All posts tagged “life”

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davidbhayes — 14 years ago — permalink

I struggle to think of a single time or place that I thought "this is because of meditation." I definitely  remember multiple times being surprised by my ability to stay "controlled" in situations when I would previously have started to become quite reactive or angry. It wasn't as though I found myself able to react wisely, but I first perceived some sense of space around my reaction to events that went different than I'd like. In being able to better see my space around the reaction, I was able to start to change it.
This feels tremendously vague, but the very vagueness of this kind of answer is one of things that I think makes it hard to feel confident that your pracitice is worth continuing to dedicate time to. This is why we created the Daily Life portrait so that vague senses over time can add up to quantifiable progress you can see. It's still not everything we'd like it to be, but I think a new meditator taking it regularly would see good progress over time.

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emmacat — 14 years ago — permalink

I vividly remember doing a 180 on a coworker I was having issues with. The very thought of this person made me nauseated, we were always snapping at each other and it was just unsustainable. Then after I had been practicing for a while (and reading a lot), one day I said hi to her in the morning, smiling. I didn't even realize I was smiling at her until I saw her puzzled look. I just started seeing her as a person and not as that person who got on my nerves. I started wondering about her life, her past, her struggles and realized she was just like me, basically. Still annoying on the job, but I looked at her actions and thought: "she's just trying to do good for herself". She's confused, not evil. And I really thought that, in a non condescending way, I felt for her and I was absolutely shocked. I started looking at people's potential instead of their shortcomings. I'm always amazed at  how meditating gives me the space to empathize with people. 

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davidbhayes — 14 years ago — permalink

I started looking at people's potential instead of their shortcomings.

I really like that way of describing the distinction. It rings true to me, and I've never heard it before.

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fredclaymeyer — 14 years ago — permalink

For me, a big part of meditative mind seems to be gentleness. Over the past years, I've gotten in the habit of seeing how others, and I myself, do everything out of a desire to be happy. ("Happy" may not be quite right--"safe" and "okay" are also words that come up; or you could even say "People are trying their best," and leave it at that.)
The softness this perspective creates seems to help a lot to connect me with the mind I associate with meditation practice.

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davidbhayes — 13 years ago — permalink

The single biggest change, I'd say, is awareness. Quite simply, I feel much more aware of all the thoughts, emotions, and physical feelings that are going on in my body at a given time.
That strengthened awareness gives me a sense of space, which allows for the time to work with the experience before reacting to it, which has been such a nice thing. It's hardly the case that I never find myself wondering "why did I just do that?", but it's happening a lot less than it used to.

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goojir — 13 years ago — permalink

Well surely! The effects depends on a lot of things though. At this moment I'm getting huge amounts of anger coming through, probably something I've suppressed for a long time. Mostly disturbing, but I know it's the result of meditation, and I'm glad that the suppression has come to an end.

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Lullabyehaze — 12 years ago — permalink

The challenge for me is to stay mindful throughout the day at work. When I can, I try to take a little walk around the block. This helps my back and all the muscles that don't like to sit at a computer all day, but it can also revive my mind and help me to look at a situation in a more balanced way without simply getting caught up in my own perspective.

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davidbhayes — 12 years ago — permalink

I've never tried it with much determination, but I think there's some good advice I've heard about triggering actions you might be interested in. What I mean by "triggering actions" is that you'll pick a specific event — the phone rings, you flip a light switch, you walk through a doorway, etc — and try to just be mindful around that behavior. Use that specific action as your check-in point about mindfulness.
It sounds like you use a walk for that, but if you'd like to be more mindful throughout the day this might be helpful. Actually putting this down has made me think that I really should try to find one for me. One thing that came attached to the advice is that it's good if it's something you do regularly, but not so commonly that you'll be hitting this check-in point every five minutes. Too much and you'll just get overwhelmed. Every hour or so is what I'm thinking I'll try to find for me.

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Lullabyehaze — 12 years ago — permalink

I like this idea! I remember hearing it before, but I forgot. For some people it is waiting at red lights, stuff like that. Someone also suggested putting a small "dot" sticker in a certain place-- on the computer or phone for example-- to remind you to be mindful.

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Devontecraft — 5 years ago — permalink

Always do what makes me happy and live for me and life as it is even tho it’s hard to

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MindSetOnSuccess — 6 years ago — permalink

Meditation has transformed my life in a matter of 60 days.

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willsmith — 6 years ago — permalink

I have been trapped in a dark space of noise, violence, poverty and stress, but it all came to an end when i exposed myself in meditation.

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