Summary:

1. Meditation is not doing nothing, it's active.
2. Meditation is a special cultivation activity, an inner lab and directly working with the mind.
3. Meditation is not boring, it's painful and frustrating. It can be made better with pre-meditation, attitude, and technique selection. Painful thought patterns can be released by seeing them as feelings, using the breath, and remembering to relax.
4. Try goodwill meditation.
5. Make it social.

Some resources on goodwill:

• Metta Retreat talks
• Metta Short Guide

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Summary:

1. An unclear mind consists of both interfering mental activity and an overall tense/foggy mental state.
2. Often the best way to solve a problem is to clear your mind first. There is a way to do this for all kinds of mental activity - Grounding.
3. Overall mental activity comes in a four stage map: 1. Still 2. Bubbling 3. Wandering 4. Looping
4. This corresponds to the map for control when doing a task of interfering activity: 1. Focused 2. Poked 3. Leaping/Forgetting 4. Stuck/Looping
5. Going up and down the levels of activity is a skill, and going down the levels is Grounding.
6. What we want to do when the mind is foggy/overactive is often not good for clearing the mind (ex. watching TV). Activities that work well have three principles: 1. Cognitive Shift - letting go of topic and intending to change the state of mind 2. Opening up and relaxing the body 3. Settling the attention on something that isn't thoughts.
7. Start practicing by learning to go down the levels of activity, by doing something you already like to do to relax, such as a hot shower or yoga, and intentionally doing it while keeping the levels of grounding in mind, and applying the three principles.

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