Transcendental Meditation and Peace

Coping
#8

If you want a quick way to get to the healing visit a sensory deprivation tank, it’s a short cut to get you into healing. I did it the other week but found that I had memory issues the next day so I need to look into this. i did also feel happy and relaxed better than I had been in some time but the memory loss put me off from going back.
By absorbing the epsom salts in the tank it should drive up magnesium levels and also your testosterone levels. So it depends how sensitive you are to this. One idea I had was to take something that lowers testosterone using the same mechanism that magnesium does so you get more of a balance. The last time something game me memory loss was an infrared light on my front cortex so I’m wondering if they act in the same part of the brain.

I’ve downloaded that app, thanks. Do you use free or premium?

During meditation for 30mins sometimes fears are revealed. This can also happen in the tank. In any case it makes me realise how we hold onto fears in the brain without really realising and these fears may be impacting on our sleep.
This video is good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESL2xeH5Ol4&pbjreload=10 he talks about using the correct therapy for the part of the brain that causes our anxiety or depression. He also suffers from depression and anxiety so probably has a good understanding of these things. But insomnia probably creates some fears in our brain that we might be unaware of but we need to work out.

“From what I gather, once you understand the purpose of the mantra and how to develop one that works, you have learned all there is and you then just need to practice.” are you able to explain more about this or post a link. I’ve seen mantras linked to age but didn’t think much of it. I was given my own mantra.

Have you tried Iris blue light blocker software?

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#9

I have no doubt that my insomnia is a direct result of low GABA. Evidence of this is muscle twitches, some anxiety from time to time and the fact that I can fall asleep if I take any kind of GABA A agonist (alcohol, Klonopin, Ambien, etc… )

As for fear… yes I’m sure I have fear of the unknown in regards to whether my sleep will get better, worse or how long it will last. I dont think anything directly effects my sleep (diet, excercise, caffeine, blue light, sleep hygiene, etc… )

I have done a little research… it appears the mantras handed down from “teachers” where words from sanscrit. They work because you dont know what they mean. They are just sounds linked together. Its the same idea as Ommmmmmm … its to get your mind to stop thinking. I think that people get hung up on the definition of what they think “mantra” means… In this case mantra means nothing… which is ironic. TM is big business… the fact that any certified teacher wants $1300 to teach you something that only takes 4 days is absurd. TM is supposed to be a very simple practice. My mantra that I created is Gooz Venah . I say Gooz as I inhale and I say Venah as I exhale… This is done internally… you dont actually say it out loud. Focusing on the pronouciation distracts your brain from thinking about “stuff”. I have also seen the mantras that group age ranges. Even with those, you can see that they are just meaningless sounds. So that is the whole point (as far as I can tell). I encourage anyone else to chime in and correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.

As for insight timer… I use the free version but I like it and might just buy premium to support what I think is a good app.

I have f.lux which is a blue light blocking app running on all my devices. Once again… I dont think it matters much. My brain is GABA deficient. Thats the cause of my insomnia. Hopefully I will start to heal and get more GABA and rebalance, etc… I pray that I sleep normally again some day. I’m wondering if SAGE 217 would help kick start GABA production. I believe that is a major component of that drug. There is also a lot or research going into insomnia. Insomnia effects the more of the popluation of earth than anything else. Its a huge market. You will see a few other Dual Orexin Antagonistic drugs pop up in the next year. I believe Purdue Pharma is working on one. Also, there are some med tech devices that are being funded for research that have a very direct stimulation on the vagus nerve to treat a variety of issues including pain, insomnia, anxiety, arthritis. Medical advancements are happening at a staggering pace. I have no doubt we will see relief from the majority of these symptoms in the next 5 years. China will have CRISPR treatments in the next 2 years I believe.

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#10

"'I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." —Mark Twain

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#11

Thanks for explaining the mantras it makes sense that you’re not supposed to understand the meaning @Shellnyce I also have a lot of muscle twitches and can’t sleep. Maybe I need to look at GABA A agonists. Have you come across any safe agonists? At the moment I’m crashing if I take a drug although I’ve not tried the ones you mentioned. I did try L theanine and felt very relaxed from 10mg. I’ve tried kimchi / sauerkraut to increase Gaba but it’s not worked.

