Meditation 1 year reflection
Hello Reddit.
I want to share my meditation insights and experiences with you.
\~50 hours of meditation done over 1 year.
I have been meditating using the Waking Up app for approximately one year and have made a lot of progress. Vippassana and dzogchen.
A list of things that I have learned (not ordered)
\- Breathing meditations
\- Breathwork: Counting my breaths without controlling speed of breathing.
\- Walking meditations: Walk extremely slowly, noticing all the sensations in the body. The feeling of gravity weighing me down. Balancing as I stand on one foot to move the other forward. The foot touching the ground, the heel lifting off the floor.
\- Noting sensations, thoughts, emotions, and feelings. All emotions have corresponding physiological sensations. Tightening of face muscles, flexing of different muscles, energy in stomach. Also, emotions have a significant effect on the thoughts that go along with them. Anger usually makes me feel like I am correct and validated. Anxiety makes me want to move around more; my legs start to shake.
\- Physical pain. During the summer it was hot (\~90 degrees Farenheit), humid and mosquitoes were biting me frequently. I practice walking on the hot concrete with not shoes or socks on. My reasoning was that the ground was not hot enough to damage my feet, and my goal was to relax in to the pain; letting go of the compulsion to walk to cooler ground. My experience was that the heat from the ground would travel from my feet to my legs and up into my back and shoulders; I supposed this was a physiological reaction to the heat. For a short time I was able to let go of the compulsion to get off the hot ground.
\- Mantra: "Begin again". I say this to myself when I get lost in thought or when a negative emotion is lingering.
\- Mantra: "This too shall pass". Impermanence. All things are temporary; good and bad. All emotions will eventually subside. Relationships end and people die.
\- Mantra: "Put a smile on the world". Move your face muscles to force a smile. It is very likely I will feel better, and even when it feels unnatural the people who see my mile may smile back at me.
\- Mantra: "I am the world". Everything I experience is dependent on my brain or sensory organs. **The World** in this mantra refers to the totality of an individual's experience.
\- Mantra: "We are all on this together". Depends on the mantra "I am the world". Since all others humans have the same organs as I do, I infer they have similar experiences, meaning they are also **The World**. I am the world, you are the world: **I am You** or **You are Me.**
\- Wisdom: The mind has a innate tendency to re experience things that it is currently experiencing. Sad people prefer sad music; making them more sad; effectively extending the duration of the sadness. If you pick up a piece of trash, your mind will look for the next piece of trash. "I already found this piece, so I might as well find a few more while I am at it".
\- :D