New to meditation and mindfulness

[tiarajazzie]

Hey guys!

So I am fairly new to mindfulness and meditation. I was brought on to this website via Twitter account. Mindfulness was brought on to me by my aunt. I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder which of course brings up a whole lot of other complications. I started practicing meditating not too long ago. I am absolutely a newbie at it.

Earlier, I was meditating. I was listening to an audio one. I'm not sure if this is normal but I got super into it or should I say, I got so deep in relaxation, that I felt like I was floating. I almost felt like I wasn't in the room. It was so peaceful that I couldn't tell if I were asleep or awake or hypnotized. I was wondering, has any of you experienced this? Does this mean that I am practicing meditation the right way?

Any insight would help. Thanks

Tiara

[Gareth]

Welcome to the forum Tiara,

If you are new to the practice, then my advice to you would be to take it easy on yourself and keep experimenting. There are many different ways of practising mindfulness. Find a way that works for you.

Sometimes when we meditate, we are able to hold the attention for a long period of time. When this happens, we can enter deep states of relaxation which can be quite profound. It's good that you have managed to experience this, but remember not to cling on to that. Or expect that this will happen every time you meditate. It won't. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to hold the attention and that's just fine too. It's an important step along the way to learn to lose any expectation of our practice- we just practise and that's it.

Stay around and makes some posts, let us know how your practice develops.

Gareth

[FeeHutch]

Welcome to the forum Tiara
Gareth sums it up really well. I find no 2 meditations are the same because my experience of myself and my life is always changing even if its in small ways.
One of the first ideas that helped me was that I wasn't failing at mindfulness if I didn't get that almost euphoric feeling post session. I always remind myself it's called practice because we are never perfect

[tiarajazzie]

Thank you, Gareth!

I talked to a couple of family member who practice meditation as well, and they told me that it must have been a wonderful meditation experience that I had earlier. I don't expect it to be the same because I've tried meditation before and found myself sort of arguing with myself. This was the first time I have ever felt that way. It was so unreal to me that I had some "anxiety" thoughts come in and I forced myself to snap out of the floating feeling. Maybe because it was my very first time experiencing that and it I am not familiar with it. But I am very proud that I was able to reach that state, meaning I am getting better at practicing it. I am going to make it a daily practice. I started with at first a certain relaxing song that will keep my attention at least for a minute, and then I went to meditate to a full song, from there I tried meditating without any music in the background (which didn't work very well since I felt like the silence around me enabled me to hear my thoughts more), then practiced it whenever I felt anxious, and now I am practicing it through an audio guide.

About mindfulness, here are some things I do to practice it: If I am doing a certain task and notices that my mind is wandering all over the place, I tell myself to focus on what I am doing at the moment. Happens a lot when I am driving. It's ridiculous how I can go from A to B without actually paying attention to driving. So every time I go for a drive somewhere, I try to practice mindfulness. Or when I am doing chores, I do the same thing as driving.

Thanks so much for your response!

[tiarajazzie]

Feehutch,

Thanks so much! I will definitely keep that in mind so I don't get disappointed if I am not able to reach that state for every single time I meditate. I was honestly quite a bit scared of how I felt because it was so new to me and I have never experienced anything like such before. I almost felt like I was looking through inside of my body and feeling my blood flow.

[rara]

Yeah, I know what you mean...I spent ages "trying" to make that sort of stuff happen again. Not good for the brain, I tell you that!

Yes, be careful when driving!! Haha. Good to meet you

[tiarajazzie]

Rara,

Thank you! Likewise I meditated today and definitely couldn't reach that floating state but it's okay, because I still had a great session I'm starting to fall in love with it more and more. I just feel so renewed afterwards, it's amazing.

Also, I am definitely getting better and better at mindfulness! But it is making me suck at multitasking that is for sure. Lol.

Tiara

[rara]

Haha, love it. As my kung fu teacher says..."back in my day, we had another term for multi-tasking. It was 'not paying attention'"

Glad you're getting more and more out of it. Remember to keep a good balance and not get too obsessed...you'll probably hear that from a few others on here too Have fun!

[One Aware]

Hi Tiara and Welcome!

One of the many beautiful things about mindfulness is that there is no right or wrong way, normal or abnormal way of practicing. So the pressure is really off. We simply gradually learn to accept things exactly as they are in our present moment experience. It sounds like you are off to great start and as you practice you may experience many interesting things along the way. Patience is the the key and a curios mind will keep you going! Good luck with your meditation and feel free to ask as many questions as you like along the way.

Cheers

[tiarajazzie]

Rara,

That is so funny! I love that saying I will keep that in mind. It's crazy because I used to be so good at multitasking and now realized how it was so bad for me. Maybe at times it was alright, but it seemed like I was multitasking all the time. Thank you for your response

Tiara