Does anyone have an exercise(s) to help me clear my mind and focus, i.e. when I have a song or something else stuck in my head and I am trying to read or do something?
Just be aware of the thoughts that you would like to get rid of. Don't make any bigger deal of them then they already are. Just watch them expand and then wear themselves out. With songs you've got stuck in your head what I do is listen to the end of them in your head, normally you've got the hook stuck and occasionally the middle eight or something but never the end. If you don't know the end just make it up. So for example if you've got a Darkness song in your head just imagine a screaming guitar solo that starts really high then sheds down a few pentatonics and then holds for a few seconds then bang, throw in a heavy E minor chord at the end before cutting off, that sort of thing. I hope this helps Sebbi
http://www.satipatthana.org/ Try that...I recently just started, and wow, it works wonders. If you can get the book "Last Hours of the Ancient Sunlite(2003 revision)", there is a chapter that talks about it on pages 264 to 270.
Counting up to 4 and then starting back at one and repeating is great for beginners I've read (and found out).
focusing entirely upon the flow and feel of my exhauting and inhaling has always worked for me, and Ive found that with repeated successful practice clearing your mind becomes so much easier and more effective overtime.
Yeah, breathing and counting them has been my most effective, but I get a lot of thoughts, talking like voices *no, not schizo!!* saying "look, i'm meditating now, wow i'm calming down, wonder if this will be a good meditation"... So I'm driven mad!!
Hello Im new here. You must focus on a chant, or mantra. Something easy would be counting forward to four then back down. While inhaling a deep breath count up, exhale count down, but I dont know, thats just what I used to do. I used to have alot of things flying around in my head, always making assumptions, always being.. I dont know, wierd. Anyway, it helped me quiet my mind in a way. Goodluck.
Never try to fight the thoughts or stop them. Also don't hold on to them. Watch them come and go, observe them, laugh at the silly chatterings of the mind. Trying to stop thought only leads to thought in another direction. At this point a mantra might be useful.
