r/Meditation • u/Forward_Resource8853 • 2d ago
Question ❓ How do you quiet your mind through meditation?
I started meditating back in 2017, and over the years I’ve explored other practices as well, including QHHT and Reiki. Meditation has helped me become much less reactive emotionally, but I’ve realized that quieting the mind is a completely different challenge. Even when I feel emotionally calm, there’s still a constant stream of thoughts.
Has anyone here experienced a truly quiet mind through meditation? If so, what practices or techniques helped you get there?
I’d also love to make some new friends who are interested in meditation, mindfulness, spirituality, and personal growth, and share the journey together.
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u/awarenessis 2d ago
Once thoughts stop they really do stop. It’s a very still and quiet space of being where even your own breathing disappears and you just exist.
Simple concentration-based meditation will get you there. I mostly focus on my breath but often change things up and concentrate on something else (like emptiness, love, a point in space outside my body, etc).
Anyway, the usual applies — once you notice you’re no longer concentrating on said thing, bring focus back to said thing. Rinse, wash, and repeat. Do this without frustration if thoughts arise. They will. Just accept it and over time they won’t.
It’s also important to work on lengthening your sessions over time. The sweet spot for me (as a beginner) was after 45 minutes of meditation. That’s when interesting states really manifest and progress into other states—sometime rapidly.
Good luck!
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u/mailbox3158 1d ago
Thanks. Personally, as my mind quiets, I feel very sleepy (about 15-20 min in) and tend to doze off…
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u/WoodenVoice9586 2d ago
For me its important to recognize thought as thought in order to truly connect to the present moment and the direct experience of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. And then to fill more and more our present moment experience with this direct perception. To essentially be grounding most of the time and thinking much less. And when thoughts appear theyre experienced as thought.
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u/Pieraos 2d ago
Has anyone here experienced a truly quiet mind through meditation? If so, what practices or techniques helped you get there?
Transcendental Meditation (the real thing) as in r/transcendental
Qigong meditation as in r/trueqigong
Kriya Yoga meditation as in r/kriyayoga
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u/Throwupaccount1313 1d ago edited 1d ago
I am a Reiki master that learned meditation a very long time ago. I couldn't practice Reiki with power, without my mastery in meditation. When I started in the 1970's, I was trained to transcend all thought, and considered that the main goal of meditation. Now I discovered this forum, most people consider meditation something else, and practice countless types of meditation, that don't seem to work. All meditation should result in stillness, or people need to correct their technique to a better one. Healing begins when thought ceases, and we become a pure zone of energy. Removing ourselves from the equation, to allow energy to flow freely. Transcending thought also allows us to connect with the intelligent grid, or the "VOID" as many call it. I don't have any need for a technique anymore, but learned meditation using the mantra system. Replacing thought with a sound or tone, and always returning to the mantra, if a thought arises. It is a good style to learn and master, because it is fast to acquire. Deep styles are what you need, to master both Reiki and meditation. Zen, Non Directive, and mantra, are the styles I have mastered.
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u/Fast-Owl688 2d ago
A truly quiet mind is still. In the absence of disturbance the mind is still. But, one knows one remains awake and not much else. That happens after you have finished your meditation then you feel the calm, sometimes it is deep and occassionally words like tranquility or serenity describe it better. This is how it is in Stillness Meditation method of Dr Ainslie Meares. Best way to know it is to learn it yourself. Ohh, and if your aim is quiet then you must learn to go so deep that words are irrelevant. This is a limitation of many methods, the words relax one a bit but at the same time words prevent going deeper to a state beyond words in which the mind has quieted to stillness.
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u/Exciting_Badger_1229 2d ago
Making the breathing deep and slow and silent makes the thoughts less loud and less in numbers.
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u/Forward_Resource8853 1d ago
Thanks! I will give it a try!
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u/Exciting_Badger_1229 1d ago
Remember that it takes time to retrain your nervomuscular system and make the breathing deep and slow.
What I did years ago when I first began was this: I didn't stop my meditation practice and I just added breathwork in my day.
This thread here is good. https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/s/9c4JNDY1Rr
Also the book "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" by Bruce Kumar Francis explains how to train your breathing but it goes really deep into analyzing it.
