My relaxation technique

[geordief]

Wonder if anyone here recognizes it. I "made it up" after 50 years of using an off the peg technique (on and off), and wonder whether I have just stumbled into already charted territory 

 

So ,to explain ,I just  get comfortable  ,close my eyes  and bring my attention to my breathing.

 

I don't alter my breathing , I just pay attention to it (as we know breathing is involuntary so  there is no need to interfere with it on that count)

 

After a short while my attention will slip and my mind goes down its rabbit holes of choice. When I realize this has happened (unless the rabbit hole is of special interest) I restart/repeat  the process .....and so on  for as long as I feel like.

 

Anyone come across this technique (not something like it  but practically  the same as ...? ( I have no personal  interest in  "shopping around" in this area .I am very happy  with the way this is going for me)

[Prometheus]

Anapanasati meditation.

[geordief]

Seems "like it" but I don't distinguish between the inhalation and the exhalation.

Also there is no goal in my technique other than recharging batteries (hopefully) and getting pleasure from the activity (enlightenment ,no thanks)

The    thing I notice though ,is that I can consciously choose to pay attention to the breathing in the nose or the breathing in the belly.

 

I prefer the nose as it involves less physical activity and so seems simpler.

[dimreepr]

1 minute ago, geordief said:

Also there is no goal in my technique other than recharging batteries (hopefully) and getting pleasure from the activity (enlightenment ,no thanks)

You're missing the point; just be content to be now... You're not playing football... 😉

[zapatos]

I use the technique you describe to fall asleep. Normally when I go to bed my mind doesn't slow down which will keep me awake. 

I'll observe the breathing which gets me to quit thinking of other things. This allows my mind "to go down its rabbit hole of choice" (LOVE that description of it! Hope you don't mind me using it in the future. 😄) The rabbit hole often includes some really strange journeys. After a while the rabbit holes stop, and sleep begins. Sometimes if I'm just trying to nap I'll just explore rabbit holes for a while then get up without ever having fallen asleep, yet feeling very much refreshed.

The other difference seems to be that I don't intentionally restart/repeat. If I hit a rabbit hole of particular interest it snaps me back to alertness so I can properly explore it. When I'm done properly exploring I go back to letting my mind drift.

I love the feeling that comes with the mind drifting around. Hard to explain what it is like.

 

[Prometheus]

33 minutes ago, geordief said:

Seems "like it" but I don't distinguish between the inhalation and the exhalation.

Also there is no goal in my technique other than recharging batteries (hopefully) and getting pleasure from the activity (enlightenment ,no thanks)

The    thing I notice though ,is that I can consciously choose to pay attention to the breathing in the nose or the breathing in the belly.

 

I prefer the nose as it involves less physical activity and so seems simpler.

There's no goal to (some) meditation either - sometimes its described as just whole-hearted sitting.

The only distinction between inhalation and exhalation made is the distinction your mind makes. Whether it's a rabbit hole or not depends on who's teaching it. One thing you notice with this kind of meditation is that each breath feels just a little bit different, and if it's different between breathes for the same person, then i'm sure it's different between people. But from my experience of meditation i think anapanasati is the closest thing you'll find to what you describe.

Nose and navel are common foci you could try the neck, the throat, the chest - there's no end to the fun. Happy breathing.

[dimreepr]

12 minutes ago, zapatos said:

I love the feeling that comes with the mind drifting around. Hard to explain what it is like.

It doesn't matter what it's like, just that you like what it is...

[geordief]

1 hour ago, zapatos said:

I use the technique you describe to fall asleep. Normally when I go to bed my mind doesn't slow down which will keep me awake. 

I'll observe the breathing which gets me to quit thinking of other things. This allows my mind "to go down its rabbit hole of choice" (LOVE that description of it! Hope you don't mind me using it in the future. 😄) The rabbit hole often includes some really strange journeys. After a while the rabbit holes stop, and sleep begins. Sometimes if I'm just trying to nap I'll just explore rabbit holes for a while then get up without ever having fallen asleep, yet feeling very much refreshed.

The other difference seems to be that I don't intentionally restart/repeat. If I hit a rabbit hole of particular interest it snaps me back to alertness so I can properly explore it. When I'm done properly exploring I go back to letting my mind drift.

I love the feeling that comes with the mind drifting around. Hard to explain what it is like.

