SpectreT
Knight in Tarnished Armor
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2001
- Posts
- 1,905
I posted in another thread, some very general meditation tips to expand one's self-knowledge. SirFace was appreicative, and FurryFury said she needed more detailed and directed questions and activities. The below is for her.
I'm not a trained professional, and this is self-taught introspection/meditation, so take it for what it's worth and adapt it to your own style.
Find a spot where no one's going to bug you, and I usually suggest an hour a day. That leaves you nine hundred other precious minutes in your day, assuming you get the recommended eight hours of sleep per night. Personally, I'm fond of places with trees and water, outdoors. I know not everyone lives in a rural or suburban area with such amenities available, so don't worry if you can't find a place like that.
Breathing. In as deep as you can, slowly, through the nose. Hold as long as you can. Out through the mouth, again slowly. Hold as long as you can. Rinse. Repeat.
Contemplate the sentence: "I am." Strip it of anything we usually use to finish that sentence, boil it down to just : "I am." Study that core of yourself. What are you, who are you? You're not a job, not a title, not a simple collection of kinks. What is it, that can form the thought, "I am."? That should be good for a while. Once you've got "I am." centered in your thoughts, and it might take a few weeks to get there, move on to sorting wants from needs. There are the basic physical needs, of course, which we all share. It's the mental and emotional needs and wants that make us each an individual, and what you should be focusing on through this. Once you know yourself, and your motivations, which constantly evolve, you can work to make yourself more like what you want to be.
If just sitting and breathing aren't exciting enough for you, you can add exercise to the meditations, once you're used to the breathing. Any old exercise, from walking to lifting weights to studying a martial art, will do. The increased body awareness is good, an the health and fitness benefits of adding even an hour of exercise to your day, I'm sure any doctor or nurse will approve of.
If anyone has experiences of their own self-awareness evolving, feel free to share.
I'm not a trained professional, and this is self-taught introspection/meditation, so take it for what it's worth and adapt it to your own style.
Find a spot where no one's going to bug you, and I usually suggest an hour a day. That leaves you nine hundred other precious minutes in your day, assuming you get the recommended eight hours of sleep per night. Personally, I'm fond of places with trees and water, outdoors. I know not everyone lives in a rural or suburban area with such amenities available, so don't worry if you can't find a place like that.
Breathing. In as deep as you can, slowly, through the nose. Hold as long as you can. Out through the mouth, again slowly. Hold as long as you can. Rinse. Repeat.
Contemplate the sentence: "I am." Strip it of anything we usually use to finish that sentence, boil it down to just : "I am." Study that core of yourself. What are you, who are you? You're not a job, not a title, not a simple collection of kinks. What is it, that can form the thought, "I am."? That should be good for a while. Once you've got "I am." centered in your thoughts, and it might take a few weeks to get there, move on to sorting wants from needs. There are the basic physical needs, of course, which we all share. It's the mental and emotional needs and wants that make us each an individual, and what you should be focusing on through this. Once you know yourself, and your motivations, which constantly evolve, you can work to make yourself more like what you want to be.
If just sitting and breathing aren't exciting enough for you, you can add exercise to the meditations, once you're used to the breathing. Any old exercise, from walking to lifting weights to studying a martial art, will do. The increased body awareness is good, an the health and fitness benefits of adding even an hour of exercise to your day, I'm sure any doctor or nurse will approve of.
If anyone has experiences of their own self-awareness evolving, feel free to share.
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