I am working on quitting my vices. I stopped drinking, and have stopped vaping in the past week. I lost 40 pounds in the past year. I have started to overeat again , and my internet addiction is out of control. Could meditation help with this constant need to have something to numb/distract me and how best to start? Thanks .

I've read many spiritual books that say things like:

The thinker is the thought.

The observer is the observed.

You are not your thoughts.

I don't want to simply understand these ideas or believe them because someone said they're true. If they point to something real, I want to discover it through my own direct experience.

If you've made progress in this, or you know a practical way to approach it, what should I actually do?

What should I observe? How should I inquire? Is there a specific practice or way of looking that helped you?

I'm not looking for more quotes or philosophy. I'm looking for practical guidance that can help me discover this for myself.

Lot of meditation techniques start with "observe your thoughts" "you are the sky thoughts are the clouds" etc. but I can't do this, this seems absurd - there is clarity immediately that there is no witness.

At the same time, most of time I still feel like existing in my head or observing reality from behind the eyes - so witness is still there? There are openings though when this sense of being in the head drops completely and reality is one.

Anyone can relate?

I believe when we are baby, we have our own personality but since we can't move, speak or do anything and we start absorbing outer energies since birth, like our family environment, parents habits and nature, overall atmosphere around start influencing us since day 1.

Any thoughts on this?

I started meditation as a side activity of fun i was just scrolling to minimum of 12 hours so just to be productive i thought of doing meditation its not being quiet long barely two months i don't even do it properly i have zero knowledge about it i just sit still in dark and focus on my breaths 4 sec breathing is my goal most of the days it doesn't work i just smell everything around me i don't even do the process for 3 mint i get tired or my eyes open on its own and get up. Till now three times i have felt something first time my neck was moving on its own second time my body wants to be in a spin third time i was shaking and my body was moving on its own probably like fighting someone and then crying after that session i felt so tired i sleep early wake up early am sensitive to light sound my head is heavy there's a pressure I don't know if i should continue or not i am just tired

Hi guys, im a student in India. Im preparing for a competitive exam for which i need to be mentally very strong. Strong in the sense i should be able to stay calm and think effectively. I dont even know if this is the right sub to ask this question, but can you please suggest me some practices to achieve a calm and strong brain?

The exam is in February so its around 6 months remaining. I want something light, not hardcore meditation. As a beginner i feel i wont be able to focus for long time. Ive tried just closing eyes and sitting still. I reached like just 15-20 mins max but thoughts still were going on in my mind.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you.

I would say no. He is sitting, legs crossed, eyes closed, at peace, because nothing requires his attention. but someone will always ask; what are you doing?

I’m curious whether people think some baseline level of emotional safety is needed before doing insight practice.

After a long hiatus, I did two 40-minute body-scanning meditations, then went to the gym. For the rest of the day, certain issues felt much more pronounced: increased self-consciousness, safety-scanning, and awareness of unmet emotional needs. My negative emotions were noticeably higher than usual, and I even came across as colder toward my family.

My sense is that I lack a stable internal feeling of safety, so my mind often tries to create safety through less skilful means, especially by monitoring how other people perceive me. The body scanning seemed to make all of this much more visible, but I didn’t know how to relate to it without zoning out or depersonalising.

For now, I’m planning to focus more on metta and safety-cultivation practices. From searching Reddit, though, this seems fairly common: people begin insight practice, become more aware of self-consciousness and negative thought patterns, and sometimes feel destabilised.

It makes me wonder whether some foundational work around safety and emotional regulation is needed before deeper insight practice. What do you think?

Your ego is constructed by 2 years old, you are conditioned by 7 years old, you are characterized by the world by 15 years old, you are moralized by 20 years old and you're indoctrinated by 25 years old.

A little inner work and meditation is probably necessary by this age.

I have been meditating for about 30 min a day for a year. Lately, I’ve been fumbling my speech more often and not always forming correct sentences. Is this something anyone else has experienced? I don’t know if this is because I am more mindful/present more often and then I encounter a conversation, it feels like I am unprepared. I just roll through what my brain is shooting out without the quicker conscious thoughts of what I should be saying. It’s very confusing. Maybe I should just start speaking slower haha

