Meditation: Cencentration on Breathing

[Rail Tracer]

Wasn't sure whether health and fitness or religion and spirituality would this topic fit better in.

I just remembered about Buddhism and meditating by only concentrating on the breath(Anapanasati.) Supposedly, what I am doing for my particular meditation is to concentrate my mind on one thing(and only one thing,) which is my breathing.

I tried it, and man was it hard to stop my thoughts from wandering off my breathing. Each time my mind would wander, I would force myself to go back to only concentrate on my breathing.

Whoever said doing one thing over and over again is a piece of cake, it isn't. There are just so many ways your mind can throw you off.

Has anyone ever tried some type of meditation? Did it work for your particular purpose?

 

[nolla]

I only meditate occationally and in a casual manner. I've heard that you should not force the thoughts away because then you are making a fight inside your mind and make the thoughts "attack" even stronger. You should observe them and kinda let them dissolve.

I guess my meditation has sometimes had clear effects on me. Like sensations and things like that. And I am more calm when I've done that. It freshens me up. I'd wish I could do it regularly, but I'm not really sure if I should impose a rule like this for myself, since I think it goes against the principle of not forcing it.

 

[Rail Tracer]

I've heard that you should not force the thoughts away because then you are making a fight inside your mind and make the thoughts "attack" even stronger. You should observe them and kinda let them dissolve.

In my session, I did not force my thoughts away in the manner in which they weren't wanted. But when I noticed my mind wandered to something else besides breathing (which is suppose to be my main focus,) it means that I noticed my mind wandered and understood that I can go back to remaining in focus to breathing.

How my little session went was
1:To concentrate on breathing (whether it be how deep or short my breath was or quick or slow paced my breathing was.)
2:If I noticed that my mind wandered (however long it takes) - I understood that my mind wandered and I go back to step 1.

There is no "Dang it, my mind wandered" or "You weren't suppose to wander, back to breathing."

It was more like, my mind went off of breathing. Ok, I understand that I thought this. Now I can go back to concentrating on my breathing.

 

[erm]

Whoever said doing one thing over and over again is a piece of cake, it isn't. There are just so many ways your mind can throw you off.

Bare in mind meditation is the act of calming and focusing the mind, not the state of having a calm and focused mind. As difficult as it is to measure progress, given the nature of what is being measured, it is better to look at how much calmer and more focused you are after meditation compared to before, than it is to look at how quiet and focused your mind became during or after meditation. There are many outside influences that will affect how unstable the mental starting point is of any given meditation session, thus affecting the entire session and what follows.

Has anyone ever tried some type of meditation? Did it work for your particular purpose?

I wouldn't say it "worked", but it is working as best as I can tell. I'm slowly eliminating other variables that may be responsible for the positive changes in my mind since starting regular meditation, and as such it being the cause of it all is looking more and more likely. I'm dedicated at this point, but also keeping a sceptical eye on the whole process.

 

[Ginkgo]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3882sGkrNA"].[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Curator]

Wasn't sure whether health and fitness or religion and spirituality would this topic fit better in.

I just remembered about Buddhism and meditating by only concentrating on the breath(Anapanasati.) Supposedly, what I am doing for my particular meditation is to concentrate my mind on one thing(and only one thing,) which is my breathing.

I tried it, and man was it hard to stop my thoughts from wandering off my breathing. Each time my mind would wander, I would force myself to go back to only concentrate on my breathing.

Whoever said doing one thing over and over again is a piece of cake, it isn't. There are just so many ways your mind can throw you off.

Has anyone ever tried some type of meditation? Did it work for your particular purpose?

Try a candle to start off, once you can do the candle, the rest comes easier, I practice zazen which is a bit more challenging in some respects, but once you reach that first dropping off...you realize how worth it it really is... it becomes easier after that...

 

[man]

ya of course

i try to meditate 30 min everday
sometimes i do tonglen

but usually just breathing is good

 

[mmhmm]

Each time my mind would wander, I would force myself to go back to only concentrate on my breathing.

don't force it. acknowledge it, without any attachment,
and let it pass through, and you will recenter yourself.

i use a mantra, when i practice vipassana.
bhut when i inhale to when i exhale.
i also do eight count breaths.

 

[thisGuy]

don't force it. acknowledge it, without any attachment,
and let it pass through, and you will recenter yourself.

i use a mantra, when i practice vipassana.
bhut when i inhale to when i exhale.
i also do eight count breaths.

woah thats crazy - i practice this technique where inhaling is hung and exhaling is tsa

according to this particular technique, i don't try to catch or control my breath. i try to follow it.

to the OP wondering about wandering thoughts. don`t focus on forcing those thoughts away instead concentrate on what you want to be doing, which is focus on that particular object (you may wanna try for that object to be your breath or even the spot between your eyesbrows)

 

[strawberries]

from other thread

may i add re gut breathing...when i was starting out my yogi told me something very useful. he suggested i think of my breath as filling up my belly - like pouring water - imagine it flowing into the lower part of your belly first. filling you up. your breath expands your belly until you're all topped up and full of air. take pause - feel it, but not so it's uncomfortable.

when you breathe out you can think of the air travelling back up and out of your belly - like emptying out the water.

don't be afraid for your breathing to be a bit noisy and to actually make your belly go a bit sticky-outy when you're breathing air in.

 

[King sns]

That's funny! My mom and I were talking about this just today. (A couple of hours ago.) Meditation. We agreed that forcing thoughts out of your mind during meditation is counterproductive. It's better to just let it enter and then continue to focus on your breathing, (or whatever the focus was) until the thought goes away on it's own.

 

[SRT]

I tend to fall asleep when I try to meditate.

But yeah, so difficult to keep my mind from wandering off

 

[thisGuy]

I tend to fall asleep when I try to meditate.

that made me lol


lol

 

[Rail Tracer]

that made me lol


lol

It happens from time to time

My mind sort of feels refreshed to the point that my mind finally decides that it is willing to tell me I am tired. Which, the only thing that has that strong of a power is if I am in a boring lecture (especially math courses) or it is 6 a.m. in the morning in which my mind (for no matter what reason) tells my body I am tired.

 

[INTP]

i have tried it few time some years ago, i simply cant keep my mind from wandering. i was told its good to concentrate on some object in your mind like rock and keep eyes closed. i just couldnt do that, i could think of rock for like 10-30secs at times and then noticed that im thinking about something totally else. i think focusing on breathing would work better.

i have been working out a bit in the past few days and i rest in meditation stance(sitting on my legs, not legs crossed), maybe i should try to focus on my breathing more, should be easier if i would be exhausted