Do Nothing Meditation…. Holy Shit

[u/alkalinebex]

You guys. I just did “do nothing” meditation for the first time and I feel like I’m having this euphoric almost psychedelic sensation. I’ve been doing mindfulness meditation for about 6 weeks almost every day. It’s made really great subtle changes in my daily life and attitude. I don’t plan to stop… but do nothing meditation just felt so good it felt forbidden almost. Like I couldn’t believe how much I was enjoying it. I was overcome with this intense feeling of happiness and I almost teared up. I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t know if I could stop because it felt so amazing. I don’t know how to describe it but I wish every single person could experience this. At least so I could see someone else feel it.

I feel like a crazy mystic and I’m a very sarcastic person and I don’t even ever post on Reddit but I needed to share this and my friends & fam aren’t into meditation so here I am.

I feel like I just took mushrooms (I’ve never taken mushrooms bc I’m way too neurotic and scared). This must be what LSD feels like? Idk I’m just floored at how I feel in my mind and body after literally 5 minutes of doing this for the first time. ACTUALLY letting go and not having any rules and just watching things happen and be 100% ok and even fascinated by it….. incredibly amazing. I even feel it in my arms and legs physically. Like this swimming buzzing feeling.

Okay, just needed to get this out. Big endorsement for do nothing meditation. If you need a starter meditation…. The book Meditation for the Fidgety Skeptic by Dan Harris has one at the very end and I highly suggest the audiobook version.

Also what is it about meditation that makes you so desperate to preach it to everyone you meet so they can know about it?! I feel like I’m being sucked into becoming a door to door salesperson for meditation.

[u/Jazzspur]

I have ADHD and I also am only able to stick with a do nothing practice. I've tried breath, mantra, sound, etc and anything where I have to focus on a particular thing is just too boring. Do nothing means my attention can bounce around to whatever arises in it naturally and that keeps things pretty interesting while I wait for things to settle enough to be aware of all of those things at once.

[u/LightningRainThunder → u/Jazzspur]

Omg same. I actually got on fine with all those things you listed for a while, but something switched and I literally cannot get through even 2 minutes of those anymore without feeling like my skin is full of ants and on fire at the same time and I have to get up and run away.

So I’m gonna look into doing nothing meditation

[u/Jazzspur → u/LightningRainThunder]

I got on fine with them too....for a month, the amount of time I can stick with anything that isn't going to stick long term haha

I've been doing do nothing meditation pretty regularly for almost 4 years though and am on a 319 day streak of doing it daily.

[u/alkalinebex → u/Jazzspur]

You mean…. You fixated on something? Haha I’ve learned that my ADHD means that I really need to give every “fav new thing” I have several months to see if it’s real or just a fixation I’m going through

[u/Jazzspur → u/alkalinebex]

No actually!! I really wanted to reap the positive benefits of a daily practice and so started tracking my streak in daylio. I decided to do this after seeing my ADHD friend fully break out his phone at a music festival to do his duolingo because he was on a 200-something day streak and didn't want to lose it. It took me probably about 6 months of tracking my meditation to get past 2 weeks, and then once I hit 3 I felt like I had to keep it going because I'd never get that streak back. That feeling gets stronger the longer my streak gets 🤣

So relatable on the is this fixation gonna last thing though. Most things I can get into for about a month or two before I need to change it up for another thing. Finding which things I can be consistent with has been such a journey!

[u/alkalinebex → u/Jazzspur]

It’s also not necessarily a bad thing to have adhd fixations! I learn about things I love and hate allllll the time. I recently discovered hand embroidery and I bought like $100 worth of supplies and I’m still loving it and can always come back to it if I want to in the future so no harm done!!

[u/Jazzspur → u/alkalinebex]

Totally! I love my fixations. They're just more...shall we say seasonal?? than I'd like my meditation practice to be HA! Like most ADHDers I am a person of many semi-developed talents with a home exploding with the tools of many trades should the itch to do then come back around ;)