Noa Reeds

I Did 10-Day Vipassana Meditation Retreat Twice. Here Are 3 Lessons I Learned About Self-Mastery ⬇️

I thought a flow state was achieved while doing things I enjoy. With attention training, I noticed that even boring admin tasks are rejuvenating as long as I keep my attention stable. It is the discipline of the mind that makes the experience. Not the other way around.

Meditating while sitting is just one of the 4 meditation postures: • Sitting • Lying • Standing • Walking Mindfulness is an activity that should permeate daily life, not just your meditation cushion.

Meditation is not about striving for perfection. Mindfulness is about striving for acceptance.

What connects 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms that make you? Your awareness.

In meditation, you work with both attention and awareness. What is the difference? • Attention singles out a small part of the experience, for example, breath. • Awareness is a holistic perception, you feel a sphere of different sensations, such as sound, smell, etc.

Gamma waves occur when different brain regions fire in harmony and are in perfect synchrony to create a single experience. Ultra meditators can sustain gamma waves for minutes at rest. While ordinary people can generate gamma waves for a split second during 'aha' moments.

When you meditate longer, discomfort will come. Your mind will resist practicing. It will exaggerate, for example, itching or pain. Just focus on these sensations and they will disappear. These sensations are now part of your practice.

Over time, with meditation practice, you are able to cultivate healthy states in the mind that apply both to mind and body. • Buoyancy • Flexibility • Adaptability • Pliancy

In meditation practice, • concentration helps to focus on a single object to keep the mind relaxed • mindfulness helps to notice when the attention has wandered.

Meditation practice compounds like interest. The longer you do it, the better the payoff.

Qualities that can be developed with meditation: • Even-mindedness • Composure • Ongoing mindfulness • Realistic confidence

In the beginning, it does not really matter which meditation practice you will pick. The one that you can stick to will provide the biggest benefits.

Reminder to self: Settle into the present. Be comfortable with it. No amount of achievement will give you peace with yourself that you can give yourself now. Self-acceptance is a state, not a destination.

Meditation is not forcing focus. It is maintaining an intention to keep your mind concentrated.

Dullness in meditation practice is very sneaky. You feel relaxed, you're neither thinking nor focusing. You're vegetating. The thing is that being in a state of dullness is easier than maintaining concentration. But dullness is an obstacle to your meditation progress.

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it. @JackKornfield