(Part 2) Best products from r/Mindfulness

You can get the collected works of Ramana Maharishi here:

The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi https://www.amazon.com/dp/0877289077/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Pp-TAbYXA9FVD


There is also the work of Gary Weber :

Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening https://www.amazon.com/dp/0595418562/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_js-TAb9HZYBP8

Evolving Beyond Thought: Updating Your Brain's Software https://www.amazon.com/dp/197972377X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Ls-TAb76XWV5B

Self Inquiry is something that is done continuously through out the day along with sitting meditation.

To gauge progress, there are a few things to pay attention to:

1. Self referential thoughts will gradually stop along with practice conversations in the mind... the constant internal babbling in the mind.
   
   
2. Attention will remain on this precise instant in time creating a continuous flow of Now. Notice how the mind is constantly imaging an I/me/person in the past and future. This will subside.
   
   Find the feeling of “I” and focus on it as if it were the most fascinating and important thing ever experienced. The mind can only hold one thought at a time. If all attention is on the “I” thought/feeling then no other thought can appear and the mind will stop. The “I” thought is the root of all other thoughts... all thoughts emerge and grow out of the “I” thought. Keep the mind locked on the root and notice when it starts to grow and spread into other thoughts... let go of growing thought and return to “I”. As a side note, this is not the practice of repeating the word “I” over and over... it is the feeling of “I”.
   
   At first this requires an effort. With practice it will gradually become effortless. Once effortless, attention will linger on all perception in a continuous flow of now with the mind still. Have you ever laid in bed at night and lingered on a distant sound? It’s like that... in stillness. This is when the feeling of “I” will disappear.
   
   Everything appearing in consciousness is an expression of consciousness and has a strong sense of presence minus a personal self referential “I” thought. You are this space of consciousness, and consciousness has no qualities or attributes of its own. Consciousness is what creates everything appearing in consciousness.
   
   Another aspect of Self Inquiry is the act of sitting and searching for the witness/observer. This is where questions such as “Who sees?” and “Who hears?” and “Where am I?” come in. I spent many hours sitting and looking in my back yard, looking at what was seen and searching for the see’er before the realization “clicked” and took hold. I was suddenly stuck with “If I can see it then it isn’t me, so who sees me?” Attention then looked at the mind and everything about the mind started coming apart. It was as if the mind started to crumble away because none of it was me. Nothing about it was real... it was nothing but a bunch of conditioned stimulus-response. The mind is just a sensation appearing in consciousness, no different than the sensation of warm or cold or the sensation of sound or vision.
   
   In time you’ll notice that all thoughts and especially anxiety come from desires and attachments. Letting go of attachments is a big part of this process. Some strategies to help with this are:
   
   
3. The Sedona Method
   
   
4. The Work by Byron Katie
   
   Hopefully this helps... and remember, this is all about stillness. Be still.
   

Some things that have helped me:


https://www.amazon.com/Hope-Help-Nerves-Claire-Weekes/dp/0451167228/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?adgrpid=55435576229&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI75qVt6zw5QIVyp6zCh1OHgFPEAAYASAAEgKpMvD_BwE&hvadid=274678486488&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9007179&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=b&hvrand=9901417112654074774&hvtargid=kwd-323874757874&hydadcr=22184_10176616&keywords=hope+and+help+for+your+nerves&qid=1573962830&sr=8-2

If you can find the audio of this book, it is worth it. Dr. Weekes made the tapes years ago from Australia and there is just something about her.


A great book on Meditation is Mindfulness in Plain English

Also, check out MBSR. Mindfulness Based Stress Relief. You can probably find books and audio online. It is an 8 week course with great exercises and tips.

There are several great apps to help with relaxing and meditation. You should check them out and see if one fits. Many that are subscription based offer free trials. My goto app is Insight Timer. You would think it’s just a meditation timer. It’s not, it’s a great app with a terrible name. A lot of free content.

Lastly, there are some great podcasts. One of my favorites is Mindful Minute. It’s a recording of a woman who runs a 20 minute meditation class but with themes. Each theme is 3 or 4 sessions. You can scroll through and pick something that suits you or start from episode 1.

I hope that helps. Take some nice, slow, deep breaths. If you aren’t belly breathing, look it up. Remember that panic attacks and anxiety are just sensations that scare you. Then you’re scared and you don’t like it and you start fighting the anxiety or panic. Guess what that does? Yep, more anxiety. Breathe.

Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

May you be safe, may you be free from suffering, may you be peaceful and at ease.

CBT will retrain your mind to refute these thoughts as inaccurate so you won’t feel so obliged to believe them. Mindfulness will teach you to see them as symptomatic of your mental state: you can be compassionate with yourself and ficus in on where in your body you feel the thoughts’ effects but allow the thoughts to jog on in their own time. You won’t feel as though they are invading your mind or controlling your responses.

I’d recommend Rhena Branch’s CBT For Dummies and a thought record app for dealing with them on-the-go like TD Pro or Thought Diary. The apps are not as comprehensive as the sheets in the book (I found) but by the time you’ve done the sheets in the books x10> you won’t need the framework prompts as much. Good luck with it!

