Discover Meditation type and ADD?

[KCMarie]

Hello All,
I am new to this site and meditation in general. I have ADD and mediataion has been suggested to help me control the stress it causes in day to day life. I have been reading up on meditation a bit and I know there are 2 kinds, Consentrative and Mindfullness. I was wondering which kind of meditation techniques are offered in the Discover Meditation program? I am also curious if anyone else here practices mediataion to deal with ADD and may know which type may be more benificial to someone with ADD?
Thanks for your time.
-KCMarie

[GilesC]

Hi KCMarie and welcome to the Project Meditation community.

I'm sure meditation can help with ADD, as it can help with pretty much all things, though I have no personal experience of this so can only suggest you try it yourself and see how you get on.

The type of meditation offered in the Discover Meditation cd's I would probably put under your category of "concentrative" though in truth it doesn't really require concentration (though it may seem like it at first). The technique offered is a mantra based meditation, the same as you would be taught if you paid to learn Transcendental Meditation (TM), but obviously without the cost and without the add-on ceremony/religious connurtations that you get with TM.

With mantra based meditation, you have a mantra (a sound or 'word') that you start off repeating to yourself, and then you just observe it and let it repeat by itself, at a speed it chooses and as quietly or loudly as it chooses. Occassionally the mantra will seem to disappear and thoughts will take over. This is normal and expected, so you just learn to recognise when this happens and invite your mantra back into the meditation and continue again. Eventually, with practice, the intrustive thoughts will lessen and the meditation practice becomes easier. Think of the mantra as a tool to help keep the thoughts from arising. The benefits of meditation are not, as most people first think, what you experience during the meditation session, but how it helps in your day to day life, which can range from a greater calmness, to improved health, to improved sleep etc. etc.

The best thing you can do is download the free "Discover Meditation" course and take a listen to it. Michael, who created it, gives clear instructions and guidance to get you going, and it really is a simple technique. By downloaded it, you won't be bombarded with hundreds of marketing emails, just the occasional one offering meditation advice and perhaps including some offers for the Lifeflow CD's (which are not necessary to be able to meditate, though many of us have found them very beneficial, but you can look at that later if you choose when you've had a go at meditating first).

Hope that helps.

Hugs

Giles