Am I Meditating For Too Long?

[Psychonaut]

I have been meditating since January. Started with 10-15 minutes and quickly ramped it up to an hour. I had the time and still have.

But to me it feels like I waste too much time while meditating in which I'm actually not meditating. Because I know that I have so much time I sometimes spend half of it just sitting there and thinking about stuff. I'm sitting there eyes closed, but I'm not meditating. 

I'm not sure if it may be better to reduce the time and try to meditate for the full duration. Once that has become easy ramp it up slowly so that I can meditate for the full duration.

[Henri]

It`s not about duration, it`s about quality.

When you meditate three times a day for 10 minutes, that is much better than you are doing right now.

Longer meditation sessions will come when it`s time; do not rush, do not force, be gentle and kind.

@Psychonaut

[Isle of View]

@Psychonaut

What @Henri said.

Plus, maybe the meditation technique is not the right one at the moment.

Which one do you do? And what is the purpose of the meditation for you? (Can be different for different people.)

 

Kind regards, 
Chris

[Psychonaut]

Thanks @Henri I'll probably do 20 min in the morning and during lunch break. A friend of mine does 20 minutes 2 times a day and I meditated 20 minutes with him yesterday. Was no problem. 

As to technique. I close my eyes, try to sit upright on a chair, not move and think about nothing. 

[Isle of View]

23 hours ago, Psychonaut said:

As to technique. I close my eyes, try to sit upright on a chair, not move and think about nothing. 

You think about nothing? Or you try not to think?

It's good to have something as an object in the beginning to put your attention on, like the breath, your forehead (between your eyebrows) or a simple chant. As soon as you spot that you "dive away" from your object, you return to the object and continue.

Vipassana is good aswell, maybe you can read some theory in this book. You will recognize many thing you run/ran into in your own practice.

 

Kind regards, 
Chris

[Psychonaut]

@Isle of View I try not to think, eg. clear/cleanse my mind. Haven't thought about the difference of thinking about nothing and trying not to think...

Sometimes I also breath in slow and deeply and concentrate on that. But I have really not spend that much time thinking about techniques. In the end I wanted to try to think less, didn't I? 

That book looks promising. I'll check it out.

[Psychonaut]

@Isle of View thanks so much for that book recommendation ?.

Still having quite some trouble cultivating mindfulness during the day. I get lost so often.

Starring at my cup while the milk is mixing with the tea. Stopping to observe a bird and marveling at how beautiful and magnificent it is. It just being there doing whatever a bird has to do. Just randomly dancing to music at the cafeteria at work. Haha haha 

Most people think I'm kind of "odd". It's getting to a point where I feel like I completely lost it. It's just gone.

Today I was talking to 2 girls at work. The one was talking about how her mother says she is fat and how afraid she is that others judge her. How she thinks she is boring and non deserving of a random guy from a tv show. "He won't even look at me". When in fact she is really funny, interesting and cute and absolutely not fat whatsoever.

10 minutes later after thinking about what she had said I could hardly resist laughing. I realised how outrageous it was. Its just that people hold on so hard on to this picture of themselves. The picture is so unbelievably distorted that I can't do anything else but laugh. The whole day I was cracking up at random things and not able to do any meaningful work whatsoever. I avoided my supervisor and any meaningful people as not to offend them by randomly laughing.

It's not just that I laugh at others, I also laugh about myself a lot. One day I got really upset about something someone said and spent a few hours being a bit sad. The next day after thinking about the previous day I just started laughing at how dumb it was to get upset over nothing. 

Most of the time I'm happy, sometimes it feels like I'm on some kind of drugs flying up in the sky somewhere. Quite a few people are starting to ask questions. Why are you so happy all the time? What is your secret? I should cut off a slice from you. What drugs do you take? 

I just don't know what to say. It's not like I can tell them the truth. I also feel like I have to be really careful when talking to other people as not to offend them. The truth is just to harsh. No one with a "normal" mindset will be able to handle it.

I know this is just a passing phase, but it's pretty enjoyable. In fact I'm happier then I have been on any kind of drug before. The high is just so magnificently clean. It is unbelievable that just being can be so much fun.

[Isle of View]

Great @Psychonaut

It's a great relief to see how one can get stuck into an identity or self-created imagery of oneself (like the girl who thinks she's fat in your example). We unstuck from the identification, that's one part of the answer why you are constantly laughing... Now, is it?

~Chris

 

[cetus]

43 minutes ago, Psychonaut said:

The one was talking about how her mother says she is fat and how afraid she is that others judge her. How she thinks she is boring and non deserving of a random guy from a tv show. "He won't even look at me". When in fact she is really funny, interesting and cute and absolutely not fat whatsoever.

@Psychonaut  This part reminded me of something I read in the Tao Te Ching  "care about other peoples approval and you will be their prisoner"

[JustinS]

@Psychonaut That's quite of a leap there, but there's nothing really wrong with that. Try to add 10 min increments every week or every other week. Most importantly, feel if your meditation sessions are being taking seriously. Quality over quantity is true. Stay focused my brother and don't expect results to come too quick as that's just a projection of the mind. *Aim for quality focused meditation sessions (try strong determination sittings) while accepting the present moment as it is, good or bad whatever that means to you. Being grateful and slow progression is the way  

 

"Practice diligently and persistently" as Goenka (Vipassana teacher) would say.