Hey how long did it take you to get used to those meditation times? 2 hours seems insane. I can do a few mins if im really in the mindset. Any advice for improvement? I try to do mindfulness stuff but my mind always jumps to thoughts instead of presence really fast. Maybe unless im jogging or taking a walk in an interesting place.
Hey, many years!! Up until around this time last year nearly all my sessions were 20-30 minutes and not quite as consistent as I am now. Then i upped to 1 hour and something clicked (basically had some incredible experiences) and it actually became a rather pleasent experience and not such a chore to commit to each day.
My top tip would be to get the book 'the mind illuminated' by Culdasa, i dont think anything has helped me develop as much as this book. It's big and very in depth, but split into stages starting right from the beginning so you dont have to read it all at once. (I'm only on stage 7/10)
On the point of jumping to thoughts, it's really important not to get mad when that happens, its supposed to happen! A tip I took from the above book was to in your head say' 'aha! Mind wandering!' and actually reward yourself for recognising, positively reinforcing that recognising. Because actually by the time you recognise mind wandering your most recent mind moment was the act of recognising so to get annoyed at yourself is actually negatively reinforcing the act of noticing the mind wandering, not the mind wandering itself. So instead by congratulating your recognising with an 'aha!' moment and then coming back to the breath, over time you begin to unconsciously do this and the mind becomes quiet.
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