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Do you happen to have a good link to a jump-start article about meditation. I am in a sinilar situation as you, life is gray, anxiety problems, ... How should

Do you happen to have a good link to a jump-start article about meditation. I am in a sinilar situation as you, life is gray, anxiety problems, ... How should I start doing this today (and the next 4 weeks) without doing too much initial research?

ruraljuror 11y ago
If you get an audio guide you can essentially start right away. If you have a streaming service, search for 'mindfulness'. On Google play there is one from Oxford. They used to have several albums from Kabatt-Zinn but they seem to have disappeared. I would recommend those. In any case, make sure to purchase so you are not interrupted by ads. If you want to do a bit of research there is a YouTube video of a Kabatt-Zinn talk at Google where he leads a short session.
- draven 11y ago
  There's also The Healing Power of Mindfulness by Kabatt-Zinn at Dartmouth. There's a session at about 50mn in. https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I
jwdunne 11y ago
For mindfulness, this features as part of DBT, a therapy targetted at people who suffer from borderline personality disorder. Although a bit drastic, searching for "DBT mindfulness" will provide tonnes of resources that teach mindfulness techniques in a way that's acceptable in a clinical setting. Things such as worksheets, DBT websites, etc. Headspace is also a fantastic suggestion, as above.
damontal 11y ago
I recommend Gil Fronsdal's podcast. It's free and he's a very good teacher. He has a series specifically for beginners... http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
- chc 11y ago
  Gil Fronsdal's podcast is great. A lot of meditation teachers seem to be either very distant or have an alienating New Age-y-ness about them. I found Gil to be very relatable and informative.
alanwatts 11y ago
Alan Watts Teaches Meditation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVrnTNpVe5I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVrnTNpVe5I
avtar 11y ago
I recommend this book to anyone just starting a meditation practice: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Happiness-Meditation-28-Day-Program/dp/0761159258 http://www.amazon.com/Real-Happiness-Meditation-28-Day-Progr... Look up Sharon Salzberg. She, along with a few others, helped spread the practice of insight meditation in North America a few decades ago. That book includes a CD containing guided meditations and attempts to provide a framework for practice over 28 days.
drostie 11y ago
This is more traditional meditation; mindfulness is something which is also practiced in a sort of everyday life, but here's a 5-minute guide to meditating. So the first thing you need that's often sadly overlooked is a special place which you make for meditation. This can be as simple as "I am going to set an exercise mat in the middle of the carpet in my living room." Keep the space to be relatively clean. Cleaning is itself a great way to dedicate your mind to wholesomeness and order. Once you've cleaned a space and imbued it with symbolic power, "here is where I am going to meditate", you sit there. Sit however you like the first several times. There is a special way to sit involving a "Zafu" (a pillow that when compressed is still 4-6 inches wide) that you may want to research, where you sit on the edge of it with much weight resting on your knees, and your feet are in a position that neither restricts blood flow nor pinches nerves. The cushion angles your hips forwards, which keeps your back straight. But if you don't have the disposable income to get the cusion for this, just sit down however feels comfortable. Place your hands wherever feels most natural for you to be able to breathe deeply. Once you have a comfortable seat in that place, it helps to have a little speech to focus your attention and remind yourself what you are doing and why. One Buddhist pre-meditation speech I heard says (with a bit of misremembering and translation error doubtless thrown in): "I am here to end my confusion and distraction. If ending confusion is more important to me right now than everything else, I will succeed. If it is not more important than something, I won't. I am not here to learn some new ideology, but just to pay attention to my own mind: I want to awaken to the causes of my distraction so that I can learn how they work and restrict their power over me." Now, have something repetitive that you can come constantly back to. Distraction works like alcohol works: if you ingest a little, it subtly compromises your mind in just the sort of way that makes it more likely to ingest more. So this is why the space is clean and you are sitting with good posture without pain, so that you remove the most common distractions of mess, sleep, discomfort. Many people use the rhythm of deep breaths as the repetitive thing they can come back to. If you are a more visual person, you might want to instead put an object of religious veneration, be it a cross or a Buddha or what-have-you. Someone whose peacefulness you can study is good. I once helped develop a more "active" picture for a friend who had grown up with either ADD or ADHD, I don't remember which. She said she needed something more like a wholesome movie. We tried to structure it so that it could still be repetitive. Then a week later neither of us could remember what we had done the week before, so we created a new one but as a mnemonic we structured it around 5 elements. It looked something like this: Dwell on each of these for 10-15 minutes as a way to eliminate distractions. If you find yourself thinking about something else, allow yourself to think about it for a little, then return to the element you're on. 1. (Air) You are walking through a forest, and the wind is blowing through the trees, blowing through your hair, removing any impurity or distraction that is an obstacle to your growth. You settle on a direction where these winds of change are at your back, letting them push you wherever they need you. 2. (Fire) There is the smell of smoke, then a feeling of heat behind you, then light, and you find yourself running, running through this forest which lights up, needing to take swift, dynamic action to dodge the flames and keep ahead of the blaze, to get to safety. 