Too asleep in meditation practice

[Ima Freeman]

13 hours ago, Salvijus said:

Watch the doer instead. I used this practice for many years. It's impossible to not be mindful while doing it. It's brutal for the ego. And it's 100x times more faster growth then labeling.

Is it best practiced in a formal way or while in everday's activities?

[Ima Freeman]

12 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Kriya yoga is designed to help with this as it slowly rewires the nervous system.

Traditional meditation is very weak unless you do it in hardcore retreat settings for dozens of hours at a stretch.

If you only have 1-2hrs per day for practice, yoga is gonna be your best chance for results.

I may start krya yoga again.
I was initiated into Sadhguru's Shambhavi Mahamudra, so I already have a basis.

 

5 hours ago, Loving Radiance said:

@Ima Freeman Do longer hardcore meditation sessions. Like SDS. Or go to a retreat like vipassana.

I'm looking forward to doing vipassana, because I'm more aware in practices when others are around.

[Ima Freeman]

10 hours ago, BlurryBoi said:

@Ima Freeman dude im in a very similar place in my life !

Meditation is basically the best thing i discovered for my mental health, wisdom, lucidity and happiness.

But Ego struggles haaard, i have so much irrational resistance to it (check "the war of art" by s.pressfield).

And with chronic burnout im always self-deceived in random daydreams and subtle-bullshit expectations.

 

Something that can help you for this is to :

Intimately Reflect on your uniquely different and Legitimate past experience, with full Authority and independance from other's "ways/howto".

So that you can re-CLARIFY the WHY(s) you are doing Meditation for.

And then looking back, intuitively WHAT type of meditation has been actually Resonating The Most With YOU for this purpose. 

And figure out HOW to maximize this specific thing/way (in the meditative process, but also around it in how you setup your daily life).

And Focus ONLY on your top 1 (for rigid mastery) or top 3 (for flexible pertinence). (check "elastic habits" by s.guise)

 

As an example for me :

i clarified what is (and isn't) Most Pertinent, For My Unique Situation nowadays :

its Not to meditate for concentration or lucidity/awakening, and not even for wisdom insights. 

Its to meditate for deep Rest and to cultivate Equanimity (so that i can basically train myself every day to let go and Accept Unconditionally whatever happens during Psychedelic trips)

So i ditched 99.9% of the guided meditations i've been collecting for a while and distracting myself with. And i've designed what process works best for me in actuality. 

I also have been designing my Routine and Priorities so that (in a Flexible but Structured way), i reserve enough Space/Time/Attention to really meditate.

And i have a little bit of THC on the side, so that mutliple times a week when i feel like it i can gently familiarize myself with the psychedelic world, undistracted.

Thx for the detailed explanation.

I made a plan to put more thought into my life, so I will definitely contemplate on the why of my meditation effort. 

[tuku747]

On 8/5/2023 at 3:32 PM, Ima Freeman said:

I meditate daily for ~2 years now. Before I meditated consistently for months, then had pauses of some months. Tried standard mindfulness meditation, krya yoga and currently noting using labels.

I know that meditation is an skill which must be cultivated for a very long time, but I see only very, very little progress.

My biggest hurdle is, that I seem to have too little wakefulness, like my awareness is underpowered. My "brain-power" really is a bottleneck. 
I am a very restless person, so fatigue is most often not a problem.
But staying at a mindful state of consciousness for more than 20-30 seconds seems impossible, except by having some mystical breakthrough experience.

Noting with labels definitely is helping, because it forces part of my mind to actively look at what is happening.
What other things can I do to get more wakeful? What did work for you? 
Thanks in advance
 

Breathwork helped me tremendously with this. As soon as you notice subtle dullness or tiredness try a few Dragon Breaths. It involves breathing in rapidly through the nostrils twice in a row, filling the lungs, and quickly exhaling everything through the mouth, repeating in rapid succession until you are adequately awake.

[Leo Gura]

Kirya yoga is really good for preventing literal sleepiness.

[Salvijus]

11 hours ago, Ima Freeman said:

Is it best practiced in a formal way or while in everday's activities?

In a formal way. But the practice itself is hard to explain and is too advanced. Here's another meditation I wish to write down that is very good for not getting carried away and becoming unmindful.

Instead of trying to stop the activity of the mind, observe the activity of the mind. Usually people are frustrated with their thoughts and they try to look away where there are no thoughts and stay there. And it never works for long. Rather then trying to look away and ignore thoughts. Observe thoughts. Observe what your mind is doing moment to moment. Every image that comes, every fantasy that comes, every unresolved feeling that comes, every desire that comes, every intention that comes, every movement that happens. Then you can't get carried away, because you will be watching the mind wondering around. And if you're watching the mind wondering around that means you are still alert and not lost.