I'm using meditation to try to stay alive.

Your young.

Stop allowing society to age you. Search in your heart for the things you love to do and do them.

Society said at a certain age you have to be and do certain things... well stuff society... I like colouring in and so I do it regardless of what others might consider what is age appropriate.

if your meditating, your mind might be troubled and needing some answers so perhaps that is why you are searching your mind for what you need.... the answers will be found in your heart.

Let us meditate together youngster...I am older than you but my state of mind is "set" at 25. I will start to meditate at 5 pm, Central time...adjust to your time zone accordingly. Now, together, we begin. We are never really alone, you know. We are all connected in this crazy game called life, we are one with nature too.

I sit at my garden and start to enjoy the fragrant, gentle breeze here in NW Louisiana and begin. I felt a little "blue" today so I went in search of my brightest red lipstick. A hummingbird stops by, only inches away from my lips....hummingbirds like the colors red and orange dontcha know. A beautiful monarch butterfly sits on my shoulder for a moment. My flowers seem to "nod" my way all at once, as if acknowledging that I "exist". They feel my presence and they know I have love in my heart for them. They bring me joy and I bring them caring and love and nurturing.

A strand of my platinum hair brushes across my face as if trying to distract me. I hope, in your minds eye, that you are with me here and feeling at peace and free and loved. These words come from the heart...words trying to convey compassion and "oneness". Life is grand on a day such as this...not to be wasted on thoughts of days gone by, of thinking about regrets or sad times. Life is for the living and in this moment, we are together and meditating and sharing our "sameness".

Later, watch the "shapes" in the clouds, the blue of the sky, perhaps the hawk overhead, and drink in this wonderful world of ours...the lush green of the grass and the sounds of nature. Block out the disturbing sounds of sirens and car horns and the depressing babble of the news stations. Be in the moment of just "being" and know there are good people here that care about you. Blessings and hugs to you on this glorious day. I hope you have enjoyed our meditation together...a moment in time when the world felt like a better place, even for just a little while, my friend!

a reply to: droid56

Sounds like an important transition period. Meditation is nothing exotic (in light of the way it seems to be portrayed sometimes) but just simply learning to ignore multiple distractions that we are all filled with. There comes a point when those distractions have to cease, albeit, temporarily, so one can be oneself with the honest and true purpose of personal incarnation. For many of us, this is realized when our backs are to the wall or facing death.

From what I am learning, at these levels of awareness , astounding things can happen or be realized. In words, it seems silly and simple but one has to make an almost unspoken decision to do this without the hub bub or technical aspects which is basically stuff for our ego. It...as we...wants to survive too but tends to get in the way. That part of us manifests all the misgivings and misunderstandings about life and acts accordingly: the part that wants to say, "me". The ability to put that temporarily aside is, I believe, an ability that gets realized and not taught. Meditating to stay alive sounds legit and I wish you the best and hope you find what needs to be found.

Have you ever watched something - a TV show, a movie, a play, etc..., and were so engrossed in what you were watching that you lost awareness of where you were, your surroundings, or even lost the feeling of your own body? If you have, you were in a meditative state. You also do something similar when daydreaming. Imagine things that are fun and enjoyable. Or something that's cool and interesting. Take a mental vacation. Forget your troubles.

Temporarily disassociating from your surroundings is healthy for your mind and relaxes your body.

Just don't do it when you're driving.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some links that explain how to meditate?

Let me add one post to this thread I started. I said meditation MIGHT be helping me. Wrong.

Meditation IS helping me. No depression in this mind of mine. Actually, I feel pretty good.

For other people trying to keep their mood up despite circumstances, I strongly suggest you check out meditation. It isn't easy. You have to be patient because it takes time to realize it's benefits. But if you persevere, you will eventually be rewarded.

a reply to: droid56

Someone earlier asked why you are meditating, I too am curious as well...

The reason for the question is, I have seen a bunch of people on ATS who have had just the opposite experience.

Apparently meditation acts as a beacon and opens up some type of doorway for spirits to pass through.

originally posted by: OkieDokie
My mother still suffers from attacks at that house, as does my aunt. I believe that these shadow people gain strength from the use of occultic objects and rituals. In an attempt to get rid of the activity at the house, my mother has burned sage, hung up dream catchers, and surrounds herself with anything paranormal. She has tried demanding for this thing to leave and has gone through meditations and imagining light surrounding the house. Throughout all of this, the shadow person has at times stepped up the attacks, or has remained unchanged.

Others here have mentioned that they have only seen the shadow people while meditating. I believe that all of these activities give them an "in" if you will.