3. (Water) The fire opens up into a clearing with a river. There are some scared animals: a fox, some bunnies, a squirrel. You are holding them to your chest to reassure them, and then you lay on your back in the river, rafting them safely downstream. Your compassion brings a calm, soothing rain which starts to fall, extinguishing the blaze into steam. 4. (Earth) You get up and set the animals free as the river bends near a rock face, and walk along the side of the hill. You find a trail that goes up it. You feel these smooth, ancient, unmoving stones beside you as you ascend this cliff. You feel calm and relaxed with these stones that never need to be anything other than what they are. 5. (Void) The trail opens up to a landing. You sit down on the landing with this solid rock beneath you and look up at the night sky. You see the valley in front of you, even more mountain behind you, and are struck by how big this place is and how small we are. The bottom line is that anything works, if it's not too complicated and allows you to say "hey, I am thinking too much about this other person who insulted me the other day, I'm just going to come back to this thing I'm supposed to be focusing on and focus on that instead."
coderholic 11y ago
You could try http://calm.com http://calm.com, or the Calm app (disclosure: I work at Calm)
kordless 11y ago
I would recommend to start by listening to Alan Watts for a few days before digging into meditation techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emHAoQGoQic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emHAoQGoQic He's pretty funny and does a good job of covering the rationale behind Taoist practices, which include meditation and mindfulness.
Outdoorsman 11y ago
I'll share a technique I stumbled upon years ago that helps me tremendously whenever I feel stressed, e.g., to meet some gig deadline....no link, but it only takes a few minutes... Just sit and focus on letting your lower jaw hang open for, say 5 minutes ...all the slack you can get...I think you'll find it's very hard to worry, or think about much anything else while consciously doing this... It's very typical for the average person to go through the day with their jaw at least lightly clenched...more tightly when under stress... Try it..consider it open source... To increase the benefit breathe in deeply and force yourself to exhale for twice the amount of time it took you to breathe in...or, do this separately...
hackercomplex 11y ago
There is a vast "spiritual marketplace" in the western culture which incorporates everything from yoga, to self-help movements, life-coaches, new-age, pop psychology, and more. I recommend you pick a Wisdom tradition with roots in the very ancient past of which there are several, and make a study of it's roots and branches and resist the urge to tightly couple yourself to one teacher until you've read more about the practice and heritage. Buddhism is an example of one such Wisdom tradition. Since you ask for a jump start here is an introductory book on Zen buddhism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFt1r7eubbc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFt1r7eubbc
westoncb 11y ago
Watch the video I linked to and others from the same guy (Ajahn Brahm). If you want other perspectives on the subject—which eventually, you probably should—might checkout "Meditation for Beginners": pretty good compilation of ~20 different meditation experts speaking on the subject with different backgrounds and focuses
asdrubale88 11y ago
I would suggest you Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4hCvdDn7Zc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4hCvdDn7Zc Meditation is substantially observation without identification, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to start: 1. Sit down with legs crossed (comfortable) 2. Just sit and see thoughts, listen sounds, sense your body 3. Just be. No doing required.
manuelflara 11y ago
I suggest you start with HeadSpace, it's an app with zero spirituality or religion, and IMO killer content (if I'm not mistaken, the voice of the videos is that of the founder himself, who used to be a monk). Most of the content you have to pay for, but it provides the first 10 lessons (for the first 10 days, although you can replay them as much as you want) for free, and I think they're a fantastic, easy way to get started.
- wprapido 11y ago
  a happy lifetime headspace subscriber here! it's amazing!
- foobarqux 11y ago
  "Killer content"? I did 5 of the first free sessions and the content was essentially the same each time and the process is probably easier to do on your own once you have learned the 3-4 steps that are repeated. Did I miss something?
- arstin 11y ago
  I also recommend Headspace! Certainly do the free content, and I think it's worth paying for a while longer. You don't pay to learn facts or techniques...get those from books...you pay to be given structure in real-time---the whisper in your ear to get back on track, now try this, now try that. For the effect of "now I'm going to meditate" when you hear that guy's voice. When you're just starting out, this sort of help is probably the most important thing.
crispyambulance 11y ago
There is a really excellent resource here, http://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_collections_index.html http://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_collections_index.html, that introduces what is known as "breath meditation". Very simple, rewarding stuff. I listen to these from time to time and practice it for a few minutes every day.

