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Recovery:
Recovery comes first, and sleep is the way your brain recovers. You are training the brain like a muscle and the mental equivalent of DOMS seems to be elevated dvar, broken sleep, mental fog and irritability. If these are present, prioritise sleep. If you wake up raring to go, go back to bed instead.
Fundamentals:
Both expansion and contraction phase of the mind need to be controlled and experienced fully. The experience of nibbana is the maximum in controlled expansion, and the subsequent consolidation needs to be an almost unconscious contraction. You must train your mind to both cast the net and reel it in.
Walking meditation:
Focus on the entire body and sense sphere. Typical walking meditation seems misguided in the attempt to focus on movements in the micro; the time for training microscopic focus is when you are sitting. Walking is a better time to practice full-awareness and equanimity. This is a good time to process thoughts or reprogram your sim.
Cycling meditation:
Zone 2 cycling is the ultimate primer for sitting meditation because of how it primes your dopamine system. Find a long hill and settle in; bring your focus to your body and balance for a few minutes and then cast it out to the world when you feel a flush of dopamine through your body. Keep intensity at the level where you can breathe through your nose, and do not work to the point of tiredness. Do not use data devices. If you have a thought that takes form while you are riding, stop to message yourself and clear your cmem.
Sitting meditation:
Treat all experiences as you would the breeze on your arms. Thoughts are merely another sense-object and will arise; let them pass like the singing of the birds. Some will be crows and others will be songbirds; they all sing and are gone. Vary your focus between a 'loose contraction', choosing one of several focal points each time (for me: nose, hands, facial muscles, meteor), and a casting out to your entire sense sphere. Let everything wash over you like leaves in the wind. Do not attempt to force your attention where it does not want to go and do not sit through prolonged mental or physical discomfort: the aim is to lower dvar and forcing through stressors has the opposite effect.
Humming:
Start with a hum in the nose, and try locate the point of resonance within your skull. Proceed to massage your brain by changing the frequency of the hum and the part of your cranium where you feel the vibrations. As you settle in, open your mouth and experiment with different shapes to move the vibrations around your head and physically relieve any tension in your skull. Think of yourself like an opera singer: the shape of your mouth cavity can move the vibrations top to bottom to back to front. It is quite literally a massage for your brain and relieves the stress of the day like nothing else.