in reply to (jeffa) Re: Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves) in thread Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)
Oh yeah, almost forgot - control. Don't try to take control of everything, just let it go.
How do you manage this without falling asleep? Whenever I've tried meditating before, I've just ended up falling asleep. :)
This is my main problem with relaxation in general -- relaxing tends to make me feel sleepy, and sleep (in mid-day) tends to make me more tired, and less focused than I'd be otherwise.
(jeffa) 2Re: Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)
by jeffa (Bishop) on Apr 17, 2001 at 20:15 UTC
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Actually, I was referring to control in a general sense
of your daily experiences. A good example, anytime I have
a conversation with a group of people and try to interject
something, if I am repeatedly interrupted, I will drop
what I am going to say. Nobody is really paying attention
anyway, and in generaly I find that I end up looking a bit
foolish for trying to repeatedly say the same thing.
When someone cuts you off while driving, let your anger
follow them - forget about them.
Now, as for keeping from falling asleep - practice practice
practice.
Once I was able to shift back and forth between consciousness
and unconsciousness. My mind was fully awake, yet I could
not feel my body at all. I could drift off into a dream and
watch as a complete 3-dimensional world was being creating before
me in one master artist's brush stroke - a world with individuals,
scenerios, plots - more than a book could ever represent.
Before I 'fell into' this world - I pulled myself back without
'waking up'. Then, I allowed myself to drift once more, and
a whole NEW world was created. I pulled myself out the second
time, and woke up.
It is tough stuff - you should never meditate with aspirations
of achieving some kind of enlightenment or vision. Instead,
your goal should be to merely relax, and to practice siliencing
the voices in your head.
If I mediatate 50 times, maybe 3 or 4 will be enlightening.
A good clue that you are doing something 'right' is if you
can feel your body vibrate. I have heard of masters that
can change their vibration frequency and even shift the
phase 180 degrees. If you feel the vibrations, try to
maintain them, amplify them if you can.
Jeff
I'm not crazy, it's the voices in my head, they're the ones
who is crazy!
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Re: Re: (jeffa) Re: Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)
by Malkavian (Friar) on Apr 17, 2001 at 20:08 UTC
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All depends on what level of meditation you're going for, and how deep you allow yourself to go.
A deep meditative state is very similar to the hypnoidal state, where the conscious mind is in recession (although, without the suggestability of the hypnoidal, as meditation is autosuggestion, rather than external suggestion).
Muscles are relaxed, heart rate is down, and generally, you're awfully close to sleep.
However, it's something that's tunable. When you get used to being able to relax your muscles, clear the mind to a good degree, focus the thoughts on nothing (and that's harder than focussing on something), you can choose what aspects of it you wish..
While sitting at a desk, you can put yourself in a self-sustaining posture (you won't collapse like a rag doll when you relax down).
You don't need legs and torso to code, so you relax the muscles there, relax the arms a lot, and clear the mind of all extraneous stuff. If you manage to achieve the 'clear' state of mind, you'll have no trouble refocussing it.
If you're not quite there, still, it helps, as you've just cleared a load of chaff that, even if you didn't realise it, was chattering away at the back of your mind. :)
I guess it's like driving a car. :) you don't go everywhere with the accelerator pedal pressed to the floor.
Malk | [reply] |
Re: Re: (jeffa) Re: Maintaining one's focus while working (alpha/beta/delta brain waves)
by princepawn (Parson) on Apr 17, 2001 at 19:48 UTC
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Make sure you are not closing your eyes.
For most meditation styles, that should be no problem
or even recommended.
Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com
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