ruraljuror 11y ago

If you get an audio guide you can essentially start right away. If you have a streaming service, search for 'mindfulness'. On Google play there is one from Oxford. They used to have several albums from Kabatt-Zinn but they seem to have disappeared. I would recommend those. In any case, make sure to purchase so you are not interrupted by ads. If you want to do a bit of research there is a YouTube video of a Kabatt-Zinn talk at Google where he leads a short session.

draven 11y ago
There's also The Healing Power of Mindfulness by Kabatt-Zinn at Dartmouth. There's a session at about 50mn in. https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I

jwdunne 11y ago

For mindfulness, this features as part of DBT, a therapy targetted at people who suffer from borderline personality disorder. Although a bit drastic, searching for "DBT mindfulness" will provide tonnes of resources that teach mindfulness techniques in a way that's acceptable in a clinical setting. Things such as worksheets, DBT websites, etc. Headspace is also a fantastic suggestion, as above.

damontal 11y ago

I recommend Gil Fronsdal's podcast. It's free and he's a very good teacher. He has a series specifically for beginners... http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/

chc 11y ago
Gil Fronsdal's podcast is great. A lot of meditation teachers seem to be either very distant or have an alienating New Age-y-ness about them. I found Gil to be very relatable and informative.

alanwatts 11y ago

Alan Watts Teaches Meditation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVrnTNpVe5I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVrnTNpVe5I

avtar 11y ago

I recommend this book to anyone just starting a meditation practice: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Happiness-Meditation-28-Day-Program/dp/0761159258 http://www.amazon.com/Real-Happiness-Meditation-28-Day-Progr... Look up Sharon Salzberg. She, along with a few others, helped spread the practice of insight meditation in North America a few decades ago. That book includes a CD containing guided meditations and attempts to provide a framework for practice over 28 days.

drostie 11y ago

This is more traditional meditation; mindfulness is something which is also practiced in a sort of everyday life, but here's a 5-minute guide to meditating. So the first thing you need that's often sadly overlooked is a special place which you make for meditation. This can be as simple as "I am going to set an exercise mat in the middle of the carpet in my living room." Keep the space to be relatively clean. Cleaning is itself a great way to dedicate your mind to wholesomeness and order. Once you've cleaned a space and imbued it with symbolic power, "here is where I am going to meditate", you sit there. Sit however you like the first several times. There is a special way to sit involving a "Zafu" (a pillow that when compressed is still 4-6 inches wide) that you may want to research, where you sit on the edge of it with much weight resting on your knees, and your feet are in a position that neither restricts blood flow nor pinches nerves. The cushion angles your hips forwards, which keeps your back straight. But if you don't have the disposable income to get the cusion for this, just sit down however feels comfortable. Place your hands wherever feels most natural for you to be able to breathe deeply. Once you have a comfortable seat in that place, it helps to have a little speech to focus your attention and remind yourself what you are doing and why. One Buddhist pre-meditation speech I heard says (with a bit of misremembering and translation error doubtless thrown in): "I am here to end my confusion and distraction. If ending confusion is more important to me right now than everything else, I will succeed. If it is not more important than something, I won't. I am not here to learn some new ideology, but just to pay attention to my own mind: I want to awaken to the causes of my distraction so that I can learn how they work and restrict their power over me." Now, have something repetitive that you can come constantly back to. Distraction works like alcohol works: if you ingest a little, it subtly compromises your mind in just the sort of way that makes it more likely to ingest more. So this is why the space is clean and you are sitting with good posture without pain, so that you remove the most common distractions of mess, sleep, discomfort. Many people use the rhythm of deep breaths as the repetitive thing they can come back to. If you are a more visual person, you might want to instead put an object of religious veneration, be it a cross or a Buddha or what-have-you. Someone whose peacefulness you can study is good. I once helped develop a more "active" picture for a friend who had grown up with either ADD or ADHD, I don't remember which. She said she needed something more like a wholesome movie. We tried to structure it so that it could still be repetitive. Then a week later neither of us could remember what we had done the week before, so we created a new one but as a mnemonic we structured it around 5 elements. It looked something like this: Dwell on each of these for 10-15 minutes as a way to eliminate distractions. If you find yourself thinking about something else, allow yourself to think about it for a little, then return to the element you're on. 1. (Air) You are walking through a forest, and the wind is blowing through the trees, blowing through your hair, removing any impurity or distraction that is an obstacle to your growth. You settle on a direction where these winds of change are at your back, letting them push you wherever they need you. 2. (Fire) There is the smell of smoke, then a feeling of heat behind you, then light, and you find yourself running, running through this forest which lights up, needing to take swift, dynamic action to dodge the flames and keep ahead of the blaze, to get to safety. 3. (Water) The fire opens up into a clearing with a river. There are some scared animals: a fox, some bunnies, a squirrel. You are holding them to your chest to reassure them, and then you lay on your back in the river, rafting them safely downstream. Your compassion brings a calm, soothing rain which starts to fall, extinguishing the blaze into steam. 4. (Earth) You get up and set the animals free as the river bends near a rock face, and walk along the side of the hill. You find a trail that goes up it. You feel these smooth, ancient, unmoving stones beside you as you ascend this cliff. You feel calm and relaxed with these stones that never need to be anything other than what they are. 5. (Void) The trail opens up to a landing. You sit down on the landing with this solid rock beneath you and look up at the night sky. You see the valley in front of you, even more mountain behind you, and are struck by how big this place is and how small we are. The bottom line is that anything works, if it's not too complicated and allows you to say "hey, I am thinking too much about this other person who insulted me the other day, I'm just going to come back to this thing I'm supposed to be focusing on and focus on that instead."

