Meditation - did it help you?

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I'm an NT, and unfortunately meditation did nothing for me - in terms of focus, clarity of thinking, etc.

What about yourself? Did it affect you? What were the effects? What technique did you use? I'm particularly interested in mindfulness meditation, as that's the one I tried.

I can feel the effects even after 5 minutes, when i open my eyes its like you see everything a lot sharper. Literally the objects you see so i don't mean it as a metaphor. And the sense of peace, my mind stays clear for a while and this effect gradually becomes less over time. The more you meditate the more this state of clear mind becomes your base line. They say this can take many months of daily meditation until you really start to notice it. After meditating i have an easier time getting up and doing the things i need to do instead of gaming or browsing the internet.

i, being aspie, do have positive effects from meditation, but not in the usual sense.
for me, i go into a meditative state when i'm getting overloaded to prevent melting down; something which is easier then it looks becouse just before a meltdown, i completely retract into my ownworld, from where i can lock out everything in a manner simular to meditation.

I have a preference for concentration meditation.

It helps me sharpen up my brain, helps with my ADHD. It lets my brain settle down and stop whirling. It feels very good, relaxing, and pleasurable, when done correctly.

I attribute the betterment of my social skills to an increase in my ability to relax and concentrate. I think I should note here, that I am currently of the opinion that it's more likely that I have ADHD rather than Asperger's.

http://recollection.posterous.com/a-bas ... instuction

I've not had much success with meditation. If I can relax enough to stop my mind wizzing and reasoning by itself, I fall asleep. So I can never get to a meditative state.

There are some techniques that can help energise you when you start nodding. Breath and posture is important.

I used to start nodding during meditation. What I'd do is have a nap, then recommence meditation when I woke up.

Ta Moog, I'll give it a go.

Yeah, I informally, or you could say instinctively made a go of this to control this. The "ability to relax and concentrate" is central in these areas.

I have a strange way of maintaining concentration when doing things to accomplish something. In the past, if I want to do something as to recall something as a fact in conversation, it would slip my mind; the greater the effort to recall; the worse it became. Anything that required an executive control -- the ability to muster up something from memory due to the circumstances, would always 'fly away.' I've learned how to monitor and keep anxiety low, and I can recall what is needed. This would happen in anything that required executive functioning, of whether people were involved or not.

If I needed something, and the more I tried to recall, proportionally "the effort" would stop it. Strangely, I now say to myself: "I dont want it now, I don't care"( but when I really need it, though) and strangely this allows it to surface. The frustrating aspect of this was when I didn't need the information it would be there on recall -- when I needed this, it would be blocked-- "access denied."

I have to always be in a relaxed state to allow the 'limited channels' that I have open, to keep these clear from executive flooding.

It's not as though I'm overly anxious that stymies this, but it's just a diminished executive capacity. This is something that I've learned to do through "concentrative meditation."

I've tried it before and it didn't work. My psychologist actually told me that when you have anxiety disorders, meditation isn't useful because you have a lot of trouble letting go of all your anxious thoughts, which I can kind of understand.

That said, if meditation works for anyone else with AS, then continue doing it!

For some people it's very hard to take control and let go (sounds paradoxical, right?)

There are times when I benefit from a hypnosis or guided meditation, my own power to relax and calm myself being at a low ebb.

I imagine that some people can get so wired that nothing will work short of a tranquiliser.

If you're one of those people who exist in a very high state of anxiety most of the time then you may need an intensive, long term, guided approach. Someone telling you vaguely to sit down and do nowt for 15 mins now and then isn't going to be at all effective.

I've never actually tried meditating before, but it seems almost as if I can easily enter a meditative state naturally without any effort.

It's definitely been helpful to me. I don't know what sorts of meditation I've done, but I was required to meditate for one of my classes and I've done some on my own both before that and after that.

For me, the setting matters a lot. I can't meditate in somewhere that triggers overloading even to a small degree, but if I get out of that location, and to somewhere less overwhelming, then it lets me reduce the amount my thoughts are just rushing.

It's not something I do a lot, but I've tried to build in some to my exercises that I do daily.

There are those far more experienced than me, like TallyTheYogiBear, but from my experience zen meditation (shikantaza) is a great tool for emotional regulation. Also it enables a more objective approach to both internal and external stimuli, meaning one is not at mercy at one's emotional/mental states.

TallyTheYogiBear!

Well Booboo I have to agree with you on the efficacy of shikantaza meditation. It is certainly good for helping to regulate emotions that would otherwise run out of control, e.g. those associated with stress and worry.

I don't really get it!? I can sit quietly - I like to listen to a rain CD or some other relaxing sounds - but I'm not sure what it's suppose to do?

Once when I was doing a job that was all new to me. Was longer hours than I had worked before and was full on dealing with the public all day long - I used to come home feeling so wound up that I HAD to go sit and do nothing for an hour cause I couldn't do anything else!

I feel that meditation is talked about as if it holds some kind of magic - and I always find that frustrating because I CAN'T GET the magic!

What my quiet sitting was doing was simply 'recovering' from highly frazzled nerves before I could go on to cope with anything at home!

that is one reason to meditate sowlow.
the meditation i usually use (i only call it that becouse it is simular) block external input (light, sound, touch), so i can walk trough crowds in a bar or whatever without getting overloaded and meltdown, for example...