholic and slightly drained by giving. At least that is what I think is the reason. When I asked myself why there is sadness I wished I could just rest in someone’s lap, let myself go and just be weak. I then imagined doing that and it helped, but how can I prevent myself from going into that place? Edit: After posting this, I disidentified with this sad part and asked what it needs. It rebelled and said: "I want to be heard and seen too!" So I, as the neutral observer, gave it attention and the feeling that it is absolutely ok to be this way. It helped to go back into a neutral state. Edit 2: After a few minutes of sitting still there was joy and laughter, felt like it was suppressed?

Hey, as I started being paid for my service as a meditation coach I see that it blocks my ability to express fluently. Especially when I coach people for free I see how liberating it is to not have the thought of someone paying me in the back of my mind. As I reflected on this I feel like someone who pays me also pays a lot of attention to what I do and expects high professionality from me. Of course, this is just a thought in my mind and I expect this from myself (whatever high professionality means, will contemplate that), but it blocks my ability to express creatively to a certain degree. What are ways to feel the same level of freedom as with working with clients who do not pay?

@Lyubov This would be my first guess too, I‘m trying to take the pressure out by using the money I currently make to reinvest, letting it flow so to say. So the person who pays me actually helps others because I use the money to advertise my service and help others.

@meow_meow How do you create a thought consciously? Do you really know how you do it?

@Adamq8 Yes, same thing happened for me too. My dreams are more vicid and I analyse things more often, for example looking at the texture of a leaf in a dream, realising that it comes into existence when I look at it. I also meditated once in a dream, try it next time and tell me what happened??‍♂️

Wanted to participate, but the survey is closed? So I‘ll write it down here: Posting my meditation on instgram has kept me accountable for the past 1342 days? Back then I thought about one of my biggest "weaknesses": caring about what others think of me. So I started using that fear as an advantage and started posting and am still until this day??‍♂️

@rush What‘s your screen time on your phone? Are you socialising while on your phone? Everyone has time to do a few minutes of meditation on a daily basis without any interference with your everyday life. So, just do it??‍♂️

@SamC What I have noticed with meditation (almost 4 years in now) is that I am able to relax my body more deeply during the day. I have Access to deeper layers of fine muscles (around the heart are for example) which helps me to be more open-hearted and feel my intuition more. Whenever I am with a girl, I am hyper focused on relaxing, trusting whatever happens and letting go. I am able to feel subtle impulses from my intuition and know/feel what the perfect next action would be. Meditation has also helped me to build more tolerance towards my own emotions, feeling them without wanting to change them. This is also a quality women look for in a men: expressing themselves without the men wanting to solve it. Just being able to listen carefully and being open for the emotion in one‘s body without building resistance. There are definitely many benefits to it and it will help you with women, so keep going!??‍♂️

@Azur Qasm Hey Azur! Two things you can do: 1. Really focus on the pain. Where is it exactly located? What quality does it have (pressure, stinging, burning)? Does it change when you watch it, in location, quality or intensity? Whenever a thought pops up about: this is headache. I don‘t like it. It hurts. Notice how you are not fully focused and there was still room for thoughts to slip in. Really curious whether the sensation will stay the same or show some dynamic behaviour over time. 2. Close your eyes and move your eyeballs intuitively. Feel what feels good to you. Exhaust your eye muscles and see what it does. Good luck!??‍♂️

@tezk I had a very pragmatic trial and error approach to meditation: started sitting on a couch, leaning back, saw I would fall asleep fast. Got me a nap-zapper (device to clip onto the ear, whenever my head tilts forward because of tiredness it would make an alarming sound). Then stopped leaning against the couch but sliding forward to the edge and struggling my way through the hour without back support. After a while it was no problem to sit for an hour, also crosslegged. Of course doing exercises for the back and stretching will help, but the practice itself will give you the strenght you need, you just need to push through a little bit??‍♂️

