RE: Re: Meditation for a Type A

[Guest guest]

I can vouch for meditiation. I have practiced Zen for years now and it does

help to calm me down. If for no other reason, it lowers my blood pressure

which helps my immune responce. (At least, I seem to feel better on the

days I meditate)...

ii

>

>To: PozHealth

>Subject: Re: Meditation for a Type A

>Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 07:58:48 -0700 (PDT)

>

>,

> I woke up this morning and decided to begin meditating again after

>months of lapsing (I have my excuses.....), so I spent twenty minutes

>counting breaths. Then I saw your post. Which brings up a major point in

>meditation - it's very simple, but it takes persistence. My major pitfall

>is failing to do it consistently, even though it's very easy. When I do it

>persistently, it really helps with my anxiety problem, which I believe is

>simply another symptom of an overactive, worrying ego. In fact, the

>difficulty for someone with a very active mind is that it's so simple, the

>mind refuses to accept the simplicity of it. It wants to explore, analyse,

>think about what has happened and what is going to happen. It wants to

>find another and better meditation technique, buy a DVD instruction guide,

>etc. But all meditation requires is focussing on a single thing, like

>counting breaths which keeps you in the present moment. The goal of

>mediation is to be in the present.

>

> One pitfall for beginning meditators is to think that they MUST achieve

>some totally focussed, blissful, otherworldly state, or they've failed.

>This again, is the subjective mind imposing its judgement. Instead, when

>you're counting your breaths, or repeating your mantra, or whatever, and

>other thoughts intrude, don't worry about it. Simply acknowlege the fact

>that a thought has intruded by silently stating to yourself " thinking " ,

>and immediately return to the focus of your meditation. When you do this

>you begin to look at your ego as something outside of your true self. You

>observe the ego-thoughts like clouds and let them pass out of your view.

>Even it it happens every second or two, don't worry about it. Just

>silently say " thinking " and go back to focussing on your meditational

>object, such as the breathing. Eventually these ego intrusions become

>less frequent. Eventually you will be able to achieve this relaxed state

>virtually at will because doing it

> every day will make it second nature.

>

> I prefer breath counting because it doesn't involve any religious or

>other thought provoking connotations and breathing is a fundamental,

>automatic, physiological activity which, if done slowly and in a relaxed,

>steady way, will naturally relax the rest of the body and help quiet the

>ego. You can become very relaxed and fall asleep, which you don't really

>want to do, but if you get to that state, you know your body is very

>relaxed. An easy technique to avoid this is to sit in a comfortable

>chair instead of trying to do it in bed.

>

> Relax your hands and legs by starting with a big stretch, then let

>them assume a comfortable position as you sit. Now begin by slowly

>breathing in through the nose - expand the lower diaphragm, don't breathe

>by expanding the chest. If you're not familiar with this, put your hand

>over your navel and feel it rise as your diaphagm expands. As you breathe

>in, slowly count from four to eight as this is done, whatever is

>comfortable. Hold the fully inhaled breath for a second or two, then

>slowly exhale through the slightly opened lips while counting from four to

>eight. The way to count the breaths is to start at ONE - 2- 3 -4- 5.....

>during inhalation and exhalation. With the second breath it becomes TWO-

>2- 3- 4- 5..... etc.

>

> As simple as this sounds, you will probably lose count. Don't worry.

>Begin counting again wherever you want. If it bothers you to start back at

>#1, just pick up at approximately where you think you should be. You can

>avoid having to set a timer by simply deciding ahead of time how many

>breaths you will count to. If you can breathe at four

>inhalation/exhalation cycles per minute, then going to 100 will give you

>about a 25 minute period. Obviously, if you can comfortably do three

>breaths per minute, this will extend you period. If that seems too much

>and too long, just make it your goal to count to 25 -50 breaths at the

>start. The point is to be relaxed, so do what you can comfortably do.

>Checking with a clock at the start and finish may help so you get some idea

>of how long your session has lasted. A 15 -20 minute session every day is

>good. Like every kind of exercise, persistence is the key.

>

> Thanks for your post, because writing this response has made me more

>enthusiastic to return to my daily mediation routine. A very good book is

>Dr. Joan Borasenko's " Minding the Body, Mending the Mind " which not only

>discusses the mindfulness technique, but the various benefits. Dr.

>Borysenko is a psychologist. Another book is " Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind "

>by Shunryu Suzuki. Reading books is instructive, but as I said, don't

>get caught up in trying to find the perfect " technique " . The key is to

>keep it simple, and to do it every day. Create a time for it. Turn off

>the phone.

> Tom in Missouri

>