Meditation - helpful?

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I'm finding meditation useful; it seems to build my inner resources and happiness, so I am better able to cope with stress and life. It seems to be making me more acceptable to NT's also.

I'm treating meditation as a functional thing; no spiritualism etc.. I see it as like re-booting a PC, or giving a 'vacant space' to my mind and finding actually I'm quite happy (sometimes extremely happy) when I am in that place.

I just wondered if anyone else was finding it helpful?

Thanks for any thoughts

(Meditation is essentially trying to get to a state where you are not thinking; in reality thoughts often keep coming up; you just let them go, say goodbye to them, and eventually they reduce and even stop in patches.
The most common 'transcendental meditation' technique is to say a word or phrase (e.g. 'peace' or 'ohmmmm' or 'universe' or anything) in your mind to yourself, say for 30 minutes, twice a day. But you can meditate for 1 minute, 90 minutes, saying no words, sitting/lying/walking, etc, etc..
Self-compassion seems to sort of come with meditation).

or you can just concentrate on your breathing. you can breath normally or take slow deep breaths for an extra dose of relaxation. sometimes I do it at night to help me fall asleep.

Meditate regularly, sometimes daily, but try to at least 4X week. At least one study (Northeaster/Harvard) believes they've shown mediation makes people more compassionate, another that it increases attention span. Pretty definitive that mediation causes functional/physiological changes in the way the brain operates (as measured). Anecdotally, I've noticed some pretty significant positive differences in my ability to cope with, accept and respond to things that otherwise might have caused anxiety.

If I didn't meditate, I would surely have to medicate. I shoot for two 15 min sessions x day

i learned the TM technique a Little Over a Year ago and it has only been a positive experience for me, i don't believe it is any better then any other then other meditation but it sure has been good to me!

i meditate regularly, at least for 10-15 minutes when i go to bed, to inprove my falling asleep. aside from that, i meditate for short amounts of time whenever i feel the need to recharge. i myself dont push away thoughts though, since that is a concious effort; rather, i accept them being there and ignore the thoughts i'm getting.

besides the meditation, i also have learned to enter/leave fugue states at will, which is how i usually pass time if i do not need to pay attention (for example: public transport, waiting in line, coffee breaks...) which allows me to save enormous amounts of energy, so i dont need as much sleep and recharge as i'd need without the fugue

a bit like both. it is usually involentary but i learned to control it.
a fugue state is where time passes without any real input, some kind of 'awake meditation' where i can still think and see, but only respond to pre-chosen triggers (like reaching my stop)

I have only been doing it awhile and it helps.
I am just afraid of getting to a place in my mind where it is no longer effective and I regress backwards to that awful hell I left behind

I picked up meditation a while back, when I was living next door to a rather nice buddhist fellow. I don't usually do long sessions, but short 5-10 minute breaks. I find it most helpful when I have finished one task and need to start on a new one that is not similar. I also use it as a quick calm-me-down when I start feeling the throat closing up and the panic setting in. I try to get to a bathroom or an out of the way place where I won't be noticed and just use it like a quick reset.

It was very difficult for me to train my brain. I almost gave up trying in the beginning because up to that point my mind had never been silent (or even quiet for that matter).

thank you everyone; very helpful.

I'm funding meditation even more valuable. I do 'no thinking' meditation; I just try to not think at all. I believe it really raises my happiness, on a 2-3 day delay.

I wish I did more (there are always so many other things in life which seem more urgent, and when I'm caffeinated it's hard to meditate) but I'm getting there; I've seen the light.

Not thinking at all for a few minutes is such a lovely break. I became focussed on my wellbeing after a few years of personal hell. While waiting for the tough times to pass, I discovered the concept of bliss and learned how to make it happen through meditation. Some days I achieve this ‘bliss’ for a few fleeting moments and that is enough of a break to recharge my inner strength.

I believe it's definitely helpful, though I started through a 'spiritualist' group. I loved it at first, they pay a lot of attention to the aesthetic and everything about the place is intentionally calming, with low lighting levels and a minimum of harsh noises (the exception being a bell used during an introduction ceremony to each week's program.)

When I first started going a couple of people warned me about the place (the word cult was thrown around,) and indeed after a bit of research I came across vile allegations made against the 'founding father' of the movement which carried a lot of compelling anecdotal evidence.
I immediately backed out and had no contact with the place for months, until a friend who lived there called me and I started going back. Over time I started to feel a sense of unease with the place again, never having forgotten what I'd learned about one of the men who is held in very high regard there.

It was clear to me that a lot of people were repressing their concerns with the place, the amount of their free time they spent doing 'selfless service,' and so on in pursuit of 'enlightenment,' ie being a good little peon and worshipping the guru etc etc... After a point I couldn't do it.
I can't reconcile the lesson taught there over and over again that we, as individuals, are our own 'higher power,' that God dwells 'within us as us,' with the idea of serving somebody else to 'realise their divine potential...' It makes no sense!! Uh-oh, here comes the cynicism
After realising that, despite loving the atmosphere and a lot of the people that go there, it simply doesn't jive with my belief system; that there would always be a divide between my beliefs and those of the group at large (would you believe I felt like an outsider?) I stopped going for good.

Long story short, it recently came to light that the guy who runs the place has been having super-special secret divine Tantric sex with a select group (of over 20,) women over the last 2+ decades... I feel that my intuition (not to mention my lovely friends who warned me in the first place,) proved correct and thankfully I didn't build an attachment to that man or the place itself.

The point of my post is as such- be wary of spiritualist groups led by a single, charismatic entity, and not just on account of ones' Aspergers. I know at least one other Aspie who goes there who I've kept in touch with, but the vast majority of people there are, of course, not on the spectrum, and they have been just as susceptible to the manipulation that occurs in such a situation. So many people never spoke up because they thought it would ruin their chances at ending the cycle of death and rebirth associated with that particular form of Hinduism...

Ech, I keep novelising this I haven't really spoken to too many people about it so it's good to get this out. The issue I have is that my view of meditation has been twisted slightly by this group. I'm having trouble returning to practice, though it's pretty obvious that I really should given that the amount of involuntary movements and vocalisations I exhibit have increased tenfold at work and in public over the last few months.

If I could start the practice again without the 'woo-woo' spiritualist mumbo jumbo I definitely would; it's been interesting being on the periphery of this particular implosion but it's definitely made me dislike the idea of spirituality, and see it more and more as a tool used to take control of/money from the gullible... I'm sure this isn't entirely the case but it's hard to break through that thought!

"If I could start the practice again without the 'woo-woo' spiritualist mumbo jumbo I definitely would; it's been interesting being on the periphery of this particular implosion but it's definitely made me dislike the idea of spirituality, and see it more and more as a tool used to take control of/money from the gullible... I'm sure this isn't entirely the case but it's hard to break through that thought!"

Then perhaps another spiritual center would suffice? Perhaps "that particular form of Hinduism..." or another well respected group known for meditation and honesty? It appears a particular "bad apple" has poisoned the well/barrel for you so a separation and association with good people may prove beneficial over time; you'll recognize this as it happens.

I hope you'll continue meditation and see this one person can't negatively change your life; only you have the power to do that.