thelerner Posted February 21, 2018 (edited) And since I'm a week or two behind here's one more. This is just for fun. A chance to pick up hitch hikers, take'em home and do drugs with them.. in hypnosis. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I can't think of a safer way to experience it. Here's the video- Try it if you dare. There's no harm in listening to it first and choosing not to fall under, to get an impression, but imo there's nothing too racy or crazy on it. Your mileage may vary. Here's a shorter version in mp3. Some may love the long induction with eyes opening and closing. Most of the time I'd rather side step it. Thus I've turned it from 50 minutes to 32. Her youtube is interesting, certainly on the sexual side of hypnosis. There are people like Kim Walsh and Michael Sealy who tend towards more productive readings. I've even found a couple sites that specialize in transmogrification, from werewolf to kitten and beyond. If you're comfortable, these trippy readings can be fun. Otherwise there's always the traditional mild yoga nidra's that are pleasant journeys of relaxation. Let me know which ones you enjoy, whether I've listed them or not. Shorter_Psychedelic_Meditation.mp3 Edited March 1, 2018 by thelerner 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted March 27, 2018 Some guided meditations are challenging, requiring vast constructs of the imagination. Michael Winn has a paqua based one in his Fusion series which has you imaging twirling diamondlike structions with the tai chi symbols at there ends, paired up and spinning counter to each other along energy meridians. Quite Challenging. Giles Marin Spends 30 minutes slowly lighting up your bone structure in his Bone Dreaming Meditation. Ed Fleischman stretches you from newborn to 140 years old, leaving in you sitting in a pine forest. Interesting stuff. The challenging meditation I link to today is from a favored source of esoteric practices. Rawn Clark who is from the Hermetic tradition influenced by Franz Bardon. The meditation is called the Center of Stillness Meditation (CSM). CSM, is partly a 'sealing the senses' kind of experience. You take the 5 senses (7 including thought & emotion), separate them out of yourself, imagining them as colored sphere's around your body. You see the web of life, float around.. challenging. Not easy to get and I'm sure everyone experiences it in a different way and depth. here it is: http://abardoncompanion.com/csm/contents.html download by clicking the smaller black letters (click here to download the Audio Recording). It'll come out as .zip file. Unzipped you have an 11 minute intro talking about the CSM, and the actual 27 minute practice itself CSM - Practice. If you download it, let me know what you think. It's not an easy one, but most of the previous one are. I also recommend his Aracheous (ie personal elemental series) & his YHVH chant series. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted April 26, 2018 Let me skip guided meditations this post in favor of 2 Western dharma talks containing much wisdom. There are a couple versions of this famous impacting youtube. Here's a shorter version, funny insightful, inspiring. If you like it, listen to the full, longer version. Mr. Pausch noted that the above was full of philosophy and wanted to make another talk that had direct practical systematic practices in it. Thus he did a talk not long after on Time Management, dealing with aspects, of importance and having fun. and for those who'd rather read then listen (I'm one) here's a well done synopsis from (http://www.stafforini.com/blog/summary-of-time-management-by-randy-pausch/) Randy Pausch’s lecture on time management is, in my opinion, the best presentation on productivity techniques ever recorded. I have watched the talk at least half a dozen times, I learned something new and important on each occasion. The summary below leaves out the funny jokes and engaging stories, focusing exclusively on the actionable bits of advice. The talk addresses the following topics: How to set goals. How to avoid wasting time. How to deal with your boss. How to delegate. How to handle stress and procrastination Americans are very bad at dealing with time. By contrast, they are very good at dealing with money. But time and money are very similar. A key question to ask is, “Who much is an hour of your time worth?” Knowing this figure is very helpful for making decisions involving trade-offs, such as whether you should do something yourself or pay someone else to do it instead. Think about time and money as if they are almost the same thing. So time, like money, needs to be managed. The talk borrows heavily from the following books: Cathy Collins, Time Management for Teachers Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Dick Lohr, Taking control of Your Workday The problem of “time famine” is systemic, just as the problem of African famine is. As such, it requires long-term interventions that target underlying fundamental processes. Time management is ultimately about living a more enriching, fulfilling life. It’s about having more fun. Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well. Managing your time well makes you successful. Someone who is less skilled could still be more successful by developing the relevant metaskills: the skills to optimize whatever skills you do have. Every time you are about to spend time doing something, ask yourself: Why am I doing this? What is the goal? Why will I succeed? What happens if I chose not to do it? Don’t focus on doing things right. Focus instead on doing the right things. Keep a list of the things you want to accomplish, and whenever you catch yourself not doing something that will get you closer to one of those goals, ask yourself why you are doing it. 80% of your value results from 20% of your input, so focus on this 80%, work hard at it, and ignore the rest. Planning is critical, and must be done at multiple levels: daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Yes, you will have to change the plan, but you can’t change your plan unless you have one. And having a plan that is subject to change is much better than having no plan at all. Keys to having a working to-do list: Break down projects into small tasks. Do the ugliest thing first. Tackle important, non-urgent tasks before you tackle unimportant, urgent ones. It’s crucial to keep your desk clear, since it’s then much easier to process anything that lands on it. Touch each piece of paper only once. Apply this same principle to email. A filing system is absolutely essential. Have a single designated place where all papers are stored. Use multiple monitors. The cost is trivial. Have a calendar. Even if you can keep commitments in your mind, you’d be using up scarce brain space. Rules for using the telephone: Always stand when talking on on the phone. This will motivate you to keep your calls short. Start your calls by announcing your goals. “Sue, this is Randy. I’m calling you because I have three things I want to get done.” Have something on your desk that you are interested in doing next, so that you are not tempted to talk for longer than necessary. Call people just before lunchtime. They’ll be eager to eat, and as a result they will keep the conversation short. Things to have on your desk Speakerphone. You’ll be able to do other stuff while waiting on the phone. Headset. You’ll be able to use the phone while doing other stuff (e.g. exercising). Address stamper. Box of Kleenex Stack of thank-you cards. Thank-you notes are very important: they are a tangible way of telling people how much you appreciate them, and they are so rarely used that people will remember you. Recycling bin. Use it for papers only. Since it will take weeks to fill up, you can recover papers recently thrown out by mistake. Notepad. Post-it notes. Alternative systems may work for you. But you do need to think about what does work for you. Make your office comfortable for you, but optionally comfortable for others. E.g., have foldable chairs, which you can unfold only for guests whom you must meet for sufficiently long periods. Consider the opportunity cost of doing things. Every time you do something unimportant, you are not doing something important instead. Learn to say No. A useful formula: “I’ll do it if nobody else steps forward.” Find your creative time and defend it ruthlessly. Match your energy levels to the effort different tasks require. Minimize the frequency and length of interruptions. Each interruption takes about 12 minutes of your time on average. Turn off email notifications. Say “I’m in the middle of something right now” or “I only have five minutes”. If you want, you can extend that time later. If someone just won’t leave, walk to the door, compliment them, thank them, and shake their hand. Keep a time journal. Don’t wait until the end to complete it; update it regularly throughout the day. A time journal gives you valuable information about how you spend your time, allow you to identify tasks that you can delegate to somebody else you can do more efficiently are particularly important or unimportant If you have a gap between two appointments, create a “fake appointment” and spend that time productively. Be efficient, not effective. What matters is the overall outcome. Doing things at the last minute is really expensive. If you have something that isn’t due for a long time, make up a fake deadline and act like it’s real. Identify the underlying psychological reason why you are procrastinating about something. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of failure. Anxiety about asking someone for something. How to delegate: You grant authority with responsibility. Do the ugliest job yourself. Treat your people well. Be specific A specific task A specific time A specific penalty or reward Challenge your people Have a written record Make it clear which tasks are the most important How to deal with others: Reinforce behavior that you want repeated: praise and thank people. If you don’t want things to be delegated back to you, don’t learn how to do them! Meetings: People should be fully present They shouldn’t last more than an hour There should always be an agenda Keep one-minute minutes. How to deal with email Don’t delete past messages. Don’t send requests to a group of people; email people individually. If people don’t respond within 48 hours, it’s okay to nag them. If you have a boss, write things down ask them when is your next meeting with them what things they want to be done by when who can you turn for help remember that your boss wants a result, not an excuse General advice on vacations: Callers should get two options “I’m not at the office, but contact x” “Call back when I’m back” It’s not a vacation if you are reading email General advice: Kill your television. Turn money into time. E.g., pay someone to mow your lawn. Above all else, make sure you eat, sleep and exercise enough. Never break a promise, but renegotiate it if need be. Recognize