Ah, I loved How to Sleep as well! Considering that your brother liked a book that explains how our body works, maybe he'd like a book that explains how our mind works.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman talks about how our brain make decisions. The Author actually won a Nobel Prize in economics for the work he did in Psychology.

This reminds me of one of the insights in The Celestine Prophecy:

>3. Subtle energy. There is an energy, previously undetected by science, that forms the basis of all things. Human perception of that energy starts with an increased awareness of beauty: people, animals, plants, ecosystems that have a high level of that energy appear particularly beautiful. By becoming aware of that energy, we become able to notice when and how we give and receive energy.

thank you again for your replies; very well articulated, very helpful to me

I would like to ask you for your favorite resources on how to enhance mindfulness/awareness.

Mine are E Tolle's The Power Of Now and Stillness Speaks.

I listened to Alan Watts Out Of Your Mind and Do You Do It or Does It Do You?: How to Let the Universe Meditate You, and read his The Way Of Zen. I liked the book very much, did not enjoy much the audios. I went right back to listening to E Tolle audiobooks, mainly his TPON.

Also, I am reading the The Zen Teaching of Huang Po

What about you? What do you definitely think I should listen to or read?

Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman is an excellent book with a scientific foundation. Both authors are accomplished psychologists that have used Mindfulness-Base Cognitive Therapy with success.

They specifically approach it with a scientific eye and reference studies throughout the book to back up the theory.

It's really a great book and sounds like it's exactly what you're looking for. As someone who also dislikes the "hippy dippy" stuff, I highly recommend it.

Amazon

For me a meditation that incorporates calming and insight has been the most beneficial. I don't have an example of one in particular that I could find so I e begun to formulate my own from a few different sources (the six dharma gates to the sublime, words of my perfect teacher, how to see yourself as you really are, mindfulness in plain English, and the anapanasati sutra

I could link to it once I have a draft finished if you think it would be helpful. And if anyone else has something already available I'm interested in trying it :)

I guess before I could probably help with your question, I'd need to better understand what judgments you're making about yourself that make it difficult to find piece. What are you saying to yourself (particularly ABOUT yourself)? Are you telling yourself you can't do it? That you are flawed and so you'll "never be able to stick with it"? Something else?

If so, I'd say one of the most important places to start is to become mindfully aware of our negative self-talk and start treating yourself with more compassion. We all make mistakes, especially when it comes to lifestyle change. It is SO normal (and understandable) that we go back to old habits when under stress - but you need to be the one who reminds yourself of that, gives yourself compassion and love for being human, and then moves on.

Mistakes/slips are a lot easier to tolerate and overcome when we are kind to ourselves for them. Beating ourselves up for them might FEEL like we are protecting ourselves from slipping again by "punishing" the behavior, but it usually only sets us up to fail.

If it helps, I also HIGHLY recommend Kristin Neff on this subject and her book "Self-Compassion": https://www.amazon.com/Self-Compassion-Proven-Power-Being-Yourself/dp/0061733520/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= She also has a bunch of info and activities on her website: http://self-compassion.org/

This audiobook program is great The Best Kept Secrets of Great Communicators. And while he never uses the word "mindfulness" he does talk about active listening which basically involves really paying attention to what the other person is telling you.

I definitely recommend you read Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication

https://www.amazon.com/dp/161180583X?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

It sounds like this the perfect book for you. It teaches communication skills and implements mindfulness with it.

For example, while listening, it teaches you to notice the present moment and to not only focus on what someone is saying, but focus on the pitch of their voice, their body language, the feeling of gravity, ect. And it also teaches you how to communicate by alway remember where you are coming from and how it will impact the person.

I have been reading this and have been really enjoying it. It's one of my favorite mindfulness books.

I know that the author Oren Jay Sofer did some interviews on some podcasts you could listen to.

Try some of the Stoical books around, they deal with attachments to hope, status and celebrity. Good practical advice.

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: Featuring new translations of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius

The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

I bought this book for a BPD friend after reading some positive reviews. Might check it out for yourself. Wish you the best.

My mindfulness practice has proven incredibly significant in my life—so much so that it's become a way of life for me. I don't just practice when I sit down to meditate every day. I take opportunities throughout my day to always be as aware as possible about what's going on for me—physically, emotionally and in my mind. I've been studying mindfulness at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) and am actually in the midst of their year-long certificate in mindfulness facilitation. I could go on and on about how it has helped me… For those interested in the subject, you can check out my blog: The Mindfulness Diaries. I also recently published a book about my experiences during my first nine-day silent meditation retreat, if that experience is of interest. Here's a link to purchase the book The Mindfulness Diaries: How I Survived My First Nine-Day Silent Meditation Retreat BE Well...

This is a great book for teaching mindfulness to youngsters: https://www.amazon.com/Sitting-Still-Like-Frog-Mindfulness/dp/1611800587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482599567&sr=8-1&keywords=sit+like+a+frog

It's wonderful that you are teaching mindfulness. I wish you well.