meditation and the benefts?

[John_P]

Hello

My whole life i have dealt with mild mental health issues. From anxiety and depression where i have experienced traumatic events, which have made things worse.

i come in and out of my mental health issues. Over the past month or so I have been trying to meditate daily. Also i have been trying to get in touch with God also through prayer. Even though I am catholic, i dont really preach and attend service weekly, but since i have been praying, i have been thinking of the benefits of trying to persue God and the holy spirit. I think when you persue God, you are really pursuing true self and healing and being fullfilled from the inside through the Holy Spirit. I find it really similar in terms of the effects on your mind and body as mediation. You are trying to heal and be intouch with your inner fullfilled self!

Anyone want to discuss their experiences with constant meditation and the persuit of God on treating their mental health? I think it is helping me get more grounded.

[John_P]

Hello

Isn't it funny when you meditate you make progress if you do it often enough. But then when you make strides, you feel as though you don't need to do it anymore and then you stop!?

but i have to force myself to keep on doing it as it helps, and convince my mind and body to incorporate it into my lifestyle.

[Ggrand]

Hello Dear John P...

It is strange how when we stop meditation, our mind and body are not so calm...

I do try to meditate on a daily basis, but sometimes that isn’t possible...

I do most of my meditation outside on my veranda...for me doing it outside..brings me a sense of peace..closer to nature and to God.....

Meditation doesn’t need your eyes closed..I watch the clouds drifting past, with an empty mind and no thoughts of nothing except the beauty in the clouds...Sometimes my body feels the movement of the clouds and I’m drifting along with them...

I also do meditation with a huge gum tree in front of my home...

Nature is really about the only natural un man made thing left in this universe....so outside meditation is to be one with the universe in spirit....Inside our home..isn’t natural to our spirit..it’s all man made ideas, TVs, electronic, etc...To many distractions, nothing much is natural....

Maybe..John next time your struggling to do some meditation...could you move your meditation sometimes to being outside in nature....that is if you are doing it inside..

My kindest thoughts dear John with my care..

Grandy.l

[John_P]

Thank you.

I will try that. thank you. doing meditation in nature. It is so important to be grounded and have an anchor. this is vital i am finding. i will try and meditate in nature. great idea. thank you

[missep123]

Hi John P,

I completely understand, I tend to do the same! When I practice something and I get better at it I then stop. I want to start making meditation a natural part of my routine though no matter what. Thank you for keeping us posted on your progress!

[John_P]

hello

for me, meditation and the yoga i do is all about healing deep consequences of trauma. And the trauma is hard to get to.

how do you heal the deep trauma? i mean get really deep and heal it? and process it? i try to get there through meditation but i struggle to get deep into the reminance of the trauma to heal from it?

any ideas?

[John_P]

I have been really trying to get deep to my trauma from mediation and getting in touch with myself.....i noticed last night i dreamt vividly about a specific trauma experience i went through a couple of years ago. it was a vivid dream. maybe this was a way for my brain to reprocess this event. i see this as a positive sign, and a sign of progress, that i was able to get deep to that traumatic experience.

[smallwolf]

On reprocessing and positive signs...

a week or two ago I was listening to a podcast. For a variety of reasons I won't go too far into specifics. Suffice to say that I was taken back to a time in my teens and early 20s where I felt that everything (figuratively speaking) I had done was wrong, that I was worthless etc. Between then and the last two days there would be reminders of what I had done "wrong".

So what happened in the last 2 days...

I had conversations with 3 people - my psychologist and 2 others. Now the 2 others were significant as they were knowledgeable in the areas / matters that were affecting me. On hearing my story they said that I had done nothing wrong and we can say the "lies" that I had been fed made me feel shame etc.

When I saw my psychologist today I spoke about all of this followed by a quick debrief with the other 2 persons. And it felt like as though a lifetime of shame had been lifted from me.

While my situation is would not come under the category of trauma, when you mentioned the reprocessing of an event / sign of progress etc. this is something that happened to me. And if we compare mental health to crossing a bridge that sign of progress can be a step closer to the other side to .....

Tim

PS. I hope your dream was not to scary.

[missep123]

Hi everyone!

Thank you for continuing to update on your journey with mediation and yoga!

Reprocessing trauma is a very challenging thing and I do believe that it can look different for everyone. It definitely sounds like you have made progress though John P! The way I see it as well is 'opening the gates' to allow your body and mind to process this difficult subject which I believe you are doing!

Smallwolf - I am so proud of you for speaking to others and your psychologist about what you are going through so that you weren't alone. I am so happy to hear that you feel as though a weight has been lifted off your shoulders! I find that a lot of us don't realise for how long we have been carrying trauma on our shoulders.

[janine is happy]

Hello,

I think meditation is really great. You should start doing a routine so you could get used to doing meditation!

[John_P]

hello

i went to yoga last night which was great. i really enjoyed trying to let go for that hour and breathing deeply. i really enjoy it. i try and go 4 times a week