Mental Health

Im new to lemmy. im laying in my gaarden and just enjoying nature and also the sounds around me. helped me alot.

how do u stay connected as a community on a daily basis on lemmy? im new and i dont think i can follow people only hashtags

Technically yeah i practice mindfulness meditation, though not in standard way.

Mostly to help with my alexithymia(emotional blindness), learning to notice bodily sensations more can be helpful in figuring out what emotion i might be experiencing.

I've tried the typical of sitting still type of meditation, but it never really worked ADHD and such.
Then i started resistance training and over time i noticed that while I'm lifting. I have to focus on my body, i have to focus on breathing, i have to focus on keeping my attention on the weight and my body to make sure that the weight moves correctly and with control, that my form stays somewhat correct, that I'm using right muscles.
All of that works kinda like mindfulness meditation and has been helpful in teaching me to notice my bodily signal and how my mind works and eventually even slightly controlling or directing it to avoid negative spiraling.

I went along to the local Soto temple for 6 months or so a while back and learned the basics of zazen and managed a few 4-6hr sits.

I found that very helpful, the tradition seemed rather wise in the ways of this stuff and made me realize I had not been meditating all those years and more just sitting in fancy way and indulging in daydreaming for chillaxing, zazen is fucking brutal.

Much of what I've consumed under the brand of 'mindfulness' is not all that great imo, the soto teacher was not amused at all with it. The material I've gotten via medical services, and the stuff provided to my kids in times of need, is often not worth the paper it is printed on.

My mindfulness practice has recently sort of fallen to the wayside. I try to meditate twice a day but as I've been struggling with psychosis/paranoia, I find a lot of the time that I sit to meditate instead ends up being spent ruminating. I'm trying to gradually get back into it though, making more of an effort each session to spend more of the time actually meditating vs caught up in worried thoughts.

Something I used to do that I think could be useful to start up again was "slow mornings", basically I'm very much internet/computer addicted so what I would do sometimes is when I wake up, rather than checking my PC, avoid all technology for as long as I could. It was usually just a few hours, but being unable to check my PC or my phone during that time meant I spent the time doing other things like meditation, exercise, reading, or just sitting and enjoying the silence. I found it had a massively positive effect on my mental health when I was doing it. Maybe this is my cue to restart it.

I try to do at least two of the following every day: journaling, walking, art, yoga, meditation, therapy, breath work, gratitude practice.

Recently, I've been working on being my own witness and that being enough. When my nervous system starts to react, I try to pause, take a breath, thank whatever protection program is trying its best to serve me, remind myself that I am safe and that I see myself, and then try and respond rather than react. It takes patience, curiosity, and a ton of self-compassion. The more I turn inward, the easier it is for me to turn outward.

I could hear 5 different birds, even though I’m not sure what species they were other than whippoorwills and cardinals

While not necessarily compatible with mindful moments, the Merlin app can aid in identifying birds based on their songs and calls.

For about 15 years I’ve been doing what I call “thankfulness,” where I force myself to acknowledge that I’m thankful for something. Often it’s just little things in the flow of the day because that’s easy to incorporate (like being thankful that there’s a still a couple of Oreos left to have with tea — really basic, low-hanging fruit). Other times it’s thinking about more meaningful things in a deep way. But it’s habitual now, to the point where I find myself being thankful for being thankful.

I'm a big fan of walking meditation. I sometimes do still-posture meditation, particularly at night when I am troubled by unceasing thought, but it's not nearly as pleasant as walking with an empty head, seeing without looking and hearing without listening, feeling my footfalls and the motion of my body through the air. It's harder when it's hotter than Satan's swampass outside, but I still get something out of it. Being present isn't just about feeling nice things, it's about feeling what's present.