My life has finally been rid of these shadow people and the only way that has happened is from me drawing close to Christ, spending time in the Word, and getting rid of any idols, as well as anything new-agey, paranormal, occultic ect. Like I had mentioned before, I was a Christian prior to all of these things taking place, but I wasn't living like it.

originally posted by: JayinAR
I I was mad as hell when I ran my spooks off and they don't come around much anymore. Nowadays it is just your average poltergeist crap ever once in awhile. Also I would add that meditation is what kicked off the worst experiences for me. Be careful with that stuff.

originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
Certain spirits can and will follow certain people home, for whatever reason. Certain spirits are more powerful than others. Certain ones basically have more abilities than others. How they learn how to manipulate the physical world to varying degrees I do not know, but I know that some are more powerful than others. And there really are things out there that are pure evil, things I would not wish on anyone, even if they mocked such things. These things are just that bad.

It takes someone who truly knows what they are doing to rid a location of spirits, and even many of these people cannot rid a location of purely evil spirits. A place that was never haunted before can become haunted, but I would say that the majority of the time there was something done to bring these entities in. Dabbling in the occult is apt to accomplish this, but sometimes it only takes something as simple as meditating. Meditation opens a person up, or can at least, to such things. It can act as a beacon to certain entities. I don't know how often it happens, but I know it can happen, for whatever reason. So my advice to everyone is don't mess around, even if you "think" you know what you're doing

New Age deep meditation and hypnotism are particularly dangerous. They are not recognized as being channels to demons, but they provide a direct pathway for demonic influence upon the mind. Communication with demons

Meditation is the technique whereby a person empties his mind of all conscious thought, while chanting a series of repetitive words or phrases as many times as possible. Once a person does this repeatedly, he/she will begin to experience the phenomenon whereby the mind begins to lose its normal contact with the body. This phenomena is called an "Out-of-Body" experience, and is very common in occultic circles.

Once the mind loses its normal connection with the body the person then is ready to meet his/her "Guiding Spirit". Christian author, Johanna Michaelson, captures the Satanic essence of meditation and Guiding Spirits in her book, "The Beautiful Side Of Evil". Guiding Spirits identify themselves by name, including Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or one of the Apostles.

The person who is involved is truly deceived into thinking they have just discovered THE one, true way to actually come into contact with God. In reality, they have just come into contact with a Satanic demon, who has temporarily transformed himself into a being appearing very kind, gentle, and wise. The stage is set for these demonic beings to manipulate and mislead their human victims. These people have become demonically possessed. WALK-INS

The human spirit has tremendous power. Because man is in bondage to sin, for him to access now his human spirit with his soul means using the power of the human spirit for greater evil and sin. That is why all religions outside of the Bible and Jesus Christ tell you to meditate by blanking your mind. Why? Satan is behind this teaching because he wants access to our human spirit and the tremendous power it holds to use for His evil purposes.

Since for this reason God does not want us to access our human spirit, the only way a religious person outside of Christ is able to access his human spirit is though demonic power, a demonic spirit bridging the human soul to the human spirit, but under the demonic spirit’s control. For this reason, God in His Word forbids us to access our human spirit.

The Human Spirit and Meditation

During meditation, a person descends to deeper levels of his consciousness where he discovers the psychic powers and spiritual gifts to heal himself and solve his problems. He meets “the god within” who is wrongly regarded as the God of the Bible. It is this “god” who is dark and mysterious, and may leave evil impressions in the subconscious mind of the person. Eastern Meditation Sneaks into the Church

a reply to: Murgatroid

Yikes! The christians are here.

Meditation is a technique to quiet the mind. And by doing this, we arrive at our true nature. Meditation is nothing more.

Jesus Christ does make us free. As He says, a man is defiled by his thoughts for its from our thoughts that we speak an act. But as the WORD made flesh, ignoring the written word - given for instruction, learning, reproof and correction - makes zero sense. Meditation is a rejection of the Word and a delving into the non-Word portion of our minds.

originally posted by: droid56
a reply to: Murgatroid

Yikes! The christians are here.

Meditation is a technique to quiet the mind. And by doing this, we arrive at our true nature. Meditation is nothing more.

No it doesn't. Look, we all have two parts to the mind whatever you want to call it - the conscience/subconscience the rational/emotional etc.
How does hypnotism and mesmerism work? It puts the guard to sleep, it puts the rational part of our mind to sleep. In this way, the mind cannot stop the flood pouring in. Look, if you are sober and alert, you can focus on any argument being made and refuse to buy certain statements if the rational part of your mind detects what it considers a lie. But put that to sleep, and the one making his argument gets to shove his whole argument into your mind - lies and all. In this very way, the hypnotist gets the volunteer up on stage to eventually perceive a fully clothed audience as naked. How did he cause the volunteer to open his eyes, look out on the audience, and yet perceive the content suggested into his mind? He put to sleep the guard of that mind, the very guard who would have rejected the suggestion 'you will see the audience as naked' for the LIE that it is.
Now, meditation of the eastern religions, not simply meditation of the quiet thinking variety, is a self hypnosis. You put your guard on duty to sleep. You shut him down. At which point, the part which holds command, truths etc is completely disabled. The volunteer and meditation practitioner are doing the exact same thing in essence.