coderholic 11y ago

You could try http://calm.com http://calm.com, or the Calm app (disclosure: I work at Calm)

kordless 11y ago

I would recommend to start by listening to Alan Watts for a few days before digging into meditation techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emHAoQGoQic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emHAoQGoQic He's pretty funny and does a good job of covering the rationale behind Taoist practices, which include meditation and mindfulness.

Outdoorsman 11y ago

I'll share a technique I stumbled upon years ago that helps me tremendously whenever I feel stressed, e.g., to meet some gig deadline....no link, but it only takes a few minutes... Just sit and focus on letting your lower jaw hang open for, say 5 minutes ...all the slack you can get...I think you'll find it's very hard to worry, or think about much anything else while consciously doing this... It's very typical for the average person to go through the day with their jaw at least lightly clenched...more tightly when under stress... Try it..consider it open source... To increase the benefit breathe in deeply and force yourself to exhale for twice the amount of time it took you to breathe in...or, do this separately...

hackercomplex 11y ago

There is a vast "spiritual marketplace" in the western culture which incorporates everything from yoga, to self-help movements, life-coaches, new-age, pop psychology, and more. I recommend you pick a Wisdom tradition with roots in the very ancient past of which there are several, and make a study of it's roots and branches and resist the urge to tightly couple yourself to one teacher until you've read more about the practice and heritage. Buddhism is an example of one such Wisdom tradition. Since you ask for a jump start here is an introductory book on Zen buddhism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFt1r7eubbc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFt1r7eubbc

westoncb 11y ago

Watch the video I linked to and others from the same guy (Ajahn Brahm). If you want other perspectives on the subject—which eventually, you probably should—might checkout "Meditation for Beginners": pretty good compilation of ~20 different meditation experts speaking on the subject with different backgrounds and focuses

asdrubale88 11y ago

I would suggest you Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4hCvdDn7Zc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4hCvdDn7Zc Meditation is substantially observation without identification, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to start: 1. Sit down with legs crossed (comfortable) 2. Just sit and see thoughts, listen sounds, sense your body 3. Just be. No doing required.

manuelflara 11y ago

I suggest you start with HeadSpace, it's an app with zero spirituality or religion, and IMO killer content (if I'm not mistaken, the voice of the videos is that of the founder himself, who used to be a monk). Most of the content you have to pay for, but it provides the first 10 lessons (for the first 10 days, although you can replay them as much as you want) for free, and I think they're a fantastic, easy way to get started.

wprapido 11y ago
a happy lifetime headspace subscriber here! it's amazing!
foobarqux 11y ago
"Killer content"? I did 5 of the first free sessions and the content was essentially the same each time and the process is probably easier to do on your own once you have learned the 3-4 steps that are repeated. Did I miss something?
arstin 11y ago
I also recommend Headspace! Certainly do the free content, and I think it's worth paying for a while longer. You don't pay to learn facts or techniques...get those from books...you pay to be given structure in real-time---the whisper in your ear to get back on track, now try this, now try that. For the effect of "now I'm going to meditate" when you hear that guy's voice. When you're just starting out, this sort of help is probably the most important thing.

crispyambulance 11y ago

There is a really excellent resource here, http://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_collections_index.html http://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_collections_index.html, that introduces what is known as "breath meditation". Very simple, rewarding stuff. I listen to these from time to time and practice it for a few minutes every day.