[-] DelightfullyDivisive@midwest.social 21 points 11 months ago

Because if somebody pointed out a spelling error, you aren't making them look like the idiot.

I have been meditating more-or-less daily for > 10 years. It is a very useful practice, depending on your goals. It's good to ask yourself why you want to meditate, so you can tell if it's working or not. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem if you don't know what other people get out of it, though, so here are a few things that I have been aiming for, and how well it worked for me.

Nibbana / Cessation

Many practitioners have spoken of a mental state where thoughts cease, and time seems to pass in an instant. It is supposed to be a transformative experience according to most traditions. You are a wiser, calmer and more caring person from that point forward.

I was seeking this for a long time, and I say it's bullshit. (Or maybe just not possible without becoming a monk & practicing all day every day, which is the same thing when someone tells you it's posslble to get there in 30-60 minutes per day.)

Feel happier / less anxious

Anxiety and depression are things a lot of people with ADHD feel. I have found that daily practice really does help with this. Breath meditation improved my mood and gave me a bit more peace, but a "metta" style (I mostly follow a practice called TWIM) works really well for me.

Make better decisions

You wouldn't think that this would come from just sitting there focusing on your breath (or in the case of metta/TWIM, on a warm, happy feeling), but it does for me. I think that the reason I tend to eat better, exercise more, etc, come from a better understanding of my own mind. There is so much noise in most people's minds (and probably more than average in our ADHD minds), that sitting down to meditate feels like your brain suddenly went into overdrive & you can't focus on anything. The truth is that meditation lets you notice that your mind is always like this. Realizing this (the constant state of distraction) helps me trust my gut reactions less, and rely on logic more.

Improve your focus

Meditation helped me build more focus. Even though you can't really keep your attention on the meditation object for more than a few seconds at a time, constantly (and gently - it takes a long time to learn to be more gentle) directing it back over & over again "builds that muscle". Meaning, I'm able to redirect my attention like non-ADHD people seem to, more of the time.

Caveats

Maybe I can save you a bit of struggle, or maybe you need to suffer through it yourself. In any case, here is some additional advice, if you want to pursue this:

  • Don't worry about the mystical parts of meditation, unless you find that motivating. It can be purely secular & still be effective (and maybe even "spiritual").
  • Don't try to follow the standard advice for duration. I'd suggest starting VERY small / slow. Just 1-5m per day. If you haven't meditated, it will seem like you're trying to herd cats with even that much time, at first. I was doing 45-60m/day for over a year, and it was unpleasant. I do 15-30m per day now (most days, 15-20), and I get a lot more benefit from it because it's relaxing.
  • Do follow the advice on frequency. This is something best done every day. Put it on your calendar until it's a habit.
  • Smile while you do it. You don't have to put on a huge grin (though I often do - it just feels natural now).
  • Don't worry if you forget a day, or a week, or a month. It will still be available to you if/when you come back to it.
  • Get a random reminder timer (I use an android one called "Randomly Remind Me") to ping you a few times per day, and do a mini meditation. I find that I can get MUCH calmer with just 3 slow breaths or a reminder to do "6 R's" (see TWIM, above) for 30 sec.

Good luck!

I used to get that, long before I was diagnosed, though. I woke up many times thinking that an earthquake was happening. (I live in Michigan, so this is quite unlikely.)

Still no idea why, but it hasn't happened in several years.

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I find that distillate doesn't do much for me, and I'd like an option that is more discrete & convenient than smoking or vaping flower. Distillate does have an effect, but I find that it mostly just makes me feel clumsy and sleepy. Little to none of the euphoria that I get from flower.

A bit of reading online says that live resin carts might be a good option, but that real ones will be 45-65% THC and > 15% terpenes. The best they had at my local dispensary (Joyology in Lake Orion) was 80% THC, .13% CBD and < 7% terps. That sounds a lot more like distillate than live resin. (I'm no expert - this is just what I've read - please correct me if it's out of date or nonsense.) I guess I'll try it later this week & see.

Does anyone know of a place that carries the real thing? (I'm on the north side of the metro Detroit area.) Or another type of cart worth trying for when smoking/vaping flower isn't practical?

My favorite is actually Meds Cafe in Rogers City. It's a small shop, they have a really solid selection. I think there are a lot of growers up there, because not at all hard to find interesting and fresh bud. That said, I don't have a ton of experience with a lot of different dispensaries. I've been to maybe half a dozen total.

My go-to is Joyology in Auburn hills. They are decent, their prices seem only slightly higher than a little up north shop. Most importantly, they are close to my house. ๐Ÿ™‚

Anywhere in northern Michigan.

Really? I haven't used chrome on a phone in... I'm not sure how long. Since pre-pandemic, anyway.

That said, I spend a lot of time on a laptop, so maybe I just don't use as many sites through the mobile browser. I DO sometimes use Edge or Brave on my laptop because sites don't work. It isn't so much the browser is broken as the sites, though.

Apologies for the link without a preview. I'm trying to figure out how to attach images, but I think the instance I joined has an issue with pasting them directly in, so I'm trying different options.

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DelightfullyDivisive

joined 1 year ago