People talk a lot about meditation. Majority of what I read I find questionable. Here is what works for me: 1. First comes breathing. Breath deeply and exhale deeply. do this for 30 in/out breaths maintaining a constant rhythm. When you have completed 30 breaths, breathe in and hold your breath for as long as you can. Exhale deeply and repeat the 30 in out breaths. Do this cycle 3 times. You will get dizzy at first. I dont know how it works but the rhythmic deep breathing gets me into a good firm meditative state. 2. Detach from noise. See thought but dont partake. This does not take effort it is simply detachment and observation. Eventually the thought becomes less and less until you can look at an ant, or fly, or flower, or whatever and just be one with it. You will be in the moment when you are not trying to identify your senses everything becomes internal and your mind stops calculating. You will know what I mean when you achieve this state. I cannot describe it but practice getting to this point. It is no good trying anything else until you can get to this point of clarity. You are ready for the next step. 3. When your mind is clear of intrusive thought you can create positive imagery. Fill the empty space with positive emotion. I stand in amongst the trees, filling mind with greenery and blue sky, looking up at the tops and visualising myself launching up and over the treetops in spiritual form. It feels like an energy or internal awareness or something, launches out of my physical body and expands into vastness and infinite potential. Anything and everything is possible here! You actually feel this it is not a thought. It is incredibly liberating. Now you are ready for the final step. 3. Now that you are free of intrusive thought and full of positive emotion you build on this platform of freedom and expansiveness. You are ready to implement positive affirmations. At this point I must say that trading and money and all the things I used to lust over are so unimportant it is laughable. You will laugh too. From this perspective I have zero fear and 100% feeling of potential. I see myself trading my method with ease. I can mostly trade detached because I practice the above. The market does get to me but I bounce back really quickly. It works.
How long did it take you to become good/effective at your technique? Do you do it every day? I've been trying to meditate for about 2 months now and I still find it difficult. I am currently working on what you describe in step 2.
About 3 years. I was already damaged goods when I started trading and things only got worse. So it was more out of necessity to get away from my twisted imagination. Life was one continuous panic attack and deep breathing brought some relief. I dont do it every day but most days. Just start with that breathing technique, dont try and do anything else at this stage. Close your eyes and 'look' at yourself breathing rhythmically. In your minds eye turn around and see yourself sitting there breathing. Mind follows body .... not the other way around. The deep breathing will get your entire system into synchronous tempo. On/off, in/out, yin/yang, you become binary. Mind becomes malleable. This must be your only goal right now. Do it once a day for 5 minutes. Then twice a day, then three times etc.. Then 10 minutes, 15 minutes ... and so on until it is easy and you find your singularity. Wont take long. "People shrivel up because they have an imagination. So, stop imagining, you'll become brave as hell." Good luck.
I don't know about that part being particularly conducive to meditation. Apart from that, you make some good points. As for the deep breathing, I think it's important to mention that the breathing should be diaphragmatic, so that your belly expands at the in breath. That will automatically make the breathing deeper and more effective, so that you won't have to consciously focus on the "deep" part.
That’s great, thanks for the post. Breathing is very important, I focus breathe in and slight grunt breathe out. The grunt is me grunting my mantra, hey it works. That makes me fall into a trancelike state. I no longer fight my thoughts I just let them flow like a river, bad thoughts have just a littke effect as good thoughts. My trance state is like being in a dream but knowing you are dreaming. Peace.
do it day in and day out just sit in stillness for 1 min, 1 hour or 1 day just keep at it. You will eventually find your best seating position, time to do it, the breathe you need etc.
That brings up a whole new, interesting topic: lucid dreaming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream I bought a few books on the subject, but could never quite get there. Intriguing, though.
I recommend picking up a copy of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind-Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice by Shunryu Suzuki