The Toxic Combination of Restlessness and Meditation
January 7, 2008
You often meditate successfully, but there are those times that you just can’t sit still. Ahhhh…this is the most frustrating. Just so you know, I am almost always restless and can completely relate to this issue. Through experience, I’ve had to learn to compensate for my restlessness. More on how I overcome restlessness it in a few moments. First, let’s break down restlessness by doing what I always do…ask questions.
Why Are You Restless While You Meditate?
The list of why is endless. Maybe you need exercise. Maybe you’re overtired and sleepy and your body is fighting back. Maybe you haven’t eaten enough protein. Maybe you’re tired from work. Whatever…
I have another hypothesis. Maybe your body is trying to activate your mind by moving. What’d you say? Why would your brain want to induce your body to be restless and to move? - For a similar reason your body craves salt after you work out. When you workout, your body sweats and looses critical fluids which are needed to replenish. Your mind gives you a craving to drink something like Gatorade. You can choose to ignore the craving, but the mind of humans has been formed over many years of evolution and it won’t be easy.
Bilateral Stimulation Helps Meditation
What I have found is that I can meditate far more easily by applying bilateral stimulation. Sometimes I use my hands, unclenching and clenching my left and right fists slowly. Better yet, I use my Focus Stones.
My theory is simple. Different types of people just can’t sit still and they need the distraction of something else. This logic is similar to the way music helps some people study. It’s well documented that familiar (not something new) music can help a person better focus on the task-at-hand. The mind needs a distraction - something to put it into a rhythm.
Why not try Focus Stones for bilateral stimulation the next time you’re experiencing restlessness or having trouble meditating.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The Unnatural Act of Meditating
January 7, 2008
It’s pretty well documented that meditation helps you focus better, think more clearly, be more patient and maybe get you through your day with a little less coffee.
So… you’ve never really figured out how to mediate. It just doesn’t come naturally to you. You sit down and pretend to be some type of guru. You feel silly. You sit there for five, ten, thirty minutes and nothing happens. You’re bored out of your mind. Your mind is racing ahead to your next meal or maybe what you have to accomplish before the day is over.
You’ve tried meditating before and you’re sure pretty sure you won’t b able to reach any type of Zen state. There are a ton of reasons why you’re having trouble. My contention is that all the myriad of reasons really boil down to one.
First, I have a thought that I will ask in the form of a question? Have you ever been so busy at work (or at school) that you don’t have time to spend on all the things that you need to do? Your whole day is booked. You don’t have time to assess and analyze your work. You just do it and however it comes out is what you turn in. Your mind is in overdrive, racing one hundred miles an hour. You are in an adrenaline pumping zone.
Basically, you were meditating while you worked. (Interesting note: There is a long history of mediation while performing tasks. You’re not doing anything new.) With single minded focus you accomplished what you needed to do. You may argue with me that work isn’t meditation. That’s where you and I will disagree. Most every human meditates every day.
When you drive to work do you take the same route every day? How often do you look up and realize that you just drove a block and you weren’t even aware of it? You were meditating. In a meeting or a lecture, do ever look at your watch and realize that you have no idea what was being said for the last five minutes? You were meditating. You may have another name for this state of sub-consciousness. Basically, your mind is taking a break for just a few minutes, which is a form of meditation. Whenever time stands still for you, you’ve meditated.
The biggest difference is that these everyday experiences and the meditation you’ve tried and failed at is one of direction. In a self directed meditation you have a goal or objective. Maybe you have a mantra.
So what’s the problem? You can mediate when the pressure is on (when you’re under a strict deadline) and you can meditate when you’re bored (sitting in a meeting), why can’t you meditate when you choose too?
In the first case, your adrenaline was pumping and you didn’t have time to edit yourself. You just let things come out of your mind. Editing is typically a left brain function. This means that you basically turned-off your natural, mental editor and relied on your G-d given talent. You just worked. You’re left brain was not dominating your right brain. Your right brain was free to inspire and direct your actions while your left brain guided you.
The right brain is more intuitive and understands things rapidly, using images and feelings about information you already had stored in your mind. There was no time to argue with yourself, put out the fire and react later. The urgency of the situation ratcheted your performance up. There may have been some small errors like punctuation, which is more of a left brain function, but you probably did pretty well.
In the second case, you’re bored left brain allowed for your right brain to be more active. Your right brain kind of took over and wandered into some images and thought that you might not even recall. You didn’t analyze anything critically. You just felt kind of mindless. This meditation had not direction and no purpose.
So David….what’s the problem? The problem is one of brain alignment. Your left brain oriented functions and right brain oriented functions are off kilter. When either one is dominating, it’s very difficult to meditate. When you sit down with a very directed meditation, you’re left brain has taken charge and isn’t really leaving any room for your right brain.
Some of you may argue that the brain isn’t so neatly divided into left and right brainfunctions. You would argue that brain processing is highly distributed. You would be correct. However, since all communications from between hemispheres has to go through something called the corpus callosum, it really doesn’t matter. The corpus callosum manages all the traffic from both sides.
If a memory or command is split across the left and right brain, the communication has to go through it. The distributed nature of thinking require that you use both sides of the brain. If you get anxious or critical or commanding, your left brain is going to take over. This is why I sometimes refer to left brain and left brain oriented and the right brain as right brain oriented.
How do you align your mind to work in an optimal manner? How do you reach balanced mental state? You’ve probably figured out that balance is the one thing I was referring too. Without balance, it’s very difficult to meditate.
Stay tuned for my upcoming posts on how to achieve better mental balance and deeper states of meditation.
Mindfulness Meditation and EMDR
January 7, 2008
There are two recognized types of meditation - mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation. The one I want to discuss is mindfulness meditation. In this form of meditation, a person becomes intentionally aware of their thoughts and actions in the present moment and does so without judgement. This includes considering the past, contemplating it and then releasing the thought. There is obviously more here, but I want to cut to the chase. Let’s look at a parallel discipline.
EMDR
There is a form of psychotherapy called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), where the patient sits with a therapist and is told to relive the past - to think about past experiences that may have been painful. The patient uses mindfulness meditation in a direct controlled way without talking.
However, there is one major difference. Bilateral stimulation is being applied during the therapy. Either lights flash back and forth or vibrations are applied in the patients hands. EMDR therapy is proven and it works.
Some of you may argue that the brain wave states between EMDR and mindfulness mediation are different. You would actually be correct. When experienced meditators are monitored, there is a very strong alpha brave state. In EMDR, the brain wave state is no different than everyday brain wave states.
What people fail to realize is that the alpha brain wave state is the result of thinking of no mental images. In the case of EMDR, the images are painful and plentiful. The goal is to work on an issue. Many experienced meditators have worked through their issues and are really monitoring their feelings.
