I'm interested to hear how the good people of Typology Central experience meditation and how they feel their enneagram type affects this experience (if at all). So, for those of you who meditate or have meditated or have ever tried to meditate, what do you hope to get out of it? Are you targeting any particular issues?
I mainly like trying new things. Meditation is shown to scientifically alter your brain state. I think that's a pretty amazing tool. I like having that option, and I like seeing what the effects are. When I initially started to meditate it was to get myself out of my head. In traditional terms I was just over thinking, in MBTI terms it was Ti overload. Either way I knew I had to be a bit less logical and a bit more creative, when it came to that dichotomy. In any case I believe meditation helped a lot on that end. I don't meditate for that reason anymore. I usually meditate now for relaxation or if I'm bored. It is still a great tool for creativity, though, I think.
What's your preferred style of meditation? How did you come across it? Did you adapt it to fit you better and if so, how? Or do you experiment with different styles?
I pretty much like all of the forms of meditation that I've outlined above. I usually choose whichever one based on how I'm feeling that day, or what I want to get out of meditating.
What are the biggest challenges you face while meditating? (e.g. easily distracted, can't sit still, get bored, get overwhelmed, etc.) Do you feel these relate to your enneagram or tritype? How?
At first I use to get scared of my own thoughts. I would start thinking about thoughts that frightened me. I'd see frightening images, etc. I think those are related to subconscious fears, and they were kind of being brought to the forefront. I had to take breaks when meditating when that happened. Eventually those passed and I became more calm. However, there was the problem of distracting thoughts and tangental thinking. I still have issues with that, but after a long enough period of meditating they seem to die down. It might have something to do with me becoming more relaxed / tired so my brain stops fighting against itself lol.