Does anyone here practice meditation/mindfulness?

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I've tried to learn how to meditate a few times, but I can't say I've had any degree of success. Does anyone here practice meditation or mindfulness? Was it hard to learn? How did you do it, or what book/teacher/audio track/whatever did you follow to learn it? Do you get as much benefit from it as people say?

Maybe it's just harder for people with ASD, or maybe it has nothing to do with ASD at all. I know it can be hard for me to stop focusing on sensory issues, and when I try to meditate, these seem to become more pronounced (my back hurts / I'm cold / my toes are cold / breathing through my nose is making my nose cold / this sitting position is uncomfortable / I wish that ticking clock would shut up / I wish the cars driving by outside would shut up). Seems like if I can hear ANYTHING I put all my focus into that and so can't concentrate, and if I can't hear anything, I start listening to the ringing in my ears. Maybe I'm just not doing something right or not trying hard enough.

Anyone else have this problem?

I try to meditate.. find myself to be generally more calm/balanced when I do.

Mindfulness is both ridiculously easy and terribly difficult for me. It's the sensory thing... always hyper aware of stuff anyhow, so trying to make myself more aware seems somehow silly to me. I had a CBT therapist try to incorporate mindfulness with me for my OCD. It helps in that respect, not so much for meditation, unless I switch focus to my body and not my environment... if that makes any sense. So yeah, outside interference does get in the way of meditating for me.

That said, I am in the process of learning to meditate. It is something I have done on and off for years, but I have been more into it since last summer. When I started up again, I was like, why the hell did I ever stop this? Heh. Lately I have been diggin' on the idea of 'non-ado' as well as a few other things in the Tao Teh Ching... not that I am a Taoist or anything, just think the book is great. It makes it easier for me to meditate if I have a fixed idea of something to turn around in my head... I can just repeat it or try to shove that idea into my mind when I get flooded by other things I do not want floating around in there. I also just do square breathing sometimes... that makes me keep an internal count as well as engaging my eyes (even though they are closed, I still move them) and my heart beat... I do my count on the beats.

I read someplace that when trying to learn to meditate that the most important thing to do at first is just get used to being comfortable, breathe, and spend the time.. how to phrase it... making it a habit? It discussed not stressing if things just floated in your head, just letting the thoughts come and go as they will and that eventually that would all settle down on its own. I have no idea if that works for people or not, but it did not work so well for me. I would get something like aggravated and it became the opposite of relaxed. The back up phrases work better for me then letting my brain do its own thing.

Meh. I talked a lot. Hope that made sense, or at least was not the opposite of helpful.

Actually, that does help. Thanks!
I have a couple of questions, though. What is non-ado? I haven't read the Tao Teh Ching, but maybe I should. I know a little bit about Taoism, mostly just being aware of the energy in your body, and the way consciousness can move it around.

Sounds like the idea you're talking about is to say a phrase in your mind over and over, or focus your attention on an object, like a coin? Sort of like hypnosis in the movies, where they watch the watch or stare into a candle flame. I have a guided chakra meditation mp3 that does that: "Visualize the color red and repeat to yourself, 'I am safe.' 'Visualize the color orange and repeat to yourself, 'I am life.'" I don't know that it helps; I have like six chakra CDs, and I'm not totally convinced that chakras are real things.

The short of non-ado... basically not fussing/stressing over anything. Not to say that you ignore things or treat them as unimportant, just not getting out of whack over things. From there, any explanation I give out will be mixed up in my own perspective. For me it is also heavily steeped in removal... removing harsh words/ideas, removing harsh emotions, removing wanting of unnecessary things that take away from necessary things... The book is broken down into chapters, each is mostly just a paragraph or two. Non-ado shows up here and there throughout the book. Chapters 3, 37, 43, 47, 48, 63 (I think this one sums it up great)... there are probably more, those are the only ones my post it's are sticking out of though You can find those online if you are interested in checking out the book. There are different translations/interpretations all over the place.

Yeah, I need to have some kind of fall back to focus my attention on. My mind just wants to jump around when I am trying to be quiet and still. I can go from listening to my neighbor going to work to dishes that need to be done to the kid I sat next to in 7th grade math. I have a hard time making my mind go quiet sometimes. The fall back just gives me something at least kinda relevant to what I am trying to do... take control of the random brain syndrome. If my mind is going to spin out of control, it might as well go off on a non-ado tangent.

I have a friend who was into cleaning out her chakras, a few years back. She swore by it. I'm right there with you, I never was all together convinced that stuff was real either, but they effort and energy she put into it did make it effective for her.