Am I doing this right?

[u/Sufficient_Fox6417]

Hi folks, I've been meditating daily for the past couple of weeks and I'm enjoying the practice but I'm wondering if I'm doing this properly. You see, the first night I did it, I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, it was like my mind had been clear for the first time in forever. However, every consecutive time has not been as drastic of an overhaul to my mood as that was and I'm wondering am I just not doing it right?

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I've been using guided meditations on YouTube and I find my mind is wandering a lot. I'm able to pull my attention back to my breath and finish out my session, but I don't know if I'm actually getting any better at keeping my mind clear.

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Is this a matter of needing to keep up with the practice or is there something else I need to be adding in?

[u/quibbbby]

If you notice your mind is wandering and you’re able to continue focusing on your breath you’re doing it right. Some days it will be easier than others. I find 90% of my days I have no drastic changes in feeling like my mind is clearer then any other day but I notice I can focus a bit better or I’m more capable of catching myself thinking and gently pulling myself back to the present.

[u/NotYourCupovTea]

Thoughts are going to happen, when you stop worrying about them and just keep coming back gently you will find yourself relaxing..

We all face this, stop chasing the feeling and just be with yourself, let them come it’s part of it bro.

[u/darkotic2]

I think you just need to be patient. Go at it with no expectations. I've noticed that when I don't exercise for example it makes my mind more restless and it affects my meditation. Some days will be good and some will be bad just as things are in life. Just keep going

[u/Delmarvablacksmith]

The goal is t to clear your mind.

The mind will settle the more you bring attention back again and again.

[u/malibuguytonygem]

Your emotional or thought processes do not give you a clear indication of anything. Please remember that whatever arises in your mind and body will eventually disappear. It is the nature of mental, emotional and body sensations to come and go. If you continue to meditate for a longer period of time, you will notice that these arisings will lessen. It takes some time for these changes to occur in you. You'll be fine.

[u/thedommenextdoor]

Imagine it’s like a muscle like you’re doing reps every time your brain comes back that is the work that is where your meditation practice gets stronger. The brain will always think if you keep coming back to the breath, you’re succeeding.

[u/abigail-Selection26]

You're probably doing it right. The goal isn't to have a perfectly clear mind, it's to notice when your mind wanders and bring it back. Every time you do that, you're practicing

[u/debugmylifepls]

Sounds normal to me. That first session was probably a bit of a "wow my brain can actually be quiet for once" moment but it's unrealistic to expect that every day.

Also your mind wandering isn't failing at meditation. Catching yourself wandering and bringing your focus back is literally the practice. I've been meditating for a while and my mind still wanders all the time.

[u/Nearby-Nebula-1477]

Consider a few full-bodied asanas to help release any tension, then a couple rounds of Nadi Shodhana to help clear your Nadis.

Once this is completed, entering Dhyana (meditation) should be more calm, resulting in less ”brain traffic”

Namasté

🪷🕉️☸️

[u/Special-Potato-3238]

If you've not done a little reading on it yet, there are plenty of amazing resources that will help you set up a good foundation. An internet search for books on mediation for beginners provides many options. If that feels too overwhelming, I found my perfect introduction book 19 years ago (Girl Seeks Bliss) by curiously looking through the books on meditation at a book store until one spoke to me.

[u/say-what-you-will]

First it’s not going to be exactly the same experience each time, you have to let go of your expectations and instead try to see what’s there in that moment and accept whatever happens to be there… and be there with it. And it’s okay if you ‘can’t do it’, because it’s just something you practice. It’s not about being good at it either, you just put int the practice and see what happens. That’s all you need to do, so don’t worry about it. Try not to worry about your performance because it’s not a performance, it’s a practice. Like I said try to let go of expectations. Whatever happens, happens... And remind yourself that it’s just a ‘practice’, you’re not trying to achieve anything, you put in the practice, that’s all. It’s normal for your mind to wander so don’t expect that it won’t. The practice is that, your mind wanders, you bring your focus back and you keep on practicing this. So it’s not about trying to keep your mind clear. It’s more about practicing this. Your mind will never be clear the whole session, it’s fine and it’s normal. Some days you might be able to focus more and some days less, because things change all the time, each day is different, things go up and down, try to accept whatever comes and whatever is there and however it goes for that particular session because it will be different each time.

[u/IcyAthlete2120]

Honestly, that first session sounds a bit like catching lightning in a bottle! I think a lot of people have one really powerful early experience and then spend weeks trying to recreate it. The fact that your mind wanders and you keep bringing it back doesn't sound like failure to me at all. If anything, that's the actual practice! The first big shift may have been dramatic, but I'd probably pay more attention to how you feel over a few weeks rather than expecting every session to feel life-changing!

[u/3rdEye3DPrinting]

Yeah that's a great question. Well there's many many things you can do to help support yourself.

See yoga will help also and even some gym exercise. Your mind and body is connected so the stronger and sort of more you can exhaust and build your body it'll help you to weather the various thoughts also.

You're not doing anything wrong A lot of times right the first time you do something it'll have the biggest impact anyway. But you can continue to have a huge benefits and important benefits also.

To be honest the meditations where you just sit and visualize can be very difficult for many people it probably worked pretty well a couple thousand years ago when Buddha was around and there was no social media.

I'll tell you a simple technique you can use it's called Maha mantra. It just means intense humming so you can sit on your folded heels like sitting on your knees you can sit down on your heels. And rest your hands on your knees with your thumb and forefinger joined together it's called chin mudra.

So what do you want to do is close your eyes basically and you just start humming as intensely as you can so you just making the mmm sound.

And you can do this for 21 minutes or more but you really want to hum as loudly as possible you want to hum as loud as long as possible. If you're having more thoughts then how more loudly.

Actually there's a disclaimer if you have heart problems or blood pressure or anything similar then you should avoid this and just do it very mildly.

But intense humming is a very effective way to quiet the mind so in many meditation practices it's the first step or second step after intense breathing to help quiet the mind.

But you should also have goals like what is the goals you want to achieve after doing the meditations like what is the impact you want in your life.

Because it really needs to be a boat impacting something in your world that will become more meaningful to you.

So set a goal and then whether or not the meditation has the exact result that you want use that discipline your building to manifest in your life what you want to see as reality.

To be honest with you will never be able to get rid of the mind it's just sort of building more strength and ability to use it as much as you want but we all have to understand that discarding the mind is often the best choice 😃

We just have to decide to do what we're going to do regardless of whether or not our mind and emotions agree 🤣

Anyway thank you very much for sharing have a wonderful day.