@Spiral Wizard I‘ve been meditating for almost 4 years now and I had deeper experiences rather rarely. What I do have almost on a daily basis is an experience of inner silence, peace, content, stillness. For me that is much more worth than some strange experience every now and then. So just keep going and find pleasure in the small things??‍♂️

@PurpleTree I am visiting a zen group once a week (during corona less) for 3 years now and it helps me to push through the sits with a still body. Also reciting texts/chanting is a nice experience with other people. I find zen very minimalistic and if you find the right group it‘s not that religious at all??‍♂️

@RoerAmit Yeah could be a defense mechanism to keep you from feeling what‘s going on inside of you. Observe how tiredness kicks in, be alert behind the tiredness so to say. Keeping your back straight without back support and pulling your chin towards your chest, to have slight tension in the neck will help you to stay awake. Eyes can stay open to let some light in. But you probably need some more sleep too?

@Arcangelo Of course that is valid! Great idea to use the time like that instead of using your phone? If you get sleepy, make sure to slide forward to the edge of the chair, tilt your pelvis forward so that your belly pops out and keep the back straight, chin pulled towards your chest. This way you don‘t lean against the chair and have a slight tension in the neck which will help you to stay awake. You can also try to keep your eyes open to get some light exposure which will also help you to stay awake. Once a customer arrives, try to be mindful of your words: feel how you say things, listen carefully to the Voice of the Customer. That is a proper practice!?‍♂️

The most powerful meditation technique is the one that I like to do on that particular day. Could be: letting go, counting breaths, processing emotions, strong determination sitting, walking meditation, body scan, chanting, binaural beats, guided meditations.?‍♂️

@Angelo D Hey Angelo! I‘ve been meditating daily for an hour for almost four years now and what has helped me immensely is to use a variety of techniques so that I don‘t feel imprisoned by one way but rather flexible and free with the technique that I would like to do that specific day. If I had a very stressful day, I wouldn‘t want to force myself to focus on the breath, I‘d much rather relax and do nothing, let go completely. Or I would want to feel the emotions. On other days I might have high energy and would want to push myself to count every conscious breath I take. So having a variety of techniques was the best way to go for me. Also not doing one hour in one run (not possible everyday), but rather to 1 hour in total. Hope that helped!?‍♂️

@ertopolice Hey! I’ve been organising a men‘s circle for a few months now which is happening over skype once a week and it has been very beneficial. I start off with a guided meditation to get in touch with the present moment, the body and emotions and then we talk one after another about stuff that‘s currently going on in our personal life. Everyone listens carefully to give the person talking the feeling that their being seen/heard and no one gives a commentary or tries to change the person with some advice. Maybe you can find something like that too, good luck!

@pluto8 That‘s a great idea! Whenever I meditate in public it increases my body awareness immensely and it is a great opportunity to observe all the thoughts popping up about what other people look like that cross my way while my eyes are closed and I don‘t see anyone. Definitely try it and let us know how it went!?

@Thittato Great work so far, keep going! What kept you from meditating yesterday?

Hey, I‘ve quit my job 2 months ago and have started to coach a few clients in regards to building a successful meditation habit and doing guided meditations over the phone. I‘ve been documenting my daily meditation on IG @didyoumeditatetoday, but only in english. Since I want to adress the german market, I am thinking about opening a new IG account to advertise myself. How do I poperly do that without investing too much money? I have also built a simple page using wordpress where you can buy the different services. What is your advice on marketing?

Hey, I have an idea for a meditation app. Anyone here who knows how to programme or can recommend someone? Greetings

@SoonHei Thank you!

Hey, almost three years ago when Leo talked about building an infrastructure that helps you to achieve your goals, I decided to start an instagram page and post daily timelapse videos of my meditation and share my insights. @Leo Gura Thank you! Now, more than 1000 days later I opened a new page and worked on the aesthetics to make it a more beautiful experience. If you‘re interested in the effects of meditation and need some inspiration to build your own habit, feel free to visit the page and leave some feedback. It would be a pleasure to hear from you!? PS: I will help you to build a habit, just message me via DM. IG: @didyoumeditate2day