These are all pretty common points of contention for beginners.
Barring extreme cases, like people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, I believe meditation is beneficial, and not harmful, for virtually everyone.
I’m certain you’ve experienced a state of flow before and found equanimity in the process.
Meditation at its core is being able to drop back into that experience at your own convenience.
No, I’m aware of the mindfulness stuff. I just mentioned the sleep stuff as an aside. My flow states are usually associated with work or exercise. The former is high stress.though even if the brain is off
I’m on meds now, and that helped a lot, but I had several issues:
I felt unable to control my thoughts; I realize you’re supposed to just observe them, but they felt too close and overwhelming
I felt trapped with my thoughts
It didn’t deal with the underlying problem; even if I was able to observe the issues just came back when I stopped
These are all pretty common points of contention for beginners.
Barring extreme cases, like people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, I believe meditation is beneficial, and not harmful, for virtually everyone.
I’m certain you’ve experienced a state of flow before and found equanimity in the process.
Meditation at its core is being able to drop back into that experience at your own convenience.
I’m glad that meditation works for you, and that you’re a proponent of it, trying to get others onboard.
I have experienced flow states, but even those were anxious (loss of control feeling is yuck, not freeing)
I had success with guided meditation, but primarily around sleep, which helped mood.
Because of you mentioned sleep-focused meditation, I’m think you aren’t referring to mindfulness meditation.
Maybe you’ve been practising some kind of Zen-Bhuddist meditation, I’m not sure, I’ve only ever spent time practising Mindfulness and Loving Kindness.
Also, maybe we’ve got different definitions of flow state.
What I’m referring to is the feeling of having completely immersed yourself in an activity, to the point where you aren’t verbalising thoughts.
Being anxious during a flow state is a bit of a paradox, as anxiety is a symptom of complex thinking, which is what mindfulness aims to alleviate.
No, I’m aware of the mindfulness stuff. I just mentioned the sleep stuff as an aside. My flow states are usually associated with work or exercise. The former is high stress.though even if the brain is off