How many of you have tried meditation?

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I have tried it many times, and I still don't get it. How am I supposed to feel if I succeed at it?

Some thoughts about accessing meditation pathways, and their different advantages and disadvantages:

1. Secular pathways - MIND workshops, local groups, university counselling services, mindfulness meetings etc. Advantages: free of religious baggage. Disadvantages: often mindfulness in the abstract is all they offer - they don't offer a plan of what to do with your mind once you've found it. They're often time limited (ie, fixed-length courses). They're not that inspirational (you're likely to be meeting in a backroom at the local library or community centre, not a nice building with a cafe and a restaurant and nice art and lots of light).

2. Buddhist pathways
2a. Tibetan-inspired pathways. Advantages: they offer basic mindfulness meditations, but also meditations on really practical things, like being at work, being angry, arguing with folk, being jealous. Lots of support and practical guidance. They're cheap. They're ongoing. Disadvantages: come with quite a lot of ritual and some of your basic common-or-garden religious BS (who's in, who's out, what happens after you die, etc.).
2b. South-Asian (Thai, Vietnamese etc.) and Japanese (Za-Zen) inspired pathways. Advantages: very little religious baggage (no stand up, sit down, say this, do that, etc.). Disadvantages: quite intellectual and theoretical; often not that applicable in everyday life. Rely on self motivation a lot - you're left thinking problems through, rather than getting practical advice. In this style, you focus most of all on breathing and calming the mind - very good, but not much good when you're having an Aspie moment and need a strategy for dealing with it, I found.

Having tried them all, I went for 2b because it's cheap, practical, and ongoing - and I just ignore all the ritual stuff. They're happy with me ignoring it - they let me teach some of their classes. That's how relaxed they are!

What type of meditation have you tried doing? The thing about it is, you shouldn't go in with expectations of how it is "supposed" to be or an idea of you trying to "succeed" at it or reach a goal. Just keep an open mind. A guided meditation will give you "instructions" and just try to follow them as well as you can and don't judge yourself or feel bad if you end up finding your mind wandering or anything. It can take a while to feel or see the benefits of the practice, so you just need to keep at it! You can try an app like one of the following or all (I use an iPhone, so I know these work for iPhones but I don't know about non-apple products):
Headspace- gives you some free meditations as part of their "Take 10" program and offers a subscription to a year's worth of meditations you could choose to pay for. It is Mindfulness Meditation
Insight Timer- Has a meditation timer to allow you to do your own meditation without guidance and also offers many free guided meditations from many different teachers of different styles of meditation (I think Vipassana meditation is big on this app, which is also referred to as Insight Meditation; also Mindfulness meditations are big here).
Breathe- This app offers several different meditations. There is a gratitude one, some mindfulness ones, a body scan, a couple compassion ones, as well as others.

Thank you for your advice. I have tried mindfulness meditation. I read several books on mindfulness by such authors as Jon Kabat-Zinn and Pema Chodron. I have also read some of the new age stuff like Eckhart Tolle. I think my problem may be that I think too much while trying to meditate. I think about my breathing, how I am feeling, and also think about my thoughts, rather than just noticing them. I will try some of the guided meditatioms that you suggested.

There are other meditation apps out there, too, that I haven't really tried




There are more paths than even this, though, as there are western takes on Buddhism that are not as based in religion (Secular Buddhism, Pragmatic Buddhism, Skeptical Buddhism) and other movements that are big in the west like Insight Meditation. You can also just make your own path, which is what I am doing. I use apps that I like and I read about the philosophy behind the types of meditation, movements, and Buddhism. I pick the things that are helpful and leave out what isn't (which is mainly just the religious portions as I am not religious at all). Then I try to apply these things not just to my meditations but to my life. Applying them to meditation is easier, of course, but I actually find it is helpful for my "Aspie moments" as, for example, I can find my breath instead of breaking down or becoming anxious, etc. It makes me feel so much joy when normally I might be worrying. Also there are meetup groups and various other things you can try if you are looking for a community to be a part of. I like it being my own thing, though.

I'm just curious about who all has tried any type of meditation (mindfulness or anything else) or even Buddhism (whether religious or pragmatic/secular). It really helps me to feel happier and control my anxiety. Anyone else? If you haven't tried it, I think you might consider it! There is a book actually (that I only just found out about and haven't read myself) called Asperger's Syndrome and Mindfulness, which would be good for Aspies, I imagine especially, but maybe also others on the spectrum. I found that mindfulness meditation by itself wasn't that helpful until I learned about the mindfulness philosophy and the Buddhist philosophy behind it. Then I began incorporating other types of meditation in. It has just been helpful.