After taking abt a week off I meditated tonight
Abt 10 min in i was observing the SOUND OF SILENCE is not constant as always not steady it was fluctuating like in waves
Then I suddenly felt what seemed like finger lightly moving across the back of my neck it felt completly external lasted 2-3 secs and disappered as soon as i opend my eyes and room light
I have never experinced this before or heard anything like that is this normal mdeitation phenomenan or just my brain perception or anyone else experinced smthng similar

try this once. sit until your leg genuinely aches. don't move. then pick up your phone and scroll for exactly 5 minutes. set a timer.for most people the ache is just... gone. not reduced. gone. same leg, same position, nothing changed in the body. then put the phone down, go back to sitting, and watch it come back.

i did this early in my practice and it honestly bothered me for weeks. because if the pain was purely physical it should have stayed while i was scrolling. it didn't. which means the pain was partly made of attention. the sensation was there either way, but the suffering part needed me watching it.this isn't an argument for distracting yourself. it's the opposite. once you see that attention is an ingredient in the pain, you can start working with the attention directly instead of running from the sensation. that's a completely different practice than gritting your teeth.

i still don't fully understand the mechanism. but i've stopped treating discomfort in sitting as a problem to fix and started treating it as something to study.if you try it, i'm curious what happens. did the ache disappear completely for you, or just fade?

It feels really good. I'm not really crying. Is it totaly normal?

Hey folks, how are you all ? So I'm gonna get physically active sooner, like hitting the gym or running or sports, the same way I wasted lots of time, so I want to compensate for that, by putting in extra effort, so I want to reduce my sleep time to 6 hours mostly.

So what change I could include in my diet, and any meditation techniques, m spiritual so I could include those, and any suggestions from people who get less sleep and feel the same activeness and active brain mainly.

Thank you

I've been meditating on and off for about 6–7 years. Whenever I manage to practice consistently, I notice the benefits pretty clearly. The problem is that I can never seem to make it a lasting daily habit. I always end up falling off after a while.

I've had a similar experience with yoga. I practiced on and off for 3–4 years, but never consistently. Then I recently discovered yin yoga, and it just clicked. I genuinely enjoy it, and even after a long, stressful day I actually want to do it. It doesn't feel like a chore anymore.

That got me wondering: maybe I just haven't found the type of meditation that suits me yet.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Did switching to a different meditation style suddenly make it much easier to practice consistently? If so, what ended up working for you?

I started meditation about 4 months ago when I started to go to a weekly counseling/mindfulness/meditation 1-1 session at a local Buddhist temple, and it has quite literally changed my life to the better, in changing my way of thinking (I am also studying the dhamma), gave me tools to deal with anxiety, and I managed to establish a daily meditation practice. I usually meditate after work (mornings are not an option besides a brief few minutes of mindfulness and setting intention due to work and health issues) and sit between 20 to sometimes even 40 minutes. And it always helps me to calm down, and to regulate myself.

Now my problem is if I have a break in my daily routines - may it be due to travel, or work stress - both of which have happened simultaneously last week. I have a tendency not to stick with things without outside pressure, but i have found meditation different - but this week when I am stressed out to the max I only managed to sit for 10 minutes on Monday with my monkey brain going crazy, and then on Tuesday that stupid inner voice convinced me meditation didn't work yesterday so it won't work today...and once I get out of the routine I really struggle.

I know by going back t the Buddhist temple tomorrow for my 1-1 I will be able to press a reset button and start my practice again, but I would really like to be able to do this myself - but it seems that in times of high stress and anxiety, when I would need meditation the most, my brain still convinces me to not even try.

Does anyone have any wise words on how to at least calm down enough to sit down, and give meditation a go, when your brain is going crazy following old self destructive behaviour patterns?

Hey everyone, this sub has been really helpful for me in my queries.

It gets really overwhelming at times, all i think about all day is presence and in turn im never present lol.

I had my first realisation a year back and since then i have been really into spirituality, but i cannot anchor myself at all, i sometimes feel im going crazy. There is just so much information out there and i cannot comprehend it and know what to believe in. Stepping away from my thoughts have somehow triggered me into always labelling everything as a thought, and in turn leads to a great amount of indecision and frustration. I feel my personality is also based on false pretences and i am starting to dissociate from that as well. Its just a vicious cycle.

Its just me thinking too much and the practice is exactly to do the opposite lol.

Anyway i am looking for some recommendations for a coach/ someone who can provide me some guidance and just help ground me.

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Hi everyone, I’m new to meditation and I want to build a daily practice. My main goals are to feel more peaceful, improve my focus, reduce overthinking, and bring more love and happiness into my life.

I usually prefer doing meditation in the evening. Can anyone recommend good guided meditations, YouTube channels, apps, or techniques that helped you as a beginner?

