Meditation

Meditation is something which I have dabbled in many times in my life.  I have read about various techniques and ways in which some people try to achieve a meditative state.  For me personally none of these have worked for me.  I am able to meditate however but that is only because I have found my own way of doing it which I would like to share.

This technique to achieve a meditative state is unorthodox.  Whilst most if not all reference media on the subject will teach you how to clear you mind and quiet your thoughts I have found very little success with that approach, namely because the more I try to do so the more new ideas and new thoughts come to mind.  The more I try to silence my mind the more it resists.  I tried in vain for many years following countless exercises to try and achieve meditation through traditional means but it never worked.

I think.  A lot.  It's in my nature.  I over think things to the point where they no longer make sense to me or anyone else and I then have to give it up.  It was that realisation that the ability to let go of thoughts only comes for me when I have pursued them to their end that I came up with the idea of a potential path towards a clear mind - Hyper Thought.

Hyper Thought, also known as Racing Thoughts, is the act or behaviour of thinking excessively with rapidity, often involuntarily.  It is associated with a number of medical conditions such as Bipolar Disorder,  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD], sleep deprivation, or hyperthyroidism among others.

Whilst this condition is a symptom of many others, there is a point that can be reached for those who exhibit this condition consciously.

The method that I use to achieve meditation is to find a space where I won't be disturbed for a while.  I sit comfortably, but you can take any position as long as you are comfortably.  You can listen to music or anything as a background noise so long as it doesn't distract your conscious thought, something repetitive can be beneficial, silence works too if you are okay with it.

Next you start with whatever is currently on your mind and you start to explore your thoughts, you allow as many as you want to pop into your head and as each one does you explore it deeper and deeper.  The aim is to allow your mind to spew out everything it wants to spew and encourage it to do so as fast as it can.  Don't fight the urge to think of things and don't dwell on anything.  Keep your mind moving and add detail after detail and pursue each fork in the road as it appears.  You can use imagery, or conversations between two imagined people, or any scenario in your mind that lets your might completely run free.  The ultimately goal is to allow your mind to tire itself out and reach a point of exhaustion by unleashing everything it had bottled up.

For me personally it usually takes about half an hour maybe an hour before I start to lose steam and my mind begins to tire, the pace naturally slows and like a physical exercise that has been repeated ad nauseam the mind itself like your muscles eventually come to rest and give up, unable to continue.  It is only in that moment can I personally achieve a state where my mind is completely clear and empty of thought.  I then stay in that state as long as I can until I feel at ease or until my mind begins to wonder again at which point I get up and go do whatever else I want to do.