Controlling Your Mind During Meditation

[electroBeam]

Hi guys, I think the one big problem or obstacle we face when we try to meditate is our mind saying stuff like "this is boring!" "wow I have 30 minutes left??? This is hell, I can't do this!", "this is so painful i cant explain how painful it is" etc etc.

These sort of thoughts are able to make meditation unproductive, or even make us quit our meditation session. Is there any way to alleviate these thoughts, so that we can sit and meditate for longer periods of time?

What I have done is picture me relaxing on a nice warm beach whenever I experience thoughts that could potentially make me stop meditating. Though are these techniques appropriate during meditation? 

[key]

Thoughts are not what makes meditation unproductive, it's your resistance to them.

You believe it's a problem, but thinking it's a problem is the problem.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Kenya

[Naviy]

6 hours ago, electroBeam said:

 when we try to meditate is our mind saying stuff like "this is boring!" "wow I have 30 minutes left??? This is hell, I can't do this!", "this is so painful i cant explain how painful it is" etc etc.

Good!

6 hours ago, electroBeam said:

These sort of thoughts are able to make meditation unproductive, or even make us quit our meditation session.

Totally wrong.

6 hours ago, electroBeam said:

What I have done is picture me relaxing on a nice warm beach whenever I experience thoughts that could potentially make me stop meditating. Though are these techniques appropriate during meditation? 

Bad, wrong.

 

When you are having described thoughts and emotions, it is very good. It is when your meditation is the most effective, not the least effective.

The worst thing you can ever do - is to consciously avoid these thoughts and emotions or try to substitute them with other thoughts. If you do this, you will make your meditation much much weaker or even useless.

What you must do when these thoughts and emotions arise - just sit through them. No matter how hard and painful it is. It can be a torture. And sometimes it will be a torture. Good. Sit through this. Do not run from them. Let them do whatever they want. Let them torture "you". Do not avoid them, do not substitute them, do not manipulate them in ANY way. They will come and go, they will change all the time. You just sit in the storm with these thoughts and emotions the set amount of time. You don't have to be calm or peaceful. You will be in hell and in pain and you will panic. Very good. When your timer beeps, go do your stuff. And next day you meditate with WHATEVER comes to you. WHAT-E-VER comes to you. This is the most powerful meditation.

 

 

[FirstglimpseOMG]

Leo has such informed and straightforward videos on meditation.

How to, the pitfalls and traps to avoid, his personal experiences, three levels of meditation and how to change them up and make them effective for you. I'm glad I watched them, would have been subject to a lot of bullshit and misinformation myself, being inexperienced and trying to learn about simple, basic, effective meditation techniques and it's benefits from all over the internet.

[Saarah]

@electroBeam I like Alan watts analogy that thoughts are like ripples in water, meaning it's natural for them to occur, and if you don't touch them, just leave them alone, the water becomes still 

when you have these thoughts about meditation, treat them as you would any other thought, focus on simple observation and letting go instead of running away with it, that's what the effort of meditation is about in the first place,

being influenced by your thoughts about meditation enough to make you stop doing it is a useful demonstration to show how seriously you believe, invest and take your thoughts to be, so now you can work to improve on that  

[Azrael]

On 29.7.2016 at 11:38 AM, electroBeam said:

Is there any way to alleviate these thoughts, so that we can sit and meditate for longer periods of time?

When your mind says: "Hey, this is really boring, let's stop meditating" - stop to meditate. When your mind says: "Hey, let's stop doing this boring homework and play some video games" - stop doing your boring homework and play some video games.

When your mind stops making proposals you say: "Hey mind, let's meditate and make some homework after that if this feels good for you" - your mind will hold no opposition.

If your mind ever holds a sincere opposition to something you do, stop. If you do something that goes a little bit beyond your strength of will, your mind will tell you this but let you do it w/o much resistance.

Stop fucking with your brain, it knows exactly when to do what and how. You don't. You'll laugh at me - but somebody else will see beauty in this.

[WelcometoReality]

@electroBeam No matter if the thoughts are "this is boring!" or "Yeah I can do this all night baby!" or "I wonder what I should eat for dinner?, it's just thoughts. Don't assign any value to them.

[Beam]

My limited understanding is to and let them pass on by as they will on their own if you give them no value / attention. What you are waiting for is breaks in the imagery those are the valuable times of self control / mindfulness.
 

[30secs]

when my ego wants to stop meditating , I make it some sort of a challenge like"hey ego you know what,  we are meditating for one a half year now, so no matter what you say I'm going to finish it". I mean when you meditate consistently more than a year, that's a great inspiration  not to broke the habit.

[Christian]

@electroBeam

Thoughts simply arise out of and dissolve into nothingness and there is no you in there at all to control thoughts. This means that you have 0 control over your thoughts during meditation. So why waste so much time controlling thoughts? 

What I think you should spend time doing is SETTING THE HABIT. Make sure that you meditate every day and fucking do it!

Also, try not to manipulate the meditation. This means that you should let go of control and just let the meditation do its thing. Do not worry about what happens even if your monkey mind goes crazy! That is great, actually.

Your worst days are your best days