Does anyone have any tips on how to increase meditation time?
The best I can get is 5 minutes, I get too bored or uncomfortable, then it turns into a endurance race which creates more stress.

I once managed 10 minutes, I then got a very zen one the ball of awareness feeling, felt very instinctive to the world around me.

haha yeah i dont meditate but i can see how it can get borrowing after a bit. I do pray sometimes and i can get bored and unfocused and it can feel like a one sided conversation to me, with me doing all the blabbing. Apparently beta androstenol helps you acheive deep meditation quicker. i dont know but maybe if you're sensitive to it dont have any caffeine or sugar before meditating, so your mind isn't racing and you dont get all ADD. Also I think i read that you're supposed to focus on a word and repeat it until you get into state...maybe a word like "peace"

Sure, I try to get in 5 minutes of meditation a day. Some days I try to go for longer periods, but it does require time and concentration. It's definitely a skill that you can improve upon. I think the best way to increase the time is to just do more of it.

Also, if you're not already doing it, try to block out all thoughts and feelings, good or bad. I focus on my breathing and nothing else. If another thought comes into my head I gently drop it and focus on my breathing again.

I used to have anxiety, and through meditation I became more aware of what thoughts triggered it and I taught myself to relax during those times. It doesn't have to be anxiety. It can be any habits or feelings that you're trying to look at objectively. To me it feels like I'm looking at myself from a top-down-view. I'm not sure why, but remember it being a bit scary at first. Now I just enjoy it.

Hi,

I'm a Buddhist, and having been meditating for ten years.

My recommendation would be to start with meditation on a single point.

It easier to start with gross physical sensations at the start. For instance, the rising and falling of your stomach, as you breath. Put all of your focus on the physical sensation of your abdomen, rising, and falling. When it rises, mentally note - rising, when it falls, mentally note - falling. When your mind wanders, make a note of it, then return.

Once you have achieved some stability, then you can move onto focusing on your breath, then focusing on a visual object, then focusing on a mental object.

For meditation time, consistency of practice is key. It is much more important to meditate every day, than to meditate for a certain length of time.

Ideally, stop meditating while you still feel eager to meditate. That way, it will be easy to return to the mat. If you push the sessions too long, you will build anxiety, and become sick of meditation, and it will be hard to keep up a daily practice.

Hope that helps.

(05-26-2013 3:03 PM)sunny10 Wrote:  Does anyone have any tips on how to increase meditation time?
The best I can get is 5 minutes, I get too bored or uncomfortable, then it turns into a endurance race which creates more stress.

I once managed 10 minutes, I then got a very zen one the ball of awareness feeling, felt very instinctive to the world around me.

Mantra based meditation can be good for maintaining focus for a longer period of time.

Yup, do 20 minutes a day, best thing that ever happened to me. Pheromones might be a close second.

Started meditating about 3y ago. At the beginning, I concentrated on my breath to keep my thoughts away.
My technique was to imagine my breath as a colored (e.g. blue) stream flowing through my mouth and chest deep into my stomach. Same thing breathing out. When the stream left my mouth, I imagined the blue air to still be there in front of me and get inhaled by me again.
At the beginning, this method really helped me to constantly focus on my breath.

Great ideas. I'll have to try a bunch of these. Thanks!

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I want to share this cool stuff I found with the community.

Since I'm too lazy to post everything, I copied and pasted the details from the website:









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