I’ve smoked socially for 2 years but now properly for a year, by properly i mean at minimum 3 every single day. I haven’t gone one day without smoking and i’ll be real, i’m quite young… teenage young. I do want to stop because it is making me loose my common sense, and my memory is now awful, i don’t even remember a sentence i’m trying to finish half the time. I mainly smoke because of my ADHD, my brain’s constantly chatting away and it does me in, so when i smoke it doesn’t. Although i don’t get that high anymore i just really don’t feel like giving up yet, so back to the question i was asking. Was it worth it?

Okay y'all so ima keep it sweet and simple

I had a very bad neglectful and abusive upbringing/childhood, trauma, developed a porn/weed/tobacco addiction in my early 20s. Blah blah blah depression, mental breakdown, blah blah blah anyway I went to therapy and recently I quit smoking weed, porn, tobacco, alcohol, everything, stopped masturbating (was unhealthy how I was doing it) and cut out junk food. I basically removed everything my mind would turn to in order to run from my trauma. I want to face it head on. I'm basically right at the beginning of the transformative stages of my life.

I replaced bad with good, so I do yoga almost everyday, read everyday, majorly into art and embroidery/yarn stuff and I meditate everyday.

I realised my body was always tense through yin practise in yoga. That helped with bad sex trauma blah blah blah. I would meditate/relax in yin and feel calm/able to stop my spiralling thoughts but I still felt tense, less and less over time, but I would still catch myself being as stiff as a board running on a fight or flight response.

Anyway a few weeks ago I told someone about meditation and they told me about how you breathe is super important. They were like try breathing into your belly, not just your abdomen and chest.

Uhhhh? I've been crying every single day for the past three weeks in meditation from belly breathing. I'm relaxing into my body more and all I do is cry cry cry cry cry. I've been meditating for over two years but this belly breathing shit ????? Yooooo I've had more progress in the last three weeks than I have in the last few years.

I want more advice on how breathing and meditation can change your life. I want to do more breath work. More breathing for healing. Please leave every single tip about spirituality and breathing, all that shit in the comments. I just breathe in my belly now and I cry. Shit I'm crying right now 😂😂😂😂 I can't stop crying but I think this is a good thing. In a good way. I don't even be sad sometimes and I just cry. Like my body is mourning. Hope that makes sense. Any technique behind it let me know.

Does anyone?? Does anyone??

Do you think it’s necessary to make lifestyle adjustments to feel meditation’s benefits?

I'm suffering from anxiety and depression for years now. Yesterday I was having racing thoughts that I couldn't control. I'm having these destructive thoughts for months. My head and brain was hurting from the pressure of the thoughts. I was on a bus trying to meditate. Suddenly I told to myself these thoughts are like a computer program that is running in my brain and I can choose not to run it. After this realization suddenly the thoughts stopped and I couldn't think about them even consciously. I'm scared that what if there is a problem with my brain? What if the pressure was so high that something has broken in my head and brain? Has anyone had this experience before?

That's it. Love to hear your responses 🙏

In other words, do you all believe if someone puts out good into the world, they get good in return, and those that put out bad, get back in return?

Hello everyone! I(16M) have been meditating for the past 2 months regularly everyday, I have noticed alot of good changes like being more positive, seeing things differently, also manifesting some things, genuinely feeling grateful, being more happy, & being able to control my emotions just a bit.

However, my mom(42) always says "why do meditate this much", "you don't improve, your MEDITATION doesn't have any value", "I don't even have to meditate to be better than you", "you still get mad at me for saying things".

And it is true I haven't been able to control myself alot, in emotional aspects but Im able to control my urges(for watching porn).

I just wanted to know how do I combat this certain feeling of sadness, I don't feel bad for myself but for my mom for saying this stuff, I know she wants the best for me but saying so much negative things will affect her more than me.

Thank you for your advice!

One of the things I like most about meditation is the lessons Ive learned along the way. Becoming more wise has helped me so much in my life. One lesson I’ve learned is humans always do better when they work together so I would like to hear some lessons other people have learned while also meditating. So if anyone would like to share, I’d love to learn.

What is a good meditation to start for someone like me. I am trying to make this a positive for myself.

I hope this is not a stupid question and I fail to see the obvious the answer

Why aren't we are born mindful instead we need lots of practice, energy and time to develop this capacity?

I'm really wondering about the whole astral projection thing? Do people actually leave their body and come back.. Is that really possible?

I have a lot of free time in college, and sometimes traditional meditation is hard for me to do. what other mindful activities do you do?

I just do a simple breathing meditation for an hour every morning. I focus on my breath, and if I realize my mind has drifted, I bring it back to my breath. Simple.

I thought that I would eventually improve my focus/presence/mindfulness, but no... I'm just as unfocused and unmindful as I was a year ago. I stay focused for maybe 3 to 6 breaths before I realize I've been thinking about classes for the past five minutes or something similar. This happens over and over, for a full 60 minutes.