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#12

What I understand of GABA is this… You have actual GABA and you have GABA receptors. When GABA binds to GABA receptors you get the sleepy effect. There are 3 types of receptors (A, B and C). The most common is A…which is agonized by alcohol, benzos and Z drugs. They all effect that receptor set a little differently but ultimately they are GABA A agonists. They dont create GABA… they just bind to the receptor and act as GABA creating a similiar effect. GABA B receptors are most commonly effected by Phenibut. Phenibut also mildly agonizes GABA A when used in large doses from what I understand.

So to answer your question… None of it is “safe” . Long term alcoholics end up with insomnia because when they stop drinking and remove the alcohol which was getting used in place of actual GABA to put them to sleep, their body no longer creates enough GABA to help them sleep so they have a deficiency. However in our case… we already are low on GABA to start with. So I think the strategy should be to take as little of a GABA agonist as possible. Just enough to help quality of life and stay sane but maybe not every day…who knows. ALso… while I’m not any kind of doctor but have done lots of research, I think cycling things helps keep tolerances down. For instance if you were to Use an anti histimine a couple days a week, a GABA A agonist a couple days a week, a GABA B agonist a couple days a week and possibly a canabnoid agonist like weed a couple days a week… you may have a better shot at getting sleep and not building a tolerence or dependency on any one type of GABA agonist. I met a guy on here @basementdweller who does something like this.

If your sleep isnt horrible… you could try NOW Valerian powder, KAVA by Kalm with Kava or SleepCaps by Liftmode (Oleamide which binds to canabanoid receptor)

Lastly… I did some reading on GABApentin… this drug acts as an agonist but also helps the body synthesize GABA. I think it may be the only drug that does this. It may be worth looking into. I took some GABApentin one night and I definitely got decent sleep. I didnt continue with it because it made me feel like my breathing was depressed possibly due to the fact that I was taking it with Remeron. I have sinced lowered my dose of Remeron so I might revisit GABApentin at some point.

Once again… I’m not a doctor but have researched lots of this. I encourage anyone to correct me on anything that I stated which might be wrong or not totally accurate.

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#13

@Shellnyce Appreciate you taking the time to share your research. I was wondering if you have looked into Lithuim as a sleep medicine in low doses. It raises allopregnanlone which we seem to be low in. Some reviewers of the supplement Lithium orotate report feeling sleepy.

Sorry way off topic here but will leave this link Low dose Lithuim as a possible treatment for Insomnia

#14

I have heard of Lithium and know that it is very strong stuff. I will check out your link.

#15

I think at the time I was desperate for sleep and would have swallowed a cow if I thought it could help me :grinning: you might find a white noise box helpful also take a look at the delta waves on YouTube.

#16

So has your sleep improved over time?

#17

Not much it scares me. I went 10 days without sleep which is the shortest time the rest have all been longer. However after the 10 days I slept twice in 3 days which I’ve not been able to do since I crashed. I have also dropped potatoes or any high carbs in my diet. I noticed that the night I slept I just ate root veg, salad and meat. I’m not touching any thing for sleep as drugs/supplements make me crash even in small doses.

#18

Same here, this crap is scary. I log my sleep every night and it’s been steadily but very, very slightly improving overall. Then last night I awoke after only 2 hours of sleep. Maybe it’s the bit of Vitamin B12 I took. I don’t know, I popped a temazepam just now.

As for TM, do apps help assign your mantras based on your circumstances? I read a post quoting an abstract that suggested the quality of the meditation improves based on how the mantras are assigned to you rather using just picking a random mantra of your own.