that most things are pass/fail. Get feedback. Time is all we have, and one day you may find that you have less than you think. Latest update: 20th August, 2017 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted May 10, 2018 Back to guided meditations. Here's what I've been playing with lately in the morning. From ENtrance, a meditation that puts you into an inner library. Has you walk around. Look at a book of memories. I find it puts me under very deeply and that in real life when trying to recall something I re-imagined the library and it helped me make the connection. Here is the youtube video- As I often do I create shorter mp3's for ones I like the most. I've done this here, reducing it to 17 minutes which knocks out the wake up at the end. ENtrance is very worthwhile to check out. Here is the short version- Exploring_the_library_of_memory_shortened_from_Entrance.mp3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted July 24, 2018 Haven't put anything up here in awhile. I was discussing metta last week- meditations on spreading love. Lots of those around. Much harder to find things on Chod, the Tibetan practice of uh.. self sacrifice. If metta is spreading love, Chod is giving up the self, literally offering yourself to a demon.. Perhaps in Tibetans terms the ultimate in metta. It's strangely satisfying and purifying. Maybe not the best thing to do if you're not too balanced though. I found it interesting, here's a guided meditation on it. Chod Meditation 2.mp3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted August 28, 2018 (edited) Lately I've been listening to guided meditations from the youtube channel Unlock your Life (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm3z_id9UHQYdqflJMjgQnA) They're very good. She has some interesting specific ones on Cold & Flu 'feel better' and Pollen & Allergy feel better. Don't need them now but it'll be interesting to see how they work when I do. I downloaded and am listening to her Third Eye/Chakra meditation, its very relaxing. I enjoy the visualizations and it the feelings it leads me to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml4835R9Ajk&t=26s My wife's boss had a gastric bypass and it seems like a very stressful, life changing procedure. It works (fast) but at the cost of much comfort and sacrifice. It was interesting that the site had Hypnotic gastric bypass guided meditation. I downloaded it and listened to the full thing twice. I liked it, and since then made a shortened 9 minute version of the end part where it explains that from now on you can only eat to a moderate fullness, ie level 6 or 7 on 1starving to 10stuffed scale and not eating again til your hungry, ie 3 or 4 on the 1-10 scale. I've been listening for a week and half. I'm down a few pounds and I'm mostly eating much less, half sandwiches. I'm hoping to keep listening for another month or two. After all its just 8 minutes and its there to remind me that I have an imaginary scar and I feel full faster then before, and its a bad idea to stuff myself. I should eat slower, appreciate every bite, but never eat beyond moderate fullness. So, a good life style kind of eating program. I'll see if it works, I think the daily listen helps its effectiveness. Here it is- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDvSV0y0SHs&list=PLqktjn8c06SxO1f_1xZgJoTsi4rBF_jH1&index=1 In a post today I mentioned my philosophy that guided meditations/hypnosis/yoga nidras/biaurals, should be viewed as a supplement and not a substitute to 'just sitting' meditation. While enjoyable and at times very deep, you're not facing your mind like you do during regular meditation. The point of many of these is to learn the 'state' so that you don't need to listen to the meditation anymore. Edited August 28, 2018 by thelerner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted October 29, 2018 (edited) Was having trouble falling asleep for a couple nights. The usual insomnia I get every now and then when I can't fall asleep til 4 am. For the last 2 days I've been self treating with melatonin 3mgs, mint flavored edible ones from Trader Joes. Plus listening to Sleeping Pill Hypnosis by Jaqueline Powers, under 11 minutes and works well if it grabs you. It's good in that it doesn't leave you sleeping, rather its training to get to sleep faster. The last 2 nights listening to it earlier in the day have helped me get to bed within a half hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMD5PSVmO8 I turned it into an mp3, also put it into my amazon music account so I can listen to it on my Alexa Echo unit before they stopped allowing such add ins. Edited October 29, 2018 by thelerner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) Haven't added anything here in awhile. These days I'll skip long inductions, getting to the heart of a meditation, and sometimes they'll have several themes. Here's a short piece of guided hypnosis from a longer Jason Stephenson meditation- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr0VnEtQH1AI The original is over an hour and quite fun. This piece is shortened, about 10 minutes then allows you to go where you will. Deep_breath_to_Deep_Sleep_2.mp3 Let me know what you think. Edited December 22, 2018 by thelerner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zen Pig Posted December 22, 2018 If this kind of meditation works for you, then that is all you have to say. doesn't matter what does or does not work for others. good luck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
