A couple weeks after I first started therapy with my T, he walked me through the process of meditating and then loaned me a book which I ended up liking so much that I bought my own copy. It's called The Art of Calm (Relaxation through the 5 Senses) by Brian Luke Seaward.

How it helps me: At times I can have racing thoughts and I can't concentrate, and meditating just for a few minutes kind of feels like a little vacation from all my thoughts. ~D.

I have used it, but find I need guided meditation in order to not dissociate and float away so to speak.

My favorite is Belleruth Naparstek. http://belleruthnaparstek.com/

janedoe. i think i flunked the mindfulness session of dbt...BUT, one thing that i used to do more, but still do...

i go in my closet and pray. out loud, and listen to what rumbles through my head. i ask questions, and listen...and really, i feel the Holy Spirit fill me with thoughts i couldn't have come up with myself.

i also quote scripture, and focus really hard on it. my tag is one of my favorites, as inner peace has been a constant wish/prayer/need ever since i can remember.

sometimes in the past, i could be in there two hours. i swear i was in a self-induced trance. i don't do that anymore, and i need to, as faith is the most calming therapy i know.

you can google 'bible gateway' and search scripture on anything you are struggling with...anxiety, guilt, shame, sadness...whatever. sometimes there will be one that really speaks to me, and i try to memorize it for prayer/meditation.

i need to get back into this more, thanks for the reminder!!

but the staring at a penny or a plant and 'discovering it' ... i dunno, i can't really do that.

good luck! jill

There are many different kinds of meditation and i find mindfulness particularly useful. I have been meditating for years and there are two aspects to it. The first is to calm our minds a bit, we have so many thoughts and ideas and so much activity in our heads that having something simple like a pebble or your breath to focus on is a starting point. It is fascinating to see how swept away we get in emotion and memory and it is a long hard struggle to begin to change that pattern.

The meditation i have done is not about thinking and is most definately not about stopping thoughts or not thinking. It is about developing awareness of what is really going on in your mind, your emotions and in your life.

Once a small degree of calmness or stability comes into your mind then you can begin to look at the actual nature of your thoughts and whether they are real or not. So it gets pretty profound later on but in the beginning it is more like mind training, discipline and effort like training a muscle at gym would be.

A friend of mine described meditation once as like being at a train station and instead of jumping on to the first train (thought) that pulls in, you learn to hold your seat and choose the thought that will take you in the direction you want to go in. Can you imagine what that must be like? How open to life you can be when you have that sort of stability within you?

Pan