Your experience with mindfulness

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Personally I think it's a hippy marketing scheme.
Some people are making stack loads of $$$$ off it.
They have rebranded meditation.

But if it works for you, then that's fine.

^^ I agree.

One of my shrinks tried to get me on "mindfulness".

Bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to ASD...

Yes! Positive. The more you do it, the better you feel. It does rewire your brain according to Science. I just don't do it everyday, I get sidetrack. No excuse because there are Apps and videos and classes everywhere - even in You Tube. Loads of workshops everywhere , I'm going to this one on Saturday: Emptiness vs Ordinary Appearances at a Buddhist Meditation Center. It's about how to abandon your perceptions of people around you and see things how they exist. How the mind plays tricks on you and how to meditate to manage your mind. Good luck on your journey- and mine too!

Difficult to disagree with that (we refer to it as McMindfullness) but would add there are sound scientific principles behind it - I have practiced attaining a focussed state of attention for many years in many ways - also used it with clients in an engaged way (putting them into a trance state) therapeutically.

Not the cure-all touted but also not without wide merit...

[quote="DataB4"]Mindfulness meditation can definitely be boring. I started with meditation when I was having trouble sleeping. You don't actually have to focus for long periods to make it work. Even a few minutes a day over many, many days can help a tremendous amount. I certainly don't meditate for long periods.
quote]

I start people with three breaths three times a day...

It is not just breathing, but focusing your attention on the breath. It is about the moment. There is no thought of breathing. It just is. No thoughts of past, or future. It is a way to quiet your thinking processes. It is an ability to see, and listen to everything around you without actually thinking about it. Without judgement, or opinion. You just let it happen. It is about turning off your internal dialog. If you have a question, you stop it. If you have a thought, you shut it up. There is no mind.

Mindfulness is not what I am referring to, because it is not good enough. People should get passed all of that. It still has alot of static involved in it. Mindlessness would be a better word for it.

I take exception to the idea that mindfulness isn't enough. Why that judgement? Mindfulness is exactly enough for many, many people. Especially people who come to meditation with the simple motivation of feeling less pain and stress. Its true that there is a lot more available in the world of meditation than simple stress relief, but not everyone wants or needs that.

Words like "no thought of breathing" are so true... but so meaningless to people who haven't studied the intellectual side of meditation. It's what gives so many of us the wrong idea that mediation is hard, confusing, and best to simply not start.

I joke that I have a rich spiritual life as a matter of being on the short bus, emotionally. (And I can make that joke because I was a special education student.) I have my wonderful experiences because I need them, out of deficit. Does that make sense? If I didn't have my disabilities exactly as they are, I would be fully engaged in physical life in a way that precludes all this spiritual work. And that would be a wonderful thing because life is already the lesson. Its already the spiritual journey you are looking for, right?

When people brag about how spiritual they are, or about how advanced they are in their meditation practice, I smile with recognition. (And just to be clear, I'm not accusing anyone here. I'm just talking.) They are telling us about how they are also travel on the short bus. They have these ego needs that are above and beyond typical humans. And they are getting their needs met on that bus. There's nothing wrong with that, but its also not what I want to emulate. Impressive to me are people who's lives are demonstrations of compassion in every aspect. Then I know that I have been in the presence of a truly advanced meditater.

I'm not there yet. My brain is a mess of judgements, stray thoughts, and ego protections. My specific way of being autistic means that I get to visit that quiet space you're speaking of much more often than your average human. But more often, I simply practice noticing my thoughts and not reacting to them. This is by far the most productive part of my meditation practice. When I practice not reacting to my thoughts in meditation, I can use that skill in everyday life. And there is more and more I can simply choose not react to. As a kid who used to hide under the table and cry everyday because every little thing made me react uncontrollably, this is HUGE. Its a wonderful benefit I think a large percentage of autistic people could benefit from having.

Seems to me like one of those practices that involves a leader, or teacher, and it's design is made to pay, and keep you coming back for more. Like a prescription. Like fixing a problem, and not the cause. Like it still has some of the problem within the problem.

Doing this is better than not doing, but the art of not doing is the best of all.

I'm going deep here.

Mindfulness and Mindfulness meditation is quite the opposite. It is an individual journey. The understanding, insights, and growth can only come from work done by the individual. In my opinion that is why many people don't pursue it; they don't want to do the work. I'm not sure what classes you have been a part of where you have had to pay, but there are plenty of opportunities to learn for free if you look hard enough. The only way of knowing is by doing.

Alas, there are plenty of ways to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars learning to meditate. Its really kind of funny because its so flipping simple. What you are really paying for is someone to convince you to sit down and acually do it instead of thinking about doing it someday.

That's so true, SoManySpoons. Aside from getting me to actually sit down and meditate, classes and groups have also given me a place to discuss meditation experiences. I like the feeling of group meditation now and then, and it's nice to ask questions. Mostly though, it's been a solitary experience, and that's a good thing.

Wow! Thank you for the large amount of diverse responses. I certainly am looking forward to giving it a try.

Very best,

Anybody think that in a few decades people will look back at mindfulness the way we look back at pet rocks?

Maybe the phrase "mindfullness" will be out of fashion. But the technique behind it is thousands of years old and recorded in the historical records of several different cultures. It ain't going nowhere.

Turning off your internal dialogue is itself a dialogue. Stopping having questions is itself a question. Shutting up is a deliberate thought. So you can see the problem. Pursuing mindfulness reinforces the mind.

You will always have questions, even if you don't consciously have questions.