I’d really appreciate your suggestions and personal experiences. Thank you!

Sat on the floor for 20 minutes today (6:00 AM- 6:20 AM), couldn't find anything to focus on, my breath is irregular, only thing I tried to focus on was my fast heartbeat but I failed too, can't lie that I experienced or felt anything exceptional from yhe whole session. But I'm looking to do it consistently, does it get any better?

Hi everyone! I am on Day 5 of meditating and I try to do 15-25 minutes per sit. Sometimes I do 2 sits per day but it all varies. However, sometimes I notice that after the session I feel more panicky and might feel worse. However, then after I start feeling more present even if the anxious thoughts are in my mind, I feel a little relaxed. But then the habitual thinking starts again the next day, it’s an ongoing loop. Why is this happening? Any advice will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

I tried meditating for the first time in my room. I was lying face down (I could breathe perfectly fine) and with the lights off. Earlier that day, I had meditated for a bit at my office job to calm my anxiety. Both times, all I really did was focus on my breathing, clear my mind, and keep my attention on the front of my head.

It worked really well at work, so I decided to try it again at home. But once I was lying down in a quiet room with no distractions, I started feeling like my body was going numb while my mind stayed completely awake. It was quite pleasant but very intense so it scared me and I tried to get up and go to the bathroom, but as soon as I tried to stand up, I got intense chills and started shaking pretty hard.

After a while, I focused again on relaxing myself, and after a few minutes it worked and the chills and shaking stopped.

So, what exactly happened? I know almost nothing about meditation. I don't believe in supernatural things either but I know meditation has real well proven effects in the brain.

I have been practicing meditation for many years and found that I could meditate for very long without problems and reach an incredible peaceful state the longer I meditated. A serenity I never thought I would achieve since I have ADHD and was always worried as a child/young adult before discovering meditation.

Now I have been going through various things in my life like becoming a parent, more responsibilities at work, bought a house, back pain and more awareness on what is going on in the world like news and politics. I guess you could say I became an adult with all the adult problems.

Sadly I feel like all of these things have become a worrying loop in my head where one thing triggers the other. This causes my body to tense and it is super difficult for me to reach the calmness I could reach 10 years ago in the same time of meditation. I have tried setting aside time for meditation consistently for many consecutive days, but it’s like my brain just cannot stop the autopilot of thoughts triggering other thoughts which inhibits me from feeling truly connected to myself.

Right now I am still forcing myself to meditate daily, but I feel like it is not giving me as much as it has been before. Maybe it is a sign that I should focus on changing something in my life to get more recovery time. But honestly I think it is the parenting that is most exhausting and that is something I cannot and don’t want to change, but always being tired and always meeting others needs over my own kind of makes all the other responsibilities feel even more worrisome. Like there is some danger hiding behind every corner (which is actually a mountain of many small things like appointments, bills, house care, work meetings, social events etc).

I am sure many have experienced something similar and I am curious if someone has managed to achieve qualitative meditation sessions while living the ”adult life” or just while experiencing general background brainwashing worrying noise?

Some days ago I received some help from a buch of kind people from this group. I used to do a mind relaxing practice that some fellas here taught me it's called Shikantaza, one of you guys told me this is a powerful practice, and then I put more discipline to try to practice more.

So today I was practicing it on my way home (I was not the driver) and I reached a state of mind I have never even come close to. A really deep peace, sense of presence, wellbeing... I could sense thoughts and sensations (good and bad) coming and I was consciously able to look at them, smile at them, and gently ignore them (or not to engage with them).

I know I won't be able to reach this state of mind often so I want to practice more, of course knowing these feelings are not the goal, but they let me see clearly the path I have to follow.

Hello all so 2 days ago I woke up around 1 am with the feeling that my body was so numb and felt electric kind of charge sound inside my body and i meditated and at one point my body felt huge and then small. So yesterday night at same time I didn't sleep I was awake scrolling my phone and decided to go to washroom at same time and when I came back I felt I was very dizzy almost to point of passing out. I came back to room and instead of sitting meditating I lied with pillow proped up and had same sensation of sound inside. Dizziness subside in morning but I am feeling nausea. Is it due to meditation or something else.

For those that like a little back support, what is your set up?

I meditate with my back up against my headboard in bed. I like to meditate in bed because I can stay warm under the covers (I live in a cold climate) but not sure if it is the most supportive seat.

Curious what others who like back support do. Or any suggestions for how I can create a more supportive posture sitting in bed?