meditation

Since having chronic pain pretty much all the time, I often find unguided meditations impossible. I have been doing the Breathworks meditations from Soundcloud for a year or so, and now I am doing the Breathworks online Mindfulness Course and blogging about how it is going. I am anticipating it will take 3 months in total, but there is no time limit, and once I finish the course I will have ongoing access to all the course material.

Check out my blog about the course starting here: https://thechronicelephant.blogspot.com/2019/01/may-i-be-well-may-i-be-happy-may-i-be.html

Years ago whilst in Hyde Park, I asked my brother to keep an eye out whilst I did some Meditation. I felt something like breath on my face and saw that a dog had wandered up and was sniffing me!

 

Before I came down with ME, I used to practice mindfulness meditation for 30-45 mins every day. I usually meditated in the evening, last thing before going to sleep, on a zafu cushion.

I had to stop because brain fog makes observing my thoughts passively much more difficult, even for shorter sessions (10-20 mins). It requires so much mental energy/exertion that I'm not able to do so anymore, so a session of meditation now mostly ends up in mind wandering for me, which is not the point. Sitting on the zafu and maintaining a correct posture for this long is also taxing.

Has anyone found a workaround?

 

I don't meditate currently because it was causing some issues. These are some thoughts on things you may have already tried.

Sitting is the ideal but whatever position you find comfortable and conducive to the meditative state is fine.

I find PEM badly affects my cognitive function so that I struggle to maintain that conciousness/awareness. I can hear a meditation instructor I had saying, that's fine, that's where you are today, when you become aware it's happened just bring the attention back.

At times like this I found it better to maybe focus on something like a word - so go back to basics. It's much easier to bring your mind back to a specific target than just "let thoughts go".

 

I haven’t found any workaround, just wanted to say you’re not the only one.

Mindfulness meditaiton is unbearable for me. Brainfog is my most severe symptom, and the effort it takes cognitively to be that engaged with my thoughts is the fastest way to make myself crash.

It’s like a work out for the brain. I have been recomended it so many times, so I have tried it on and off for years, and finally just accepted that it is not for me.

If I’m having a crash, but not able to relax, I like to listen to ‘hz music’ on youtube sometimes. I’m sceptical that the different hertz mean anything, I just find the videoes posted under that category to have very slow tolerable sound which gives me a bit of distraction from the discomfort in my body.

 

I am meditating lying flat in bed: I remove the pillow and do the Shavasana position that I know from Yoga (usually used for the relaxation practice Yoga Nidra).

 

I never sit or kneel for meditation, it's just impossible. I lie flat on my mattress and aim to do 3x 10 mins per day...but often just twice. I don't believe it has made pain less or other symptoms less intense, but it has really helped in terms of my happiness and my experience of living each day.