Hi GRiM
GRiM said:
The question, I think, is what do you get out of it, do you recommend others to try?
Well it's not going to do you any harm, so certainly it's worth trying to see if you find it of benefit.
The main thing for me is that I spend most of my life with a vague feeling of negativity in the back of my mind. Like a very low level guilt or unease. Perhaps a feeling that I'm not doing what I'm meant to be doing. During and after meditation I almost always feel good about myself, more positive and confident. More "connected", clear headed, "in my body" and recently I've had a really pleasant "energy tickle" feeling running up the back of my legs into my pelvis - an open, flowing feeling. Sorry can't define these terms any more specifically, it's obviously highly subjective.
It's a big help in my Reiki practice too, much easier to keep focused on the client for 30 minutes without drifting off thinking about other things if I've been meditating.
I'd say it's the total opposite of having a hangover.
The effects generally last into the next day. I find I'm more relaxed at work, which means that problems don't wind me up or overwhelm me nearly as much. If I'm walking about town I find I walk tall and take in the people around me, rather than being head down thinking my own thing.
After a few days of meditating, I find that I can follow a train of thought in my mind. Normally if I find myself thinking about something then I can usually just about remember what I was thinking about before, that got me on to the subject. If I've been meditating consistently then I find that I'll remember perhaps the previous 3 to 5 stations that my train visited.
Also, after a good meditation if I listen to music it's like I really hear it, more deeply, almost like the notes are playing in different parts of my body - interacting with my emotional state, rather than just hearing with my ears.
GRiM said:
I´ve tried to meditate a couple of times but I have never experienced anything different from just sitting or laying silent and just thinking.
I would say that meditation is often very hard work. That "monkey mind" wants to leap about looking at shiny things, and it has to be guided back to the breath or whatever the focus of the meditation is. So if the experience of meditation is similar to just sitting and letting that monkey look at whatever it wants, then that's perhaps not really meditation. Similar to Self Remembering (as I see it) it's easy the first time - novelty value - but becomes much more demanding as you try to practise more intently.
Tigersoap makes a good point that one shouldn't be "seeking sensation" during meditation - that would just be indulging that monkey again. What I've described above is what I see as the benefits - outside of the meditation practice - that I personally gain. And if there weren't benefits, why would one continue?
It's good to talk about what I get out of it, I've only been managing about 3 nights out of 7 recently. A lot like exercise - it's hard to get the motivation to do it, but you always feel better afterwards. Planning a 40 minute sit for tonight, start the weekend off right.
Actually, reading back what I've written and what I get out of it, it's maybe surprising that I'm not maintaining a daily practice. But it is hard work and effort and I'm not chock full of self discipline. It's also (for me) not compatible with alcohol which means going near tee-total, something I'm slowing moving towards.
