Does anyone meditate?

[Blue Skys]

I know that it's a practice makes perfect type of thing, but I'm awful at it. I have had some challenges in life lately and my anxiety level is pretty much through the roof. I try to turn off my brain, but it doesn't work. I'll picture a beautiful meadow with flowers and the like for a good ten seconds but then the terrible thoughts come and I am no longer in my good place.

I've tried to google techniques, but they just try to sell me stuff. So iff anyone meditates, and could give me some advice, I'd greatly apreciate it.

 

[big brown horse]

I have a really hard time meditating too. Same thing that is happening to you happens to me. I can't sit still very long.

I have to find other things to do to...I'm silly like this, but I love to clean horse stalls. It really relaxes me for some odd reason. (Red neck "zen garden"?)

 

[Blue Skys]

That's funny!! Redneck zen garden

 

[cjparker]

One of the purposes of meditation is to learn how to "still your mind". When thoughts intrude on your lovely meadow, just toss them aside and go back to the meditation. It takes a while but it's worth it.
A trick that a friend of mine used was to focus on a mental blackboard, with the meditation of keeping the blackboard blank. When she had a thought that "didn't belong", she put it on the blackboard and then erased it.

 

[Ldychef2k]

I don't do what I would call meditation, but I do have some wonderful prayer times. It's hard to get myself settled down enough to do it well sometimes, but what helps for me is to play quite worship music that brings me into a place where I realize the magnitude of God, and then I become overwhelmed with appreciation that He does so much for me. After my thoughts are focused on that, I am able to find humility, and this assurance that He is listening, and what a miracle that is. Then I just start talking to Him about what is going on in my life. Sometimes I ask a lot of questions, and frequently something comes to my mind that I know I would never be clever or bright enough to think on my own. That's what I feel is the voice of God, directing me gently in the way I should go. It's a "where did that come from" moment, that had to have come from the Lord.

That's what meditation is for me. When I tried to do what others have said, it is just not deep enough to hold my attention, probably because the results depend on ME, not God. Knowing someone is listening makes all the difference. While I love the sounds and sights of nature, and have lots of them on CD, the greatest thing for me is that moment when I realize He is listening to me.

 

[big brown horse]

One of the purposes of meditation is to learn how to "still your mind". When thoughts intrude on your lovely meadow, just toss them aside and go back to the meditation. It takes a while but it's worth it.
A trick that a friend of mine used was to focus on a mental blackboard, with the meditation of keeping the blackboard blank. When she had a thought that "didn't belong", she put it on the blackboard and then erased it.

That is a great tip! (Already though, my silly brain is thinking about writing a whole "to do" list on that black board. :/) I am however going to try it. Do you suggest a quiet place? All day long I hear crowing and clucking.

 

[MorelCabin]

My way of meditating is also talking to God. He has a way of stilling the mind and taking away stresses and worries

 

[Wifezilla]

I have a 3 second attention span. Never did get the hang of the whole "quiet mind" thing. Go ADD

 

[abifae]

*

 

[bibliophile birds]

the best trick i've found (it also helps me sleep) is to start doing multiplication tables in my head. just pretty easy things like 6X4. i don't like math much, so after a few minutes of annoying math problems, i can pretty easily slip into that nice calm thoughtlessness. i have a seriously overactive mind that jumps from one random thought to the other and this is about the only way i can slow it down. a random thought will creep in every now and then, but i'll just do a couple more math problems and i'm back to the good place.

i can't be somewhere really quiet, so i aim for lite ambient noise- classical music, foreign music so i can't be tempted to sing along (Hindu chants and Islamic calls to worship are some of my favorites because they have these amazing resonant voices), or just nature sounds. if it's too quite, i mentally have to fill the void.