Im thinking about getting into this.. it's supposed to be beneficial to concentration,blood pressure,etc. just need to know whats a good type.. is it hard to stick with or start?

 

Like anything that requires effort (going to the gym for example), it is hard to get into in the beginning and remain consistent.

You should search in your local area for group sessions it may be easier for you to get started that way, I am sure you have plenty of options in So. California.

 

true.. i just hope i can stick with it since i go to the gym already.. will need alot of willpower

 

If you go to the gym already then you have a head start; you know it's hard to get into something and it can be discouraging when you don't see any gains in the short-term. But like the gym it's more beneficial in the long term.

Going to sessions may help if there is someone leading the group and basically walking you through it. Usually start with methods like the body scan and breathing exercises and so on. Go for it.

 

I tried it, but like so many other things, I got a restraining order out of it.

 

If you think meditation might be hard, well, what can you say to that? I personally don't find sitting quietly, relaxing and thinking of nothing in particular to be especially challenging or needing much willpower.

 

The restraint is in the modern mind and the need to go. The act of sitting still, content, with as little outside stimuli as possible, roaming the mind or free'ing it, is a scary thing in the western world. Other than driving, meditating is generally my favorite part of my day. Also give yourself time, for most people nowadays, simply by the way we've grown up the act of releasing will probably not be immediate nor seem "natural". Don't get frustrated if you can't slow your brain down in that way immediately. The key is just to give yourself the green light to go, and not expect a result. The greatest thing to me about meditation is how infinite it is; you can do meditations on not thinking, on "god" or any spiritual type of thing, on the big bang, on thumbnails and pinky toes, on the design of life, on sex, really anything, but the key before that is to remove your sense of self first, before diving into subjectivity. Don't think of it as diving in, more like climbing down slowly (until you've done it so extensively that it almost becomes a secondary natural state). But you can also do pre-workout "meditations" that will increase oxygen intake and blood-oxygen uptake, which can obviously help your workout (not to mention, a clear mind is going to aide that anyways). If it becomes something that you enjoy then there's many different ways to apply it to many different aspects.

One of my favorite pre-meditation breathing exercises is the breathe of fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zedVvFEh1ck

 

My mom was a student and then teacher of the Trancendental Meditation movement who learned from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

http://en.wikipedia....ntal_Meditation

She taught me how, but I rarely do it. Those times that I do, I find it to be extremely relaxing, and in some cases (when I can actually fall into a fully meditative state) amazingly therapeutic. My back aches almost contantly due to work but there have been times where I have done meditation and my back loosens up and I get several hours completely ache free.

I think it's great. I'm just a slacker and dont do it.

 

a little update.. so I decided to take some meditation group classes.. was very informative and somewhat fun and the instructor was really good.. only problem was the location was noisy outside. but I didn't mind that much.. if anyone is in socal and interested, the organization I tried out was Insight LA, in which they teach Mindful Meditation (one of the more common types).. if you don't want to pay the $125 fee for the lessons, UCLA has podcasts of guided mindful meditation ( I think it has been the top downloaded free podcast on iTunesU for a while).. http://marc.ucla.edu/

ill have to try this out for a few months and see how that goes..

 

I was reading about floatation last night. Pretty cool shit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank