Hi everyone !
I've been meditating for 10 mins a day for a few weeks and i find it really helps me feel calm and positive .
I know it dosent take my illness or pain etc away but i feel i am coping better.
I used to meditate yrs ago , and it has been one of those , ' I will start again' kind of things ! I am glad i've stuck with it and plan to carry on.
I'd like to know of anyone else who meditates and if / how its benefited them ? x
Hi Larissa, glad to hear that is helping you. I go through periods when I do for a few weeks then stop doing it again. But you are right you can feel the benefits after 10 minutes. I have felt refreshed and most of it when it has been a busy house it means I can take myself away and just feel as though I am winding down x
hi mstr, I am the same as you ! keep starting and stopping ! but am trying to keep just 10 mins by , and do it everyday x
Im trying meditation ,it really helps ,i think it should be the first pescription a doc gives,my doctor rolled his eyes when i told him i was meditating .
Hello
How long meditation takes to be effective is a bit of piece of string question. It is down to how you are to begin with and how effectively to can take yourself out of your situation.
For me, the effect is immediate, as can usually shut out the world. This may be because I am shallow, or have not real grasp of reality. Or it may be because, I have a perspective which allows me to detach myself, because I can see a need to.
Pain and stress, will always compound each other, the day to day issues of your life are pressing and we often feel that it is irresponsible to ignore them, even for a short while. But breaking the stress is essential for you to function effectively. Taking yourself away from a problem can be hugely helpful in dealing with it.
You may find that a method of meditation which involves movement helpful. T'ai Chi foundation exercises or simple breathing techniques, are low impact disciplines or if your body can cope Juggling is brilliant and will help to regulate your breathing and posture. Singing or learning the harmonica can also be employed in this manner, - lower your shoulders and relax the airways.
Find your peace, even if it is only for a few minutes at a time.
Martin
This is such good advice Martin - I am in the middle of finding stress/anxiety really damaging when you have autoimmune issues! Can you recommend any good ways of getting in to meditation? Maybe my mind is just overactive but I find it really impossible to clear it and just 'be' - I have tinnitus as well which probably doesn't help.
I go to Tai Chi classes twice a week and really notice the benefit of doing that - I'm a bit rubbish at doing it at home as I just can't remember the moves properly but I would recommend it to others - it's good for balance and suppleness as well as for mental relaxation and something that a lot of us can do even with sore joints and fatigue issues. I love it!
I'd love to be able to do the meditation though so if you can give any further advice, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks
Lucy
I do a hypnotherapy relaxation and that really helps me as well xx
sounds interesting ! i havent heard of this before !?
Larissa I went to see someone who was an ex-nurse so knew something about chronic illnesses, but she was also a qualified counsellor and did hypnotherapy. So the counselling was really useful in helping to cope with this stupid iIlness and the hypnotherapy is really useful for calming down pain and producing deep relaxation. The more you do it the easier it gets - well worth a try xx
Hi Larissa. I've been meditating for half an hour every afternoon for about two years now and use vipassana techniques. If you want to download some short guided meditations try Buddha.net they are Australian but hey, who cares. Some easy stuff to start off with are the various mindfulness programmes. You might be able to find one running at a sports or social centre near you if you have the time. I have found it has made a great difference to my ability to cope with pain. Good luck. Steve.
hi stephen , thanks for your tips.What is vipassana ?
I have some sessions on apps programmed into my Iphone so that I can just pick a 5, 10 or 15 minute session. I often feel really heavy afterwards so I know I must have relaxed.
Thats a good idea ! I am a bit crap with technology , but i've just got an iphone , cant be too difficult .............................. ?
lol I must confess my husband is really into anything technical so he does it for me. I have just asked him but if you go to the APP store on your Iphone and type in 'Relaxation' then you can have lots of choices to down load to your Iphone. One particularly good one we find is the Andrew Johnson one. He has lots. Hope this helps xx
Hi Larissa. Vipassana is a fairly strict form of Buddhist teaching and meditation techniques. It can be quite demanding if you follow all of the aspects in your everyday life so I wouldn't recommend it for beginners but if you find that you do well with mindfulness it does make a good follow on. If you are starting out at meditation my advice would be to stick to breathing based exercises and build up to anything else later. 
Thankyou !
The easiest form of meditation is 'letting go' Find a quiet spot and sit with your back fairly straight, you dont have to cross your legs, but you should symetrical. Sitting on the backs of your hands works.
Next close your eyes breath easy and fully. In through the nose out through the mouth. The next thought that comes into your head.............. let it go. empty your mind, and when something does come along, let that go also............... and the next and the next and the next, just let it go, and eventually you will be able to let letting go go also.
Many of us with lupus have problems Marshalling out thoughts, and passive concentration type techniques are very valuable, find a peaceful feeling to concentrate on.
If you concentrate on keeping your breathing even, this will help remove unwanted thoughts.
This is most important when you have awake time in the middle of the night, it is all to easy to wear yourself out mithering ideas or fretting about not being asleep.
My take on T'ai Chi is to only do the foundation exercises, everyone struggles with the choreography, and end up missing the benefit.
I did have it in mind to put a guide to the foundations together.
And if your hands can take it, juggling is great fun, if you can juggle 3 balls and read a newspaper at the same time, your brain will be in such a place that it cannot process anything but the immediate.
You seem to know quite a lot about meditation ,thanks for sharing .
My crisis of health occurred a very long time ago, and I was into that sort of thing before it happened. Meditation and relaxation are very important if you are to manage your wellbeing.
Thank you so much for the tips - I am going to try the meditation tonight. I (like so many of us!) have insomnia issues so the breathing would be good to try then.
I know what you mean about the choreography in Tai Chi - luckily I have found a brilliant class where we do about half the session with Qi Gong (the exercises) and the other half Tai Chi (usually the forms for energy, osteoporosis or arthritis) - I have been doing it since last September and only now am I beginning to feel some of the benefits from doing the choreographed forms. When you do start to feel it affecting your whole being it is rather marvellous though!
Lucy x
I have had a tape for many years - preparation for.meditation. It was from a bugghhist centre& was as much as I felt able to do . It takes you through your body. relaxing it & & even though Ive done it for years I still find it the best way to switch off over any other meditation. If it stops working for me I think Id panic!
I meditate too, using a range of techniques I've learned over the years, but usually I use mindfulness. And I use tai chi and chi gong as helpful exercises to still my mind. I'm not very strict with myself, or religious in how much I do each day, but I find that if I don't do it, I really miss it and my mind goes into over-drive finding things to worry about...and then my health usually suffers too. It's so useful in mitigating stress which is so important in managing lupus, and makes me feel like I have some power in this tricky situation!
Glad to hear about all of you who also do this
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