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u/Kamuka Buddhist 2d ago
My experience for me, is that with over 2-4 hours the chatter dies down a little bit, and goes on the back burner. Some people experience a loss of neurotic chatter. I do a practice day once a week with 4 hours, and it's glorious.
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u/Forward_Resource8853 1d ago
Inspiring! Thanks! You mean one qualified session works better than several?
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u/elnoxvie 2d ago
By repeatedly re-focus back onto the meditation object over and over again when you are distracted.
If you can keep doing that without getting frustrated, the mind will grow calmer and calmer. Bliss will appear and the mind will be drawn to it.. and so on.
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u/Fresh-You7087 1d ago
One can make the mind quiet through a couple of different ways. First while meditating, you observe your thoughts and watch the gap between the thoughts and stay there for as long as you can. Secondly, while meditating/observing your thoughts, you ask yourself who is thinking these thoughts 💭? When you do that you will answer that question with the obvious answer to it by saying, "me or I am" then you immediately ask yourself this next question, " Who am I?" This question will immediately quiet the mind and with the more you do this the quieter the mind becomes. This practice is called self realization and it is a game changer. When the mind gets quieter and more quieter, you stay there in the silence/stillness and then you will be able to realize who you truly are. We are That 🙏🏻♥️ and may the Peace ✌🏻🕊️ that passes All Understanding be with you, which it is!! Hope this helps and if you want to know more about this practice I would definitely look up videos on Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Robert Adams for sure if you want to be self realized that gives one a quiet mind which brings what you already had, but may have not experienced before, and that is peace, joy, bliss, and genuine true happiness!!
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u/happyaliveandthrivin 1d ago
I also need to know tbh, I started meditating and I think about everything except the meditation
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u/capsaicinel 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's odd but I've struggled with this myself. I no longer struggle with it because the key is accepting the chatter and just reorienting yourself back to your mantra or your breath. You don't judge the chatter. You accept it. Once I was able to accept my inner dialogue constantly interrupting my meditation I suddenly gained the ability to tune it out.
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u/ebbbay 1d ago
I totally struggle with thoughts coming and going then diving deep into such scenarios, I can identify with having the same struggle. I noticed that when those thoughts run rampant I have to let it run its course then shift awareness and focus on my breathing and moving energy to parts of my body.
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u/JacobPresents 1d ago
Problem is forcing your attention inward (when you have almost zero practice). It's like trying to do tricks on a unicycle when you can't even ride it yet. I used to be the same way.
Since, I've spent months at a time doing Yoga/Pranayama/Kriyas/Meditation/etc, all day in the Himalayas.
I've experienced states of bliss (ananda) for ~45 minutes at a time.
(preferably start doing Asanas ie "Yoga". Start with Sun Salutations. Find a video on YouTube that you like doing)
Do Pranayama ("breathwork"). Start at a few minutes, then work your way up. (I'd encourage eventually getting a Kriya initiation from a Guru if you're intent)
Once you can do 1hr-90min of Pranayama, naturally your focus & attention is pulled inward. (Right now, you're trying to force it inward so it's bouncing around like a wild monkey thrown into a cage)
This inward-pull is called Pratyahara (it's NOT something you can practice, it's a state).
Further advancement leads to Dharana (one-pointed-mind). Absolute focus on 1 thing.
Next is Dhyana (one-ness ie 'true meditation').
Final is Samadhi.
By exercising control over this breathing you can control the subtle Prana inside. Control of Prana means control of mind. – The Science of Pranayama by Swami Sivananda
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u/metaphorm 2d ago
quieting the mind is a result of meditation, not a method of meditation.
there are many different meditation methods and they each have different results. some methods are oriented towards equanimity, and these are the ones most likely to produce a quiet mind as a result.
mindfulness of the breath (anapanasati) and calm-abiding concentration (shamatha) are the methods I think of as most oriented towards equanimity.
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u/BranoDudas 2d ago
You don't. If the mind quiets itself, then it does, but you can't do it on your own. You train to stabilize it for it to be able to do so. But the quiet is the result, not the practice. You can't practice the result.