I've been clean for 10 years and am currently on my Eleventh Step. My prayers have improved over the years, but I still struggle with silencing the mind. Meditation is am area that I need help with in order to improve with my relationship with God and others. Any suggestions? I could use some.
Keep Coming Back it works.
amanda2u2 said
Jun 13, 2006
hi, Pedro, welcome to the board, and thanks for sharing. That's an interesting point that you bring up. I have read in a few places, by people who are into meditation, that rather than fighting off stray thoughts that wander into our minds while we are trying to meditate that it works better for some people to just let the stray thought float by. For example, say I'm meditating on a passage from a book I've just read, like "trust in God", and I'm meditating on what trust is and whether or not God is trustworthy, and the thought comes to mind that I have a dentist appointment later on and I'm anxious about it. Trying to fight off that thought with the idea that I want to keep my mind focussed tends to backfire and result in a struggle over that stray thought, whereas if I just let the thought go by, and I might even incorporate that into the meditation as a good example of applying the 'trust in God' principle, and then we get back to the main meditation actually much faster and more smoothly. My mind tends to go on all kinds of tangents and I have to be careful to let the thought go by without chasing it!
If you go back a page or two, you can see all the excerpts from the 11th Step - the AA, alanon and ACoA chapters on it. There's a lot of good info there.
Hi, My name is Pedro.
I've been clean for 10 years and am currently on my Eleventh Step. My prayers have improved over the years, but I still struggle with silencing the mind. Meditation is am area that I need help with in order to improve with my relationship with God and others. Any suggestions? I could use some.
Keep Coming Back it works.
hi, Pedro, welcome to the board, and thanks for sharing. That's an interesting point that you bring up. I have read in a few places, by people who are into meditation, that rather than fighting off stray thoughts that wander into our minds while we are trying to meditate that it works better for some people to just let the stray thought float by. For example, say I'm meditating on a passage from a book I've just read, like "trust in God", and I'm meditating on what trust is and whether or not God is trustworthy, and the thought comes to mind that I have a dentist appointment later on and I'm anxious about it. Trying to fight off that thought with the idea that I want to keep my mind focussed tends to backfire and result in a struggle over that stray thought, whereas if I just let the thought go by, and I might even incorporate that into the meditation as a good example of applying the 'trust in God' principle, and then we get back to the main meditation actually much faster and more smoothly. My mind tends to go on all kinds of tangents and I have to be careful to let the thought go by without chasing it!
If you go back a page or two, you can see all the excerpts from the 11th Step - the AA, alanon and ACoA chapters on it. There's a lot of good info there.
love in recovery,
amanda