Part of longevity from my casual observations (which might not mean much, you've got 20 years on me) is that you have to do something YOU enjoy. And at least do it once a day. Whether it's gardening, walking, riding a bike, or a hobby of some sort. For some people it also means a social activity like going to a bar or church, for others alone time is better. Mental attitude has something to do with it too. But I've seen crotchety rotten old farts outlive nice people that seem to worry about others too much. (Maybe they get joy in being a pain in the butt to other people? As where the worry-warts are always stressing out?) I think the key thing is to do something at least once a day to de-stress. If meditation and clearing your mind is part of that, then go for it. Meditation isn't that hard either. It's something I tend to do on the job, where I have a lot of periods of "hurry up and wait" and really can't do much productive otherwise.

www.ineedmotivation.com...
100 Benefits of Meditation

Quite a few plus's in the Physiological, psychological and spiritual categories.

www.medicalnewstoday.com...

A new brain imaging study led by researchers at Yale University shows how people who regularly practise meditation are able to switch off areas of the brain linked to daydreaming, anxiety, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. The brains of experienced meditators appear to show less activity in an area known as the "default mode network", which is linked to largely self-centred thinking. The researchers suggest through monitoring and suppressing or "tuning out" the "me" thoughts, meditators develop a new default mode, which is more present-centred.

A report of their findings is due to be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Meditation can help deal with a variety of health problems, from quitting smoking, to coping with cancer, and even preventing psoriasis, one of the researchers said in a statement. For this study, they wanted to look further into the neurological mechanisms that might be involved.

Lead author Judson A. Brewer, assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale, and colleagues, used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scans to observe the brains of both novice and experienced meditators as they practised three different forms of meditation.

They found that the experienced meditators, regardless of the type of meditation they practised, seemed able to switch off the default mode network, which has been linked to lapses of attention, and disorders such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety. This part of the brain, comprising the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex, has also been linked to the accumulation of beta amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease.

www.dailymail.co.uk...< br />

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson wired up the monk's skull with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin as part of research on hundreds of advanced practitioners of meditation.

The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves - those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory - 'never reported before in the neuroscience literature', Davidson said.

The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

Moses, parting of the red sea: anger and reactions (the pursuing army) of lower mind and body suit. "Man of PEACE, be still and know the Lord". The real Essene/Buddist/Tao or Eastern wisdom hidden in the bible.

The list goes on and on.

For all those talking about things you love doing, do those things, AND meditate, and your life, over time, will transform.

Be still, and calm the waters, until you can see your reflection and reclaim your true essence, Love/Goodness, and connect with your Soul/Source/Creator and bring Goodness into the world. All that separates us from Love/Kindness/Altruism/Peace is a disconnect from Source within.

Thats really the job here. To achieve Higher Mind. Until the Christ be formed within us, as the gnostic Paul said.

OK, first off I thought you said you were using medication to try and stay alive lol. But anyway, whatever works for you, do it. BUT i would suggest volunteer somewhere, anywhere. You would be surprised what you take away from that. I am poor and I volunteer, and it's ALWAYS a WOW thing. Very uplifting

a reply to: droid56
This is not a political reply and I hope it does not incite responses oriented to anything other than survival.

GO TO THE WELFARE OFFICE!!!

If you are without resources FIND THEM.

Meditation is great stuff. Forget religion. It is the source of comfort to those who do not wish to think. (Here's the plan. Now follow it, or else.)

You are 65 and therefor eligible for lots of help. Go ask for it.

If yo need companionship, go to a Senior Center.

As a fellow oldster, I know how difficult it is to change your behavior. If you want to live, act like it. If you are unable to do so, talk to the therapists that are waiting to have you call.

From your phrasing, you sound more down then desperate. Get a good meal under your belt and then get off your duff.

a reply to: droid56

You ain't that old, take it from another old and dying man...We all have to go some time and you might be physically poor but I bet you have something that is priceless (a memory perhaps).

Meditation really does help, clears the mind...I also find going out and meeting other people less fortunate like homeless people or the sick helps a lot.

I use meditation to fight the depression I had. This way I manage somehow to keep it in check, and get a better flow in my everyday life. Personally, it is enough with 15 min for me. Wishing you the best.

a reply to: largo
I live off of a modest pension that is a result of my working years. Not a penny of welfare government money ever came my way. My modest pension is enhanced by Canada Pension (which results from one's working income over the years), and from Old Age Pension, that arrives at the age of 65.