Fear and Meditation

[freetolive]

Hello, this is my first post here and I'm new at meditating. I went down a dirt road today and parked on a bridge to listen to the water as passed. So i tried to quit my mind, paying attention to my breathing, but when I would close my eyes I would become afraid that someone would pull up as I was meditating. Are there any suggestions that can help? Thanks. I'm looking forward to learning more on meditation. I'm in a 12 step fellowship and our 11th step is about meditating. "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out". Freetolive

[siddharthgode]

hi,
welcome to the forum.

Even a small movements in leaves will generate fear if one meditates outside, in places where we feel unsafe.
Since you are in the beginning stages of meditation its preferred that you practice meditation indoors because of these reasons. Make sure you have as little distractions around as possible. Its hard to work with mind's distractions alone in the bigining, if you add more surrounding distractions it might be too much for you to handle  . There is no easy way around it.

I'm in a 12 step fellowship and our 11th step is about meditating.

sorry but can you explain this. i do not understand what this means.

"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out". Freetolive

To solve the problem that you quoted you might want to practice samatha and calm abiding practices. The above practices might not contribute to calming of mind and removing negativity like fear from the mind.

[freetolive]

hi,
welcome to the forum.
 
Thank you

I'm in a 12 step fellowship and our 11th step is about meditating.

sorry but can you explain this. i do not understand what this means.

Hmmmn. I really don't know how to explain it. I guess I don't understand it myself. I'll have to think on it today and try to explain it this evening.

"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out". Freetolive

To solve the problem that you quoted you might want to practice samatha and calm abiding practices. The above practices might not contribute to calming of mind and removing negativity like fear from the mind.

Ok.

[Dharmic Tui]

When starting out it helps to sit somewhere you're unlikely to be disturbed,  later on you'll care less and should become more immune to distractions.

[freetolive]

I read an article from the beginners section.  This morning I paid attention to my posture. I felt a lot of aggravation at not being able to slouch. I hires that is part of the process. As for passing attention and having an active mind, I've struggled with that most my life. I'm 42 now. I hope I'll stock with this a I seem to struggle with commitment