Centering

[RyukaAscendant]

Never stop talking! I love hearing what others do to see if it works. There is so much information out there that I can get overwhelmed. I love having a place to talk, and seeing the information categorized.

On meditation: I see a physical therapist 3 times a week from constant neck/shoulder/back pain I have had for over a year. I forgot what we were working on but she was having me deep breath. We do this several times. She sat down and said my rib muscles do not move and therefore my ribs don't move. This keeps me from being able to do deep breathing. The next first a saw a different therapist because my main one was not working. She gave me an exercise to do deep breathing but was confused because I wasn't sure if I was. I thought I had been deep breathing for years as it was part of cognitive therapy. I didn't do it a lot since it felt awkward.

I do have trouble with meditation. I can ground myself but I can't do it for long time. My brain never stops thinking if I am not busy. I have to sleep with the tv on at night or I can't sleep from all the thoughts. At least with tv, their words can bury mine. I have tried meditation music but it doesn't help.

When I was in the hospital several years ago, me and others went to a mindfulness class where we could sit or lay on mats. Everyone would sleep for the 30-45 minutes.

The thing some people don't recognize is meditation doesn't have to be clearing of all thought but can be a focusing of your thoughts and following them as they flow or creating a new flow in them to recalibrate your thoughts.

I used to have problems like what you're talking about and I've grown up with a lot of ADHD friends who were even worse.

[SpiritTalker]

I think it was FireBirdFlys who once commented that our minds aren't meant to be empty, or we'd flat-line. Something like that, anyhow . IMO Meditation is more successful if we give the mind something exclusive to think about, like giving a bone to a loved & faithful dog to chew. I think that's where focusing on breath work comes in...as well as oxygenating the brain.

When we meditate, I think it helps to have a purpose, some goal to pursue, to benefit from the solitude we've acquired by focussing the mind and slowing down the chit chat, or at least turning down the volume on the mental chatter and sudden mental grocery list. All that rhythmic and repetitive stuff controls the volume and gives the dog a bone.

Breathing just needs to be rhythmic and non-stressed to be useful. Babies belly breathe & some breath work routines I've encountered take us back to our "child self" to do periods of belly breathing, in thru the nose & out thru the mouth. That way we exhale fully and are more inclined to inhale deeper. Later the chest breathing is added on to the belly breathing; and done in stages like that you can feel a difference.

I think WC author Robin Artisons' suggests a snake-like hissing exhale to raise the vital energy up the spine, and uses it when forming the compass-round, a circle prep variation. Sandra Kynes, who writes about Sea Magic, uses a in/out sea-wave sound, inhaling & exhaling thru the mouth to induce meditation. It's good to try different ways.

[planewalker]

I've a few question, if you don't find it intrusive. Do you possibly have the feeling of what I think of as "hamster wheels of intelligence" the hamster{thoughts, facts, personal opinions, basically any form of data} want to keep running the data points, switch them, run in series, go alone and then spread to reintegrate new data into the field so everything re synthesis' to make new connects and extrapolations? Is it a thirst for more input to the point that not getting it can be painful? Do you, in your head, run ahead of the conversation and have a set of ever changing digressions of facts , opinions and even side branchs that are digressions of digressions but that you can run back together and they still make sense and your still not only following the conversation but are ahead of it and waiting for it to go that way?

[LC]

Sorry for the delay in answering, work got slammed with the new semester. Pretty much, one thing goes to another and then I see a connection. I always want to know more about what some body means, if its good or bad. If someone is giving me something to do or I am thinking of things to do, and I skip over what someone says and have to backtrack

[Shannon]

This was a quick useful read. I'm still very new myself and I had a much different understanding of centering. I would always imagine drawing everything INWARD. Lol

[Corbin]

Using the tree meditation as an example.

Imagine a tree ... the world tree. You sit with your back to its trunk (or stand), surrounded by the elements, below you the underworld; what has been, within it the cauldron and the anvil of destruction/creation, above you the upper world of branching potential. You "create" a safe and balanced and flowing energy conduit which you can tap. You become balanced; the centre of the tree, a mobius loop.

Energy that cannot flow, that is "stored", damed, is hazardous; the dam bursts and the energy finds expression - a conduit to what is outside you allows you the access to energy you require as you require it without depleting your own personal reserves.

Centering is actually one of those things you are better off experimenting and discovering ... its hard to encapsulate.

[ofthetrees]

I recently watched a video by cutewitch772, and she brought up a method that consisted of reaching down to the Earth's core, and reaching up to the Sun. Because both of those are fire, it's easy to make the connection between the two and yourself. I tried it and it helped, I am also terrible at visualizing.