 

Yes , I use it for going to sleep sometimes too.

@bold  Don't you go back to noticing your breathing at that point ?

 

Would just be one long rabbit hole otherwise,no? (or does your breathing stay regular  at all times? Mine gets very shallow , almost as if the breathing is "taking a breather" unless I stay too long in any particular train of thought/it seems to "come out" gradually unless I go back to noticing the breath)

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by geordief

[zapatos]

8 minutes ago, geordief said:

@bold  Don't you go back to noticing your breathing at that point ?

 

Yes, I go back to noticing my breathing when I am ready to start exploring rabbit holes again. Once I am deep in a hole I have no idea what my breathing is doing.

 

12 minutes ago, geordief said:

Would just be one long rabbit hole otherwise,no?

Hmm. Unless I come back to alertness, I guess you could call it one long rabbit hole as I don't regularly 'start over'. It seems more like I go down a rabbit hole, and visit lots of side tunnels while down there. If one of those side tunnels happens to pop me alert I'll use the breathing observation to again go  below ground. 

In the case of 'napping', sometimes I consciously pull myself out of the rabbit hole without ever falling asleep. 

[geordief]

4 hours ago, dimreepr said:

You're missing the point; just be content to be now... You're not playing football... 😉

Missing the point is  what makes life interesting.

The journey trumps  the destination. 

Plenty of time for contentment when we are dead,although excessive dissatisfaction is a curse.

 

 

[dimreepr]

15 hours ago, geordief said:

Missing the point is  what makes life interesting.

The journey trumps  the destination. 

Plenty of time for contentment when we are dead,although excessive dissatisfaction is a curse.

That's fine, just seems like you're being overly harsh on yourself if you wait till you're dead to be content with life.

[geordief]

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

That's fine, just seems like you're being overly harsh on yourself if you wait till you're dead to be content with life.

Your John Donne quote seems quite apposite (going into  the superficiality of our set beliefs/events,dear boy ....events*)

*that's Harold McMillan  for those unfamiliar.

[dimreepr]

10 minutes ago, geordief said:

Your John Donne quote seems quite apposite (going into  the superficiality of our set beliefs/events,dear boy ....events*)

*that's Harold McMillan  for those unfamiliar.

Who is more content than he who can acknowledge his place in the world?

Quote

 

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

 

P B Shelley.

[dimreepr]

If you're not happy with now, when will you be?

[geordief]

Living is not black and white.It is multi faceted.

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

If you're not happy with now, when will you be?

Living is not black and white.It is multi faceted.

"Float like a butterfly;sting like a bee  but don't forget the ropeadope"

"MA"

 

A nice poem from Shelley.New to me ,but I am very much a cultural barbarian.

 

Acknowledging one's place in the world means knowing it first.It is a moving  and contextualized target,as are we.

 

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, geordief said:

Living is not black and white.It is multi faceted.

Living is not black and white.It is multi faceted.

"Float like a butterfly;sting like a bee  but don't forget the ropeadope"

"MA"

 

A nice poem from Shelley.New to me ,but I am very much a cultural barbarian.

 

Acknowledging one's place in the world means knowing it first.It is a moving  and contextualized target,as are we.

 

You can't fight tomorrow; so just enjoy today... 😉 😔 

[geordief]

5 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

You can't fight tomorrow; so just enjoy today... 😉 😔 

Tomorrow never happens. It’s all the same fucking day, man.

Janis Joplin

 

 

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, geordief said:

Tomorrow never happens. It’s all the same fucking day, man.

Janis Joplin

I hope that's sarcasm... 

[geordief]

3 hours ago, dimreepr said:

I hope that's sarcasm... 

Not sure what it was.It is one of those quotes that rattled my brain around that time and I thought it might fit.(felt like it agreed with/complemented your post)

But I do venerate all artists as some kind  of soothsayers ,the more so as I am so deficient on that count

Edited May 2, 2020 by geordief

[dimreepr]

19 hours ago, geordief said:

Not sure what it was.It is one of those quotes that rattled my brain around that time and I thought it might fit.(felt like it agreed with/complemented your post)

But I do venerate all artists as some kind  of soothsayers ,the more so as I am so deficient on that count

My point is, there's nothing wrong in planning a holiday; unless you're planning to shoe horn a years worth of happiness, into two weeks of frustration...