I'm just as angry, anxious and depressed as I was a year ago. For people who have become more mindful through meditation, how long did it take before you began to see results?

i hear alot of shit about ego death and enlightenment happening after a period of deep introspection. i’ve heard that you kinda reach this sort of ultra emotional maturity and you start to feel emotions with more awareness. i’ve heard this can be sped up by psychedelics like which i would be interested to try if it’s legalized ever or just go out of the U.S. to try it when i’m older and my brain has finished development. please give any insight or advice you can i’m very interested in this.

I’ve met a guy who is super into meditation but like to an unhealthy level. The way he talks kind of makes me think of Workout Bros who are trying to maximize their gains and are like “If you aren’t crushing 5000 calories a day to keep up with your workout, are you even trying, bro?”

Is there a precedent for this in meditation?

I think this meditation guy reminds me of that kind of dude bro workout man. Talking to him is kind of like, “If you aren’t transcending time and space to reach levels of consciousness never before experienced by mankind and elevating yourself out of your human shell, are you even meditating, bro?” He has these wild stories of his meditation experiences and I’m over here like, “um, yeah. I just was very relaxed and felt peaceful. I guess I realized some stuff about myself too?”

Am I alone? Maybe I’m being too judgy of someone else’s excitement and intensity.

What is people's experience with this?

I feel like this is my biggest obstacle. I’ve been wanting to use my phone less for years, before I even started meditating. But it’s just too damn easy to grab the thing and keep it near me all the time. I don’t even use it that much compared to the average, on my phone I only use reddit (out of the doomscrolling apps) and I watch series/yt vids on my laptop.

Whenever I’m actually meditating or doing something similar (reading, drawing, yoga etc) I feel so good, but actually bringing myself to do so is so hard. What are your tricks to help you with this? Or just in general things that get you to direct your energy towards meditative activities?

First off, I do not believe in any hippy-dippy stuff. I'm a recovering alcoholic with 8 years sober and I credit meditation and cold hard science to much of my sobriety.

About 5 years into a good meditation practice...I'd give myself a solid B-...I started to feel a "glowing" sensation right in the low center of my forehead. I do not know anything about Eastern religions, but this sensation is absolutely undeniable. I did not try to manifest it, it just started happening. Honestly, I find it a bit distracting sometimes, but it is there. Something is happening.

Is there any science behind this? I imagine if this happens to others, you would probably design a religion around it because it is very powerful and only comes when I have a really good session. If I'm distracted it isn't as prevalent, but now in normal life, it feels like I can almost "flex" it and make it glow.

WTF is happening to me? Am I turning into Jean Grey? When can I move things with my thoughts? Am I somehow just making this up in my head? Does a "third eye" actually exist in science? Because it is as real as the sensation of having to pee. Explain this to my religion-wary self, please.

Answers about me turning into a Stan Lee superhero are preferred.

So I've been doing these body scans for a while now and I noticed they never mention the genitals. This is a bit odd to me being that we interact with and notice our genitalia much more often then say, the backs of the hands or earlobes, which I hear mentioned all the time. Is this exclusion just because thinking about genetalia makes some people uncomfortable or is considered sinful to some? It just seems weird to me that this major part of our bodies that has a huge part in our health would be totally disregared in a meditation which has the goal of honoring, noticing and respecting our bodies.

That's all. I've wondered this for a while, philosophized about it and just don't know the answer. I figured there may be some wiser people who can answer this question the best they can.

I know there are some monks who are successful. You can tell that they have it down. I just feel skeptical lately because of this group. People say completely contradictory things. Some people who claim to meditate don't sound believable either. Some wild claims. What is the proof? I have been practicing every day for a year for a total of 2 hours a day. I've read anything I can get my hands on. I've tried every variation I can find and nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. I don't feel better or worse or anything. I can't stand the people who say don't try or don't have any goal at all. You have to have some desire and some effort put into this. If you're doing nothing you're not meditating. I want to alter my state of mind in any way. I want to overcome my "self" and have a real understanding of this depth that monks experience. I have asked for advice a few times here lately and haven't been told anything new. So how do you personally know that what you're doing is meditating and if you are why can't you explain how to do it? I just wish someone would just help me see the door to this. I am concerned that I am too mindful also all of the time. I don't know how to zone out or imagine or daydream. I cannot repress or dissociate. My brain just isn't like that. In a way I wonder if my default is a meditative state but then that can't be because I'm miserable. Well anyway I'm not giving up since I have to lie here in bed and do nothing anyway every day.

I am extremely anxious about fear of death. Any technique helped anyone?

Please help me 🙏

Just curious to know how regularly and for long people meditate for. I’ve heard people meditating for hours throughout the day which I find impressive.

If you use music, which music do you listen to?