Meditation Reflection, Round 2!
Make an additional comment directly relating meditation to the Tolle reading. You should include a specific excerpt (quote with citation) along with your analysis of the connection you are making. [DUE: W 4/6]
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Today in class we practiced self-awareness and reflection through journaling, spending time to write mindfully about our feelings, thoughts, embodied experiences, behaviors, and responses. During this freewriting loop, we intentionally called to mind both “positive” and “negative,” and reflected in writing on the emotions that arose in response to them. In these way, we were over-identifying with the thinking mind, as Tolle might say.
As a class, we then embarked on a shared experiment by doing a guided meditation. For this practice, we used the the Calm App and one of the Daily Calm meditations, this one on “Optimal Anxiety.” I know that this can be an uncomfortable and stretching experience in the best of circumstances, and especially so in class and over Zoom (!). Thank you for allowing yourself to be vulnerable and open to this experience, and for sharing this meditation practice with me (especially if this was your first experience with meditation!)
The freewriting we did immediately afterwards hopefully was useful for capturing your embodied response to this practice.
Both journaling and meditation are generative conduits of self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-help: here will will combine the two. Please share your reflections on your meditation experience in class today by commenting below. [DUE: 4/1]
Before meditating as a class, I felt tired and the only thing in my mind was wanting to sleep and the busy schedule I have for that day. Overall, I was distracted by my thoughts. When in the process of meditating I could feel my mind being ‘free’ from the endless thoughts and the feeling of exhaustion drifting away in a mater of seconds. I was left feeling relaxed and my mind clearing up from those former thoughts. As for the freewriting I found my mind quickly switching when pointing out the positive and negative things. For instance, when jotting down what found to be positive, I would feel happy as I am recollecting that moment. That same quick reaction was something I also experienced when recalling the negative, I would almost go on a tangent when writing it down. I felt frustrated in the beginning yet that feeling quickly left as I recalled it being a past problem. It no longer affected me anymore. In short, I found it very beneficial in just the short moments.
What I started feeling about the meditation was a distraction at first due to being at home. When I was meditating during class, in the beginning, I was doing breathe in and breathe out exercise’s meditation. It was in a very calm space when I was in the moment to relieve all the anxiety and stress during my day towards everything intertwined with my everyday life. Meditation is an excellent way to experience, primarily focusing on the positive things in my current life situation. Overall, I like it was a woman giving a commentary throughout the meditation. It was a great way to have listeners have time for themselves to feel better and happier. Having to do the meditation in class and using the calm app is an excellent way for anyone and me to improve their mental well-being. The app teaches users like me how to reduce anxiety and stress, sleep better, and check-in with their emotions.
Before we began the meditation exercise in class I felt and thought it would be a little weird since I personally have my own way of “meditating” through other activities. Anyhow, as we started the writng and meditating exercises I realized the entire time that it was more of a self reflection of myself and who I am today. It was a nice moment where I was able to shut off my brain and sit and relax and just think abiut relaxing my mind. Hearing the woman speak was weird and threw me off at first but eventually I was able to tune her out and was still be able to be in this state of meditation. It was interesting to say the least.
Meditation is always something I looked forward to doing and has been a goal of mine. Before we meditated as a class my feelings and thoughts were “maybe this can ease the stressful week I have been having”. Meditation is a time where we get to sit back and just take things slow and just self-reflect and give ourselves that break that we need and acknowledge as well. Hearing the woman speak was kind of weird and different to me but it was a good difference. This meditation was very useful to me and I feel like since we had this class in the morning it was also a great way to start off our day as well.
I never meditate and I thought it was going to be unhelpful. I felt like I had too much on my mind to be able to focus on meditating. I always feel a bit awkward when doing breathing exercises and think I look silly which is why I should do them more so that I can get over that. I just have to get used to meditating to overcome that awkwardness. As Hanna said, I also felt like this was a great way to start my morning. After meditating, I felt very relaxed and peaceful, which was necessary after writing about what made me feel negative.
Before having meditation in class, I felt so exhausted because I just woke up twenty minutes before the class. I was breathing heavily and was able to feel my empty stomach. Usually when we wake up we are mostly in bad mood. When Professor was giving directions for meditation in class, we all closed our eyes first. This made me feel a little nauseous but when I started to take deep breathe it felt so soothing. It felt like all of my sorrowness were coming out and I started to feel fresh and calm. As long it was extending, it felt more peaceful and I thought I’m in another world, where everything is so silent as I like. There was darkness since we closed eyes, I loved it because I love to be in a dark room as mine. I thought this could be a good idea to feel relaxed whenever I feel exhausted I should try this by my own. And I do too but to be honest not in the morning, I do anytime I feel like I need it.
So before class I tend to be always tired due to staying up late most of the time to do assignments. I usually go to class straight as soon as I wake up so I’m always exhausting. However, in class the meditation that was done made me feel calm from just all the stress from the previous days especially since I had taken a mid term and an exam on back to back days with two homework assignments due the following day. It felt great to start off the day with this.
