Self Improvement

Sit somewhere, set a timer for a few minutes, close your eyes, focus on your breathing. Slowly inhale 3-4 seconds, hold 3-4 seconds, exhale 3-4 seconds, hold 3-4 seconds, repeat. If a thought pops up, simply acknowledge it and let it go, no need to focus on it, go back to your breathing. Feelings in your body, acknowledge them, go back to your breathing. Eventually your timer will go off. Do it again the next day, and the next day. Add a minute each week. When the world starts to stress you out, focus on your breathing. When you're in a protracted people's war and taking small arms fire from cops, focus on your breathing. When you're launching molotov cocktails at tanks cruising down your street, focus on your breathing. When you're a judge on the tribunal for ICE, focus on your breathing. When you're being awarded the Bushnell medal for valor in defending your community at the 20 year anniversary of our victory, focus on your breathing. When you're finally on your deathbed surrounded by comrades and smiling and laughing as you all reminisce about what a great life you've lived, focus on your breathing.

Okay, you can stop now.

Just ignore Harris if his "techbro" (??) stuff bugs you and get the free month on his app, listen to the load of the other teachers on it and find one that resonates. Easily the best way to sample various systems in one place.

Also meditation was mainly just appropriated by western self-improvement ideology. It really isn't what it's for.

my favorite meditation method was something I got from midnight gospel (RIP duncan trussel).

Sit still, close your eyes, and start trying to feel the inside of your body. Find where are your bones, blood vessels, organs, muscles, etc. Go from the tip of your finger and move your focus up your arm into your chest and from there to the rest of your body. Don’t do it with touch do it in your mind.

IMO meditation is about clearing your mind and allowing for a modicum of emotional reset. The spiritual aspect is up to the individual to feel or not feel but anything past that is snake oil.

Breath exercises, like box breathing. Count in your head to help quiet your thoughts. I like to couple this with yoga poses. You can start simple, with e.g. the half lotus pose.

If you have a Vipassana center near you they offer free courses where they feed and house you while teaching you meditation. It is 7-10 days of silent meditation with no media consumption (no books no phones no computers) so it can be pretty tough the first time but it is also a great opportunity to unplug and again, it is free. The food is usually really good too

I was never really interested in meditation or anything approaching spirituality but my therapist got me into it, basically by just calling it something different, and I really enjoy it now. I don't have any guides to recommend, but I can tell you what I've gotten from meditation.

When I meditate, I slow down and try to notice what's going on in my body. I don't try to stop anything, or feel anything, I just observe what's there. I just notice my breathing, and contact with a chair or the floor or bed, and how my head feels. I try and see if there's any tension or energy anywhere in my body and if that's associated with anything. I noticed that when I'm anxious and overwhelmed, my body feels floaty and distant, and physical sensations are far away. When I meditate, I notice a sense of weight in my body and a feeling of solid contact with my chair or bed. If I I notice any tension or energy, I try to release it really slowly.

Meditation is the main part of my therapy, and while I don't really know how scientific it is, whether it's just a placebo effect or it coincides with other things in my life, it has made me a lot healthier mentally. My anxiety has been scaled back massively and isn't present most days.

My therapist talks about "listening to my body" and that's what I do. He tells me that my nervous system is in an elevated state of alarm, and meditation is just calming it down. The idea is that the mind follows where the body leads. And that's something I can definitely get behind. If I'm hungry or exhausted, I can't think as well, and the same goes for constantly being anxious, which is a physical emotion that I can feel. So focus on the physical and the mental will follow.

Alan Watts guided mediation This is where I started.

Also, box breathing works well

'The miracle of mindfulness' by Thich Nhat Hanh is a good introduction to meditation and spirituality overall

I think of the sound and sight of waves rolling into shore (mostly because I listened to wave sounds while first learning meditating). The timing helps with box breathing, and the “waves” gather up each thought and carry it away. And I picture my happy place, which is a decade ago sitting on the stoop with my friends before we all went our separate ways, one of the last times I recall feeling “carefree”. It’s a bittersweet memory, but extremely powerful, and helps ground the practice in reality.

Thank you everyone you all rock

I found this video to be a pretty interesting take. I brute-forced my way into zen-style mindfulness meditation years ago, and so now I don't have too much trouble just dropping back into it now, but this one suggests adding Om-chanting, which I think could be really helpful for someone struggling with getting started. Plus then you get to feel like a part of that real dope DOOM track too, so that's a bonus. https://youtu.be/DvuVhCIQgfQ

What do you do if you can't get your stupid brain to shut up? That's always been my problem with the meditation efforts.