It’s even weirder for me, like ive got the voice in my head, but also a whole suite of 3D visualisations of tens of thousands of my memories complete with the 3d environment, sound, the clothing I wore, the temperature, humidity, air pressure, the exact location, etc, I can even just visualise entire buildings I’ve been in a few times, like friends houses, the primary, secondary and high school campuses I attended, literally anything. Ive also got my entire music playlist of probably 4000+ songs completely backed up in my nogin, and a whole heap more.
And then my brain just decides “let’s sort through the trauma first shall we”, like bro, you have virtually infinite other things to think about, and you pick the worst?
And?
My girly thought process is actually quite similar:
[not my comic]
First time seeing a Centurii comic strip here.
Best Comic maker
KOOORBEEENNN DAAALLLAAAASSS
Here he is, the one and only winner of the Gemini Crockett contest!
You let it be obnoxious, observe it dispassionately, and allow it to go once it is finished.
Mine is loud and obnoxious as well. When I meditate it attempts to demand my attention, dredging every thought it can, but I don’t feed it, I don’t encourage it, I observe and allow it to pass. It’s definitely a skill and it takes a lot of practice, but it’s a skill worth learning.
Honestly I don’t understand this at all, nor mediation, really. I observe myself all the time, there’s no “separate voice”, it’s just me observing my thoughts and trying to figure out what the thoughts, emotions and wants are and what’s causing them. If I try to separate myself even more from that observing role, that would mean dissociating, which generally is not considered a mentally healthy state. So am I just thinking in a “wrong way”, is dissociating the point, or do I still just not understand?
It’s very confusing to me. Or, at least that’s I think I should feel about it, I don’t know how am I feeling it or how feeling that actually works since many “emotions” tend to be just learned thoughts to me, which aren’t that difficult to observe then
Tbh it’s kinda like intentionally disassociating, but not exactly. A lot of meditation aims for intentionally entering a trance.
A way to think of it may be as the mental equivalent of not feeding in to reflexes. Your body will sometimes act without conscious thought and a person who is in tune with their instincts might follow through on the unconscious actions, this type of meditation is like doing the opposite of that. You allow thoughts to come and go, but you don’t interact with them.
For example you may be trying to meditate and think “oh crap I don’t have dinner planned”, then where normally you might go into planning dinner, here you say “that’s ok, I can plan it when I’m done” and let it be.
If you’ve ever seen the litany against fear from Dune, this style of meditation is basically that but for all thoughts and emotions. Rather than resisting thoughts you allow them to pass over and through you and embrace that you aren’t your thoughts.
That said not all meditation techniques work for everyone. Visualization meditation has some people who love it because it works really easily for us, but others hate it.
I recommend further research if you’re interested in meditation but struggle with it
I have no voice in my head, so I don’t think that would work very well.
yeah, i have a soundtrack that is constantly playing if i am not hearing music. Right now i am obsessed with the new album that i missed the tour of because Fuck Ticketmaster. It is repeating in my head. Which is really weird because I don’t know all the lyrics so my brain is kind of Watermeloning through it until it gets to the parts where it knows the lyrics. (when you don’t know the words and you are on stage and you are supposed to be singing, if you know the tune you hum through your nose (it kind of bounces the voice off the sinuses and soft palate but you block it from coming out your mouth, some tone in harmony gets out and when you mouth watermelon it looks like you know the words. gets you out of a tough spot in choral singing. not so much if you’re the only one on that part) ) ))) some extras I forget how many tangents I went on.
Wait you guys have just the single voice?
Yes, that seems weird to me as well. For me there are several and often they even have discussions with each other. It is like a whole group with different voices that have different relationships to each other. I thought that was normal.
I do have CPTSD though from trauma very early in my youth. So, something might have gone wrong in my development with regards to this. Never thought this was not normal.
No but it’s not like they all start at once.
Mine is often accompanied by a sound track.
Every time I’m driving in a multi level parking garage with a trail of cars behind me … the music starts
🎵 Started from the bottom now we here.
🎶 Started from the bottom now the whole gangs. Here.Repeat.
The voice in my head regular stops from falling asleep…
DANZA KUDUUROOO
ZzZZZZzzzzZzZZz!
I have the urge to drink yellow and eat brown.
There are all sorts of meditations, so there are probably types of meditation where you pay attention to the voice in your head.
However, the most common types of meditation are specifically to ignore and let go of your inner voice by focusing on something else. So, if you’re paying attention to the voice in your head, you have most likely misunderstood the assignment.
In case anyone is interrested in this, I highly recommend the book Mind Illuminated.
It’s what sold me on the whole meditation idea even through I was mostly sceptical, by clearly explaining it, and givng reasonable arguments about why it works. It also has a pretty good guide in general, with clear steps to follow and pay attention to.
I’ve been told by a lot of people that meditation is good and you should do it, with vague reasons why, and this book explained it to me clearly enough to finally get me to give it a try.
Can I get a summary? I don’t need to be convinced because meditation did help me already I’m just curious about their justification.
There are infinite ways to meditate.