Before having Meditation in class, I felt tired and calm simultaneously because I usually wake up half an hour before class. However in class meditation, I feel calm and relaxed in order to get through stress .
Before meditation the class wrote multiple free writes about our feeling, what makes us happy sad and how do u fell right now. with those free writes came with many emotions whether what we write about made us happy or sad but for most of us we were tired and after we meditated, we went from angry/sad or happy tired to relax. Within the meditation we learned to not focus our minds on anything. we had to clear our minds sit and just deep Breth in and deeper breath out.
Before meditation the class wrote multiple free writes about our feeling, what makes us happy sad and how do u fell right now. with those free writes came with many emotions whether what we write about made us happy or sad but for most of us we were tired and after we meditated, we went from angry/sad or happy tired to relax. Within the meditation we learned to not focus our minds on anything. we had to clear our minds sit and just deep Breth in and deeper breath out.
I find meditation helpful in the sense of being able to clear my mind immediately. Before my mind would be spinning with many thoughts and it will be to the point, I would feel overwhelmed if left unattended. In the case of Tolle, states the following “The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this, in turn, depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind…the more you identified with your mind, the more you suffer” (page 33). Tolle mentions how negative thoughts can cloud a person’s mind if it continues to build up. Which leads to a burst of emotions. This connects with meditation because the end goal is to wipe your mind clear from all emotions almost like a ‘fresh start’. In my case of feeling overwhelmed, it shares similarities in terms of being buildable and making matter worse if nothing is done to ‘treat it’.
As I was sitting yesterday at my desk while we began to meditate I was reminded of something Tolle’s book said. Tolle writes “Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable”(Tolle page 34). I related in those moments of meditation to these words because I myself am an over thinker. My mind runs in circles as if the past, present and future are one in the same. I believe with this quote he is saying how time can be threatening. As if your mind at times can not tell the difference between the before and the now. I have also felt like I had to control everything. But by the middle of the meditation I found myself programming my mind to understand there are things I can control, but others that I can not and I must let them go. On the previous page he even said something to that affect. Tolle said, “In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer”(Tolle pg 33). I took that to mean the more you sit in your mind and see it as all you are, the more you will torture yourself with the unknowable, with the uncontrollable. So I am hoping by continuing to meditate and learn things about my mind I can climb to a higher place where I can separate the controllable from the uncontrollable.
I intended to reduce my stress. I had been stressed about one of my classes because of the assignments and I wanted to be more prepared when it came time to study. After meditating, most of the stress melted away. I did find myself getting distracted at times. I came out of meditation to scratch an itch and then a sound had interrupted me, but I could go back to meditation after that. The last time we meditated it was harder to focus on meditating because I felt awkward and was thinking of other things but I did better this time.
This second meditation was very good and improvement from the first. The plan for this session was to cancel out all the unnecessary around be except for the voice guiding me through the meditation. In Tolle’s The Power of Now, he says ” the more you identified with your thinking, your likes and dislikes, judgement and interpretations, which is to say the less present you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be, whether you are aware of it or not”(page 25). I took his idea as to look into what causes these emotions to happen and think on them.
Meditation for me is something I consider kind of “weird” only for the fact that I dont believe it is something that would work for me personally. But while trying the exercise out in class I
Meditation for me is something I consider kind of “weird” only for the fact that I dont believe it is something that would work for me personally. I have tried meditation before in the most desolate places one can think of and my head would struggle to maintain quiet if that makes sense. I know for many mediatation works and helps them calm down or help with self reflection or the ability to calm nerves. While thinking about the concept of meditation I was reminded of a part of the text that said, “The present moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant, or awful” (pg 35). When an individual is goiong through a negative moment in their life they tend to not stop thinking about it, which can relate to that peice of the text since that is why someitmes meditation could be difficult for some people.
Before we started meditating I already know what is meditation is because I used to do it myself when I need to calm down. My usual style of meditation was to just close my eyes and take deep breaths. I was like this is gonna be the usual thing I do when I get mad, but the program we listened to proved me wrong. After we finish meditating I feel more different from the way I usually meditate because of the instructions given in the program. It causes me to think more about myself and cause me to reflect .
Thanks to those folks who made comments here, and I’m glad to hear that you are enjoying meditation.
A friendly reminder that, for this second round of meditation reflection, you should move beyond mere personal reflection (what you experienced during meditating) to connecting that reflection to the Tolle’s ‘The Power of Now.” Make an explicit connection to the text by sharing a relevant quote from it, and providing your analysis. Draw on your close reading / annotations of that text that you’ve already done to get started.
From the instructions above (and on the Schedule): “Make an additional comment directly relating meditation to the Tolle reading. You should include a specific excerpt (quote with citation) along with your analysis of the connection you are making.”
We’ll be using these comments as a basis for our discussions in class today, so please do get them up here and come prepared to class ready to share. Olga, Katie, George, and Erick did a great job of making this connection — look to their comments above as models for your own (though choose different excerpts to explore).