For the past month my mind has filled with thoughts that are either garbage or useless. I noticed that those thoughts stop me from doing certain things like concentrating over important things, enjoying everything, studying and sleeping normally (including dreaming).
To fix this I have tried meditation and the day after I did it was one of the better days since this thing started. I assumed it was pretty good thing to do. After that day I decided to look what is your opinion on meditation and I stumbled across this post and the discussion under it. The comments left me pretty confused. Is meditation good or not? Is it allowed for Christians or not? Is it a sin or not? I am doing the "popular" meditation where for X amount of time you close your eyes and breath.
So if the answer to those questions is yes what do you recommend to do? If you have been in the same situation as mine how did you fight with it?
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 1 year ago
I don't see why the mere act of clearing your mind for a few minutes would be sinful. I think some people mistake it for an act of prayer because they look very similar, and under some religions meditation does end up taking the place of prayer, but it really depends on what you're doing. If you are meditating in the sense of clearing your mind for a few minutes then it seems fairly impossible for that to be a problem. If you're praying to buddha, well maybe you shouldn't do that if you're a Christian.
I believe there have been clinical studies on the effects of meditation, and the general effect is an increase in mindfulness. That is, it takes you out of all of the other things that are going on and helps you focus on what's going on in front of you right now.
On that being said, a sudden change in your ability to stay on task could indicate some other change in your life. The ability to regulate attention is generally consistent, so did something happen to change your ability to regulate attention? Did a change in your life happen, has something been bothering you, have you had something on your mind that is particularly bothering you? We live in some very stressful times so it's understandable, but if you can better understand what is bothering you you might be able to take some steps to alleviate that bother. All the things that we have are giant brain for are about trying to predict the future and in a sense recieve prophecy so that we can do something about it before it becomes a problem. The level of prediction and planning in our brains is completely on another level compared to any other animal. If your brain is warning you that something is going to become a problem and you're ignoring it, in an allegorical sense it's like ignoring prophecy, and throughout history it has always been considered folly to ignore that kind of prophecy.
Owner_of_donky@donky.social 1 year ago
Yes, you are right. Something is bothering me. I will try to resolve this problem soon. I have something on my mind. Thanks for you response!