Some notes and encouragement on meditation from someone who has meditated for nearly 20 years.

So I’ve seen some people expressing frustration with mediation here on /r/leaves — in the words of /u/tommybahami123:”It’s kind of tough in the sense that I get distracted while attempting to clear my mind or everything.”And from /u/jonny070389:”I’ve just given up on the meditation, my mind just goes off on crazy tangents.”So as someone who has meditated for many years, and credits meditation with making my life an easier place to live, I thought I’d pass along my thinking on it. (thanks to the Leavers above for the inspiration to write this.)To me, saying “I’ve given up on meditation because my mind goes off on crazy tangents” is like saying “I’ve given up on working out because my heart rate goes up and I start breathing hard.”Your mind going off on crazy tangents is exactly what you meditate to experience, and beginning to learn how to guide those tangents back to peace is exactly what you’re there to learn.Everybody’s mind goes off on crazy tangents. That’s why mediation is something you have to learn how to do, and why learning how to do it can take a long time.My first suggestion is that you begin meditation with an attitude that it’s something you are going to experience,, not something you are going to do. Saying that it’s something you are going to do makes it a job, or a chore, or a skill you feel you have to develop, and that’s more than a little ambitious when you’re just starting out.My suggestion is that you sit quietly in a comfortable position, in a darkish but not pitch black room, and set a timer for ten minutes. Tell yourself, “That voice in my head is always yammering away at me — for the next ten minutes I’m going to listen to it.”Then, just sit quietly and listen to it. Try not to guide it, try not to make mental notes on what it’s saying, try not to tell yourself you’ll have to remember that for later, just sit quietly and listen.Then, when the alarm goes off, go on with your day. If you can, try not to process what you heard — don’t think, “wow, I really obsessed about work” Just let that ten minute session go and move on with your day.Do that for a week.In your second week, you get to actively choose somthing to help yourself. Set your timer, and choose something simple and repetitive to concentrate on. Some people focus on their breathing — the actual sensation of air moving through their nose or throat. Other people count slowly and quietly to three or five in their head. Choose what makes sense for you. It should be peaceful and repetitive.Then, in your ten minutes, let your thoughts rest on that repetitive idea. “” or “” whatever you chose. You will, nearly immediately, lose control of that, and your chatty thoughts will intrude. When that happens, simply think quietly — “those were other thoughts, I want to go back to my peaceful repetition.” And return to whatever you chose.This losing of focus will happen ten or a hundred times during your session. Quietly guiding yourself back to your repetitive place is what you are there to teach yourself. Don’t get frustrated on how many times it happens, just note it, remark to yourself that it happened, and return you your peaceful repetition.This is the only task and only work of meditation. Noting when your thoughts have strayed and returning yourself to peaceful repetition.I have been meditating for nearly 20 years now, and as you practice your inner thoughts intrude fewer and fewer times, and when they do you are very experienced at returning to a place of peace.And, as you might suspect, the skills I’ve learned in meditating begin to extend outside of my meditation session. I’ve learned how to be much more aware of my inner dialog, and I’m much more capable of noting what it is saying, separating myself from it, and keeping it from taking automatic influence over my thoughts and actions.I hope this made sense. Feel free to AMA if something wasn’t clear.EDIT: Hey all! Well, it looks like I posted this at exactly the wrong time, I’m trying to get a big proposal for work out in the next few days so my time to reply is limited. Sorry, but I really didn’t expect this to splode! I’ll get to as many answers as I can, but it may take a little while.Thanks for all the cool responses and additions, I learned much more from this thread than I could have imagined.Back soon! via /r/leaves http://ift.tt/2u4OnQL