Does Meditation Help You?

I do it every day. I don't think I am very good at it, but I'm not supposed to judge myself. There I go again...

I am wondering if people meditate. If so, does it really help? How? With what specific symptoms is it helpful? How often do you do it? How do you do it? If you don't meditate, why not?

I lay on my bed on my back and just breathe the way I was taught. Kind of the Thich Nhat Hanh thing, though I don't use the same words he suggests because my breaths are too short usually to do all that.


I have found it incredibly helpful mostly when I am totally psychotiic and/or manic and out of control. It will calm me if I just stick with it. It will lower anxiety and panic, as long as I hang with it for a few minutes.


Anyway, it has been a real life saver for me, as I am not on any anxiety meds anymore. Can't stand Klopnopin and Buspar was worthless for me. Tried several others, too. This works better for me.


Anyhow, that's it. Thanks for any input!!

I meditate every day using the app Balance. It has tons of guided meditations. I find it extremely helpful in dealing with anxiety, it just helps calm me down and keep me centered instead of drifting off into obsessive worry constantly. The more I practice the more I find myself using it in my daily life like second nature whenever I’m stressed.

No. I can never sit still long enough. I've given it a good try, but it's simply not my thing.

No. It makes me feel worse. But I'm happy for you that it seems to help.

My first major exposure to meditation and related wellness strategies (i.e. breathing techniques) were total busts. It's not that they were poorly taught, I was just incapable of benefiting from them, at the time. I was manic or manic with mixed features. Perhaps others in mania somehow benefit, but to me, it was like scratching a chalkboard with fingernails. You can't imagine how many times I literally ran out of IOP/PHP/hospital group rooms, and often a nurse would be beckoned to check on me. Sometimes art therapy was similar, unless the therapist let me write, instead. They were downright triggering, at those times. Or, if I could stay in the room, I would start laughing hysterically or having anger outbursts. Obviously quite disruptive!

As my moods stabilized a bit, I did learn to appreciate some breathing techniques. Though I am yet to be able to meditate, in the traditional sense, I have made progress challenging dysfunctional thinking, using affirmations and self cheerleading, and practicing mindfulness. I still have trouble sitting still. Or if I do, I must be doing something (thinking, daydreaming, typing/writing, talking). Whenever anyone suggests trying yoga, my absolute refusal is met with bafflement or further pressuring. I've tried yoga, and it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Once I ran out of a class, and the yoga instructor ran after me demanding I explain myself. What a nightmare! I had a similar experience when taking an adult school class in Ikebana. That was interesting because I had/have no problem with regular western-style flower arranging classes, which to me give a very different feeling. Something about Ikebana seemed too much like meditation. I lasted fewer than 30 mins in the first class meeting.Yea, I'm weird! I could actually give a short lecture on "Flower arranging and me."

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, BD--thank you for making me laugh today!!!! Chased by a yoga instructor!! What on this planet could possibly be better than that?

I have a Holosync program that is an hour long meditation that is supposed to develop your pre frontal cortex and a bunch of other benefits which escape me right now. I put on the headphones and instantly calm down and gain clarity. I use that time to practice deep diaphragmatic breathing, meditating (which helps my panic and anxiety) and visualizing my goals. I find meditating beneficial overall. It calms my mind.

I began meditating with TM when I was 17 (in 1979). I didn't stay with that long, but it was a start.

When I was in my late 20's I became very involved with Buddhist meditation, sitting zazen. I found that meditation to be immensely helpful spiritually. I have been practicing it for decades.

Unfortunately, meditation has never helped my severe anxiety in the least.

I started meditating when I was in my early 20's using the techniques and guidance in Lawrence LaShan's "How to Meditate". There's more detail on my blog about all that.

These days, I meditate lying on my back in bed as you do, bpcyclist, although I'm not sure about how you breathe. I chant in my mind, and I sometimes incorporate complete breathing technique as described in the old book "The Science of Breath." The chanting is "Om Mani Padme Hum" on the inhale; "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo", exhale. But I think it's too complicated, and I might revert back to breath counting.

For the breath counting I would count from 1 to 10, inhaling at odd numbers; exhaling at even numbers. But also not controlling the breath but letting it happen naturally.

I tend to wake up in a panic very early in the morning. (And actually this morning was the worst. I was actually shaking -- it's never happened before.) The meditation helps me calm down and get back to sleep.

Mindfulness is the key to meditation IMO. And the ultimate lifestyle is to be mindful at all times.

Peace

Thanks for sharing, good post

We did it everyday while ip.
I love guided meditations. I get lost in them.

To me "meditation" is a vast sea of various techniques. Meditation isn't a thing and there are soooo many ways of doing it that just talking about whether meditation works or not is not very meaningful to me.

Some meditation ways or techniques work much better for me than others. In particular, "mindfulness" to be aware of the present moment throughout the day helps me checkin in and see when I am getting off track into mania, anxiety, or depression. Then, I have a chance to use other techniques such as CBT or journalling or art therapy or other techniques to cope with it or a specific form of meditation such as counting breaths.

On my own, I tend to drift a lot in meditating and lose direction (and intention). The past 2 weeks, I was fortunate to take a live, online mindfulness beginners class that was given because the Meditation Center was closed because of COVID. I learned a lot. Reading how to do it hasn't helped as much.

What works best for me in coping with BP and anxiety is a mindful concentration meditation of counting inhales and exhales 1-4 in time with slow breathing. The slow breathing helps me calm down. The counting gives my busy mind something to do rather than spouting even more thoughts.

The counting is a stronger anchor to the present than trying to focus on breathing one in many forms of meditation for me. My mind drifts and gets pulled away into my thinking if I try to focus only on my breathing. I usually have a very active mind that goes all over the place (especially when I am manic or anxious), and the teacher pointed out that for beginners in Zen, they may spend a year or more only doing counting meditation to try to train the mind to concentrate. Part of my difficulties with meditation have come because I tried to do too much and advance too fast and do techniques beyond what my busy mind can do now or perhaps may ever be able to do ...

I try practice throughout the day (and night) as well as during short sits. The benefits for me come in trying to do it throughout the day, not just in short sits and expect it to carry through the rest of the day. Others may have a different experience.

The past two nights, I have used the simple counting technique after I woke up to fall back to sleep again, and it worked well. I have slept better even with some physical pain than I have in a long while. Tonight I was at a small meeting, and I practiced it for a while and it helped. My problem will be remembering to do it, but daily practicing helps me make it more likely to remember. “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” – Sharon Salzberg Can I do it 100% of the time--no, but it helps when I do, and I try to practice self-kindness when I forget.

Meditation for me is practicing and learning when works for me--the teacher for the class I took made the point that people differ and to be mindful of what works or not and to make adjustments.

Note I am not saying that meditation or mindful meditation will cure or treat all mental health conditions, especially severe ones. But it helps me cope with mine. It especially helps me cope and reduce my anxiety that sometimes triggers my BP and vice versa. Too often with mania, I like it. So I can be mindful that I am going into it, but choose to not try to nip it in the bud before it is out of control....

This is my experience, yours may be entirely different.

Had not heard of that one, I will have to check it out--thanks!!

Another one for me to check out--gracias.

Yeah, I used to do the counting thing. I occasionally still do that. I have short breaths, even though my cardiac fitness is high, so there really isn't enough time to chant or say some long thing to myself or the universe.I have a lot of baseline anxiety I think that contributes to not having very deep breaths most of the time. Those breaths are just too short, until I get deeper into it.

So, now, mostly what I do is I simply focus all my energy and attention on my breath, to the exclusion of all else. I try, anyway.

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