XtremeMind.com

[Mr.Qwerty]

*** I had originally wanted to ask this to Arman, but I realized that it'd be great to hear what all you other guys thought, so I decided to post this here ***

I have been doing meditation, qigong, and other spiritual/mental work on and off for quite some time, but I have lots of trouble keeping my practice stable.

When I sit down to do meditation, or start to do qigong... I become kind of agitated and restless. I have no clue why, but I have so much resistance to even doing practice in the first place, not to mention sticking with it!

Yesterday I had to use just sheer willpower to keep sitting for the full 30 minutes... and I don't want to give up, I want to keep doing qigong and sitting meditation.

And it's not just meditation, practically everything seems to be a battle of will, motivation, and discipline.

I do realize that there is a part of me that just has tremendous resistance to doing any of these things, to being present, and conscious.

How do I get out of this and actually get to the point where I wholeheartedly desire to practice?

It is very frustrating and caused me to give up a few times in the past. I want to keep practicing and getting better.

Thanks in advance!

[Equilibrium]

I went through a period where I was agitated when I started practice so I just started with basic relaxation, awareness and letting go. Once the monkey mind settled a bit I'd then start with whatever it was I was going to do.

[PleiadianHealer]

That happens to beginning meditators.... they always have problems sitting still and not getting frustrated. That's just one of those things that happens. Try to find something that will calm you down. Music, incense, some tea.....etc. Having to do all your school work and other things does not help at all.... but you'll have to learn to ignore all that when you sit.

Also, try to slow down your thoughts, the biggest problem you'll have is getting the mind quiet, some days it's impossible, other days it just clicks in, so keep trying. Counting breaths helps.....

PH
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"We have two choices in life. We can choose to see the best situation in our lives, or bemoan why things are not working." ~ Cynthia Stafford

[david2885]

I've been working with John Kehoe's Mind Power personal learning course, it's a 4 week thing and I'm on my last week.

What I've learned is that the conscious mind is, in John Kehoe's words, "The Great Trickster".

The undisciplined conscious mind is like a spoiled child that you've allowed to do whatever they want for your whole life, so it's only natural that when you try to instill some discipline into it, it will do whatever is in its power to try and trick you out of training it. The conscious mind doesn't want to be trained, it wants to be free! It will do whatever is in its power to keep its freedom, it will trick you, fool you, frustrate you, and use all your fears to try and scare you from gaining control over it.

Training your mind is hard, because your mind doesn't want to be trained. But if you stick with it and do whatever mind exercises you're doing daily, you will eventually discipline your mind and make it work for you rather than against you.

If you just insist on doing your meditation and refuse to listen to your conscious mind, eventually your conscious will learn that it's no use trying to struggle against you, and you will have an easier time trying to get it to work with you.

[Mr.Qwerty]

Thank you all for the advice!

[david2885]

I liked Kehoe's program, and I think it's a good one for learning more about the nature of the mind and how to harness its power for our purposes.

So far the exercises haven't really been about manifesting physical things (except for the past week when I tried to manifest a website sale, which hasn't happened yet), but I have noticed that working with the program has made me more aware of the way my mind works and how it thinks, and as I weed out the negative thoughts in my mind I find myself slowly becoming more positive. It's a subtle, gradual shift, but it is shifting.

Still listening to the last week's lectures, so I don't have a complete idea of the program yet, but personally I enjoyed it very much. He not only teaches you how the mind works, but he actively encourages you to take notes and do the exercises, and it's actually the first program that's gotten me to do daily exercises every day for 3 weeks and counting.

[Lin Kuei]

what's your goal with meditation? What meditation style are you doing? I find for beginners a simple active type meditation is good to start with eg. Love Meditation or Tai Chi...then you can progress to more difficult one like emptying your mind, etc. It helps to make meditation a ritual; doing it at the same time and place, sticking with just one style of meditation...

Don't just jump into it, definitely try to relax. I find treating meditation as something sacred (ie. connecting with god/higher self etc) helps with the quality and deepens the experience, especially if your doing it for spiritual purposes...

[Mr.Qwerty]

[PleiadianHealer]

[Mr.Qwerty]