Ry4n

This may be a little controversial for some of you, but Ive been reading an interesting book called the happiness trap by Dr Russ Harris (Get out of your mind and into your life by Steven Hayes seems good also) and it talks about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which combines cognitive behavioural therapy with mindfulness and living a value based life. I think the fact that it says the word "therapy" is misleading, since it can be used for anyone. I have found it extremely useful for dealing with negative thoughts, emotions, and painful physical sensations. It essentially asks you to defuse from thoughts, accept whatever you experience, be in the moment, pay attention to the observing self, assess your values and live your life according to those values, instead of living a life of things you feel like doing. Ive also found it useful for ending procrastination, because while I don't feel like doing a task, I value it, and so it always gets done. I definitely recommend it if you're suffering. With ACT, you can use negative emotions as a way to improve your mental health, rather than have it be a barrier to having good mental health and happiness. Keep an open mind and let me know what you think guys.

@Leo Gura but Leo, what would be the point of doing such a high dose of mushrooms? Would you develop in any meaningful way from it or just go completely nuts, lol. And also, you don't think that those "spiritual realms" that you would visit are actually real, right?

Hey @Leo Gura have you read free will by sam harris? He takes a sort of scientific approach to disproving free will through brain scans, and also mentioned that the illusion of free will and the illusion of the self are 2 sides of the same coin.

Yeah i tried affirmations for confidence and the effect was only subtle and very temporary at best. Visualisations on the other hand are ridiculously powerful for self image. I used the self acceptance visualisation and got hugh gains in self love/esteem, confidence and not caring what others think of me.

Anyone here done this technique much? What kind of experiences have u had?

@AxelK take LSD.

@Khin @Flicker_boy woah... leo definitely needs to make a video on this technique.. ive seen videos by sam harris about it but to hear his insight into it would be nice

Ive been doing leos recent guided meditation, and in the video he mention Adyashanti. The guy talks a lot about surrender...does anyone have experience doing this and can it speed up your progress?

@electroBeam what exactly did u do in the meditation that made this experience happen? Any specific technique within kundalini meditation that you did, cos when i look it up it shows u so many ways to do it. I wanna try this for myself

Thanks guys @Prabhaker @cetus56 very insightful answers. It definetly seems like the way to go as far my practice in this stage of my life.

Today and yesterday i did his guided meditation and it was so powerful. Is there anyone here who has been doing this technique daily for the past few months and if so what affect has it had?

Where in Australia will this be? Melbourne?

Starting off with 5 mins is fine, but try not to stay on this amount for that long, id say one month should be enough to get use to it, and then after increase it to 10 mins. Over time youll be able to sit for longer periods. By a year you should be doing at least 30 mins but if you stick to the habit thatll be easy for you trust me.

It sounds to me like the first technique you mentioned was the do-nothing technique; that would not be mindfulness meditation then. Mindfulness meditation often involves the focussing of attention on things happening in ones present experience, mostly being the breath, bodily sensations and sounds, but can also involve paying attention to ones emotions and where they lay in the body and mind, as well as ones own thoughts. The only time I know of where you wouldn't be using concentration on one specific aspect of experience in mindfulness meditation would be when you simply be aware of all those things I mentioned at once, but you are still manipulating where your attention is being put, so if there's no amount of concentration being used, then it's not mindfulness meditation.