#19

Theres an app called insight timer which @Shellnyce mentioned to me. He’s a lot more knowledgeable about meditation, he might be able to answer your question

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#20

@Mercked TM has a long history of people making money off of it. They say you need to be “taught” the mantras. Its a bunch of crap. The concept is simple… find a word that means nothing. Its should be meaningless so your brain doesnt “think” about anything or associate it with anything as you recite it. Your trying to reach a state where your not “thinking” about anything and your brain trandscends conscious thought. I made up a mantra “gooz venahh” . I couldnt figure out where I came up with it and then remembered its very close to a mantra used in the movie “Anger Management” with Adam Sandler… where he recites… Gooz Frabah. So I probably need to come up with something different. Anyway… you recite it over and over in your head hundreds or thousands of times in the span of 20 minutes. Focusing only on the mantra. You will feel your brain sort of shift after about 20 minutes. Sometimes you will spin into wacky dreams that are sort of in fast forward (at least thats what happened to me a couple times) . This rejuvenates the brain and the body. When you finish… you will feel like you took a nap if you did it right. Its very very hard… takes a LOT of practice. You ideally need to do it twice a day. You do this with your eyes closed and I use the insight timer in headphones as a background noise which helps.

A little background I found on the original mantras handed down by Gurus was that they would give you a mantra derived from an ancient Sandscrit saying or prayer. They dont tell you what it means and because its in an ancient language you basically feel like your silently reciting jibberish. But “supposedly” those words have meaning and power and can help you with whatever your issue is. TM is a big money making scheme so they tell you to never disclose your mantra…etc… Its a little bit like Scientology in that sense which is annoying.

I have had some rough days with very little sleep and if I’m lucky I can get a bit of a recharge after doing TM for 20 minutes… if I’m able to quiet my mind. Some people say that if you get really good at it, you can bring your mind into a deep state of rest which is more restorative than even deep sleep. I dont know that this is true but I believe that practicing TM does help the brain heal and reconnect synapses and neurosteroids, etc… I think it should be used as a multi-faceted approach to healing the brain to beat anxiety and insomnia. I would not by any means say I’m an expert… I did some digging and thats what I found. I hope this helps. So find some jibberish word, find a dark quiet place, recite it over and over in your brain, relax all your muscles, close your eyes, listen to some relaxing background sounds and you will eventually start to “feel” something shift. I hope this helps you and I"m interested to hear back from you guys on any progress or how it made you feel once you felt like you made a breakthrough.

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#21

I have been doing mindfulness meditation while focusing on the breath almost every night for around 50 minutes. It helps with anxiety, mood, and falling asleep at night somewhat, but has done next to nothing for staying asleep.

I figured that was the gist of TM. I am going to see if TM may help me stay asleep at night. Perhaps paying to see a guru and being assigned special mantras based on individual context may have a more powerful effect because of a higher placebo response.

Are there any actual articles that suggest any form of meditation has an impact on neurosteroids levels? I would love to see that.

#22

There are several articles that cite research that has shown all sorts of brain improvements from TM. It shouldnt be to hard to find. I made a little bit of a break through yesterday… I started meditating in the afternoon and I thought I set a timer for 20 minutes on insight timer. The timer never went off and it was almost like I woke from a nap… lost track of time completely, had weird dreams (not asleep but like in a trance) and ended up stopping to find I was at almost 40 minutes. It was like time flew by. I felt rested and recharged. I think practicing this everyday could have a very big effect on coping, getting some rest for the brain, recoverying brain issues, etc… I dont know for sure but I really think something good is happening from practicing TM.

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#23

I was watching a video yesterday of a monk who said we can meditate everywhere. Basically creating a calm mind outside of our personal meditation time. This is how they practice in the monasteries.

#24

Do you use the delta brain healing music on insight timer or just the ordinary music? Occasionally I use delta only for short periods, I’ve not had any negative affects so far. Thanks

#25

I attended an in person guided meditation that was 20 minutes long at a local meditation center. Half way through, the girl who spoke the meditation said, “imagine your mind as a blue sky and thoughts as clouds that pass by.”

I swear, when I stepped outside and looked at the sky, I felt the most at peace I’ve felt in years. Truly felt like I was in heaven.

We need this peace more than anyone. Gives our minds a rest.

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#26

I experienced similar peace after leaving a yoga studio, it felt amazing. Sensory deprivation tanks can take you to that level of peace in one session, they are a short cut.

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#27

I did a float tank session a few years ago for an hour. Going to do a two hour session soon. You’re right, the feeling after was pure bliss.

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