Facts

My default mode has started to shift significantly, I’m more present and in a state of walking meditation for most of my day

It feels like cheating sometimes lol

Tryna get like you

I’ve had my moments, but I need it forever.

What changed a lot for me is not judging myself when I lose those moments, but being grateful for when I find those moments (even if they are infrequent)
Your mind will reward you for taking this approach

ive done stuff like close eyes and inhale/exhale 3-7 times (literally under a minute) not only when im anxious but also when im chillin and my mind goes blank and when i open my eyes i feel really still and at peace, super centered

so imagine if i actually meditated fr

why imagine when you could just do

had a very nice practice this morning. my attention was relaxed but precise. it felt so natural

The intensity of these kinds of sessions always knock me off balance in an exciting way lol. But I found it again

Going with the flow has been great for my internal development but i need to find a clean middle ground for the goals I need to achieve in the coming months and years.

anyone have any experience in meditation and beating psychosomatic illness ?

just did 10 minutes for the first time in a long time.

wow.

forgot how for me meditation always gives me random ass memories I haven't thought about in a long time, usually a time when I was really happy. timetravelling fr

its wild how much more easily a state of relaxed mindfulness comes to me in the early morning

once my brain revs up and gets in to gear its so hard to downshift and slow that puppy down. but imma keep coaxing that foo down

my meditation this morning was wonderfully guided. i brought to mind a negative feeling/experience and noticed where and how it landed in my physical body. i was annoyed and even angry and felt it in my face and my stomach and my hands. but as I was simply noticing the sensations and the experience with no judgement it began to melt away.

then i brought a positive feeling/experience to mind and felt the novel sensation of my very mind smiling. i felt the joy and gratitude on the surface of my skin, every little hair prickling up as if rejoicing in the goodness. and similarly with the negative feeling, simply noticing everything that was occurring allowed it all to slowly melt away, albeit much slower, I think because I didn't want it to go away haha

what a beautiful day it is today

on the drive to and from my 530am hot yoga class this morning i was listening to William Irvine talk about how he practices Stoic philosophy and one of his practices is Prospective Retrospection and how it's key to realizing you are living your very own dream life in the present moment

he went on to talk about how something you find tedious and unenjoyable in this present moment could be something you look back on fondly with nostalgia in the future. how mowing the lawn in the hot summer sun could be something that at 80 years of age you look back on and think "man i used to be so capable, now look at me" as you bemoan your present situation in bed, unable to do so much as make pancakes.

i realize i really am living my very own dream life, completely unironically, every day that i am able to wake up and breathe

on my reading list is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Bauby, a journalist who suffered a stroke that left him "locked in" able to only blink his left eye but still completely conscious. he would see even a parariplegic with envy, let alone my own life, and he still managed to write an entire book. incredible

@plants writing response here to bump thread

I haven’t really been trying to sit and meditate recently mostly just do this to fall asleep and when I wake up early and have some time to kill before I start my day but it’s been wild

I try to be aware of sensations throughout my body all at once, when I start it kinda feels like I’m doing laps around my body feeling tingling feelings for a split second in one spot then in another right after, if I try to just acknowledge these and keep my breath consistent it’ll speed up and I’ll be aware of these sensations more frequently, eventually I can constantly notice these throughout my entire body at once, they’ll all kinda melt together and it feels like my whole body is glowing and humming

sounds divine

I definitely notice that its much easier to simply notice sensations in the early morning before my mind gets spinning. what you described sounds familiar to some of my more lowkey acid trips sitting in the sun and im tryna inch my way closer to that point sober.

i do sense a real doozy of a blindfolded shroom trip this summer though, never done sumn like that and i wanna just delve deep into my experience of consciousness

my meditation practice still in its infancy tbh, im at the point now where i realize "oh in the past I've just been thinking I was meditating, cuz now i notice thoughts coming nearly every breath trying to steal my attention" but hey thats progress

love to all reading this

Yea it’s nice in the morning I think I like studying in the morning for the same reason, saw a quote the other day “the ego is quietest in the morning”

Never purposely blindfolded myself on shrooms but I always end up covering my eyes with my arm or laying face down in bed and just watching whatever it is my mind is showing me, the ego death from shrooms is really jarring for me though I’m gonna stay away from them and dmt for a while

I still love acid and mescaline tho hehe

Oh you’re saying you’re planning on it this summer

Def give it a shot, the hallucinations are very cool

Like I said tho I don’t really enjoy ego death, it was cool when I first tried psychs but it’s not for me anymore

And on your last point I feel like that comes and goes for me, depending on different things going on in my day to day life, you know this better than me but staying consistent is the only way to deal with that and make progress, I love having those little breakthroughs though

yeah im gonna do it this summer haha. and its been over 10 years since i messed with shrooms so i'm looking forward to what i will learn.

and you're right its all about consistency. I find that to be the truth in every life practice. like for fitness and general health its all about the consistent work over a long period of time.

That’s what I’m trying to do that’s gonna be crazy

Dancing is the ultimate form of meditation

taken from a Moment in the waking up app earlier today, it hit me hard

We spend most of our time seeking to become happy as though something important needs to be found or accomplished or otherwise added to our experience in the present moment. We're always solving problems, meeting deadlines, running errands, fulfilling desires, defending opinions, and every implied end to our efforts reveals itself to be a mirage.

There is simply no resting place. In some basic sense we never arrive. And the question of finding meaning in life is a component of this search. We want to be able to tell ourselves a satisfying story about who we've been and who we are becoming.

Of course, it makes sense to do whatever you can to secure a good life. To find satisfying work, to maintain your health, to create a happy family. But it is also terrifying to have one's well-being entirely depend upon the shifting sands of experience and the stories we tell ourselves.

The great power of mindfulness is that it can connect you with a sense of well-being that is intrinsic to simply being conscious in each moment. And this is a deeper discovery than finding meaning in one's life. Though it's entirely compatible with that. Through mindfulness you can discover that whatever you may seek to accomplish you can never truly become happy. You can only be happy. And making this discovery again and again and again is the essence of the practice.

need to get back on this, life been feeling stuff, want to fall down the rabbit hole again