Meditation Poll

[MDemisay]

Hi all,

Just interested for asking sake how many of you meditate? How many combine it with prayer? For how long? For those currently in treatment, when do you meditate before during or after?

I have found Dr. Wayne Dyer's CD "I am" particularly helpful? Do you use other CD's?

Mike

[MDemisay]

I simply find it incredible that nobody has yet answered! Does that mean that nobody meditates?  Prayer is a form of meditation!

Mike

[Jim Scott]

Mike ~

Although meditation is certainly worthwhile, I don't meditate. We each have our own way of finding solace and prayer, alone, is mine.  It's never failed me.

Jim

[LizAN]

I simply find it incredible that nobody has yet answered! Does that mean that nobody meditates?  Prayer is a form of meditation!

Mike

Mike, I think a lot of people on this forum work during the day.  I don't usually see much activity during that time.

As for your question, yes, I meditate, but not as consistently as I would like.  I have done Tibetan Buddhist meditation as well as Centering Prayer.  I was doing great with Holosync, from Centerpointe, but the last time I tried it, I didn't get much from it. It requires the ability to hear on both sides, so I may have lost enough hearing that it is no longer effective.  That is one thing that a hearing aid won't help, as all the input will still come from one side of the brain.   Boohoo.   Currently, I am in the middle of learning the Silva method.  It seems worthwhile to practice, whether I end up having treatment or not.

I have been intrigued by Wayne Dyer's teachings.  The other day, I went to Amazon to buy something from him and ended up buying a lot of other things instead.  He wrote the forward to one of the books, called The Joy Factor: 10 Sacred Practices for Radiant Health.  I'm currently reading Anatomy of the Spirit:  The Seven Stages of Power and Healing, by Caroline Myss.  I know you didn't ask about books, but these seem related to meditation.

Liz

[KBL]

Hi Mike,
Prayer it is! 
My entire time in the MRI tube is spent praying!  ( That's a lot !)
Without prayer I do not know where I would be.

Karen

[MDemisay]

Would all of you like to laugh? I mean really have a good laugh? For all my medical tests that I have had during my lifetime, I was not familiar with the tube shape of an MRI machine When I imagine a tube I automatically think of a toilet paper roll! I imagine it is a lot bigger than that though although I have never seen one upclose and personal( an MRI).

I must content myself with the low tech CT scan machine because I cannot have an MRI.
Getting back to the subject at hand though which is meditation, when do you prefer it before during or after treatment.

Now that we know about meditation how can we ever be the same? I find it centers me, and makes more mindful of the little things! It seems that this is the #1 positive change in my life it brings me closer to God and makes me more appreciative of subtleties of living. It slows me down!

My friends, it slows us all down, so live your life and stop and smell the roses and see their true beauty for the first time! I'm sorry if I sound like I'm high, I cannot get high (medical reasons) I have a convulsive disorder.

I am at peace though and count the days until the next National meeting of the ANA. I truly want to meet you.You all have helped me to understand what truly is important!

Thanks!

Mike

[leapyrtwins]

Never meditated in my life.

Prayer?  On occasion, but usually when it applies to other people - not myself.

I believe in God, but I'm also a big believer in fate. 

Jan

[saralynn143]

I have tried to meditate but my mind wanders too much. Same during yoga. I pray but probably not often enough.

[MDemisay]

Dr. Wayne Dyer should be invited to the next ANA Symposium I think. What he says about meditation is superb! Google it. He's amazing! Have a good Memorial Day everyone!

[Soundy]

I meditate through Prayer ... my prayers are more like discussions ...I lose focus and ramble ... I may find myself doing my pray/meditation as I drive (with eyes open) ... I talk to God like a friend ... no one taught me to pray as a child and I started this method when I was around 9 or 10 ... 40 years later and it still works for me

[MDemisay]

Soundy and others,

Sorry for not getting back to you for a while on my opinion on this important subject. Which we all could learn from, it seems. I feel if you are comfortable with it, beyond praying there is peaceful reflection. I like to employ both methods. As I find each unequally soothing. I find prayer (especially intense prayer) as much more powerful than meditation.

For example, when my wife had  Breast Cancer in 1992 I was intensly praying to the Blessed Virgin in Sloan Kettering chapel when I was overcome with peace by a voice telling me that everything was going to be alright and my wife has not had a breast cancer reoccurance in 20 years! Again in 2004,I asked my Marriage Encounter friends to pray for me and that day I went in for surgery,I felt lifted as if by prayer and strangely peaceful.

 Now in 2012, I'm praying and when that helps a little, I find myself in peaceful meditation more and that helps as I get closer and closer to the day of Gamma Radiation Dose, I find myself thinking more and more about the saying "I AM Healed" and believing the end goal as being true. True, I will be praying as I go for the Gamma Radiation (on the 11th of this month), but I also believe in meditation as a way of making the prayer seem not quite as exhausting as it was in 1992.

Mike

[millie]

I pray.  I am not sure I know how to meditate formally, but I know that prayer is a private conversation with my Higher Power.  Like many people, I can be forgetful and don't remember to praise and thank Him for my blessings on a routine basis-butI run praying and demanding help when times get tough.
A recent interesting experience.  While my husband was in the hospital this month for sudden open heart surgery, I went to the St. Francis Hospital Chapel for help.  My husband and I had prayed together previously, which we have done in dire situations, and he had asked me to pray for him the day of surgery-together with some family.  We did that and then I went into the chapel a lot on my own.  The chapel had copies of the New Testament, the Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud (the Jewish Bible?)   Every time, I would open the New Testament usually, randomly and read a the first verse my eyes fell upon-sort of looking for advice from Him for the day.  Every day, I found strength and inspiration, as if in answer in my needs.
I believe God hears us-and I think meditation is a form of prayer.  We need to connect with those special forces in the universe in good times and troubling.
Just my humble opinion.
Millie

[It is what it is]

Great question.  I've meditated for years and appreciate the benefits.   

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. 

Karen F.

[MDemisay]

I've had a great deal of time to decide which works better! I've decided that I will employ both from now on. In the past pre2004, prayers were pleading with God, in 2012, they were working in tandem with HIS Divine Will and easing it along with powerful and deep meditation as well as the prayers from all of my ANA forum ANgels and family that helped me along!

Many thanks from the other side of Watch and Wait! Now, finally, a Toastie Postie!!!

Advice to newbies out there: Get a good powerful prayer group such as you have here on the Forum and get yourself a meditation CD and spend some quiet time. 

Mike