*meditation*-- has anyone with autism found meditation to be of benefit

Yes! I've found meditation really helpful for me. Meds just weren't an option for me because every side effect appeared to affect me so I had to try something else and I found meditation. At first it didn't seem to help but I kept at it and began a routine and before I knew it I was feeling much better inside and out. Like you I suffer from depression and anxiety and both have more less come to a stop now and for that I am really grateful.

My meditation is as follows. In the morning, mid afternoon and then before bed which helps me to get a good night's sleep. I've also began eating healthier things which also helps.

I recommend meditation to everyone now as its helped me so much in a short time. And there was no nasty side effects... Definite bonus!

Are there any 'techniques' you would recommend for astral projection or meditation?

yoga is a type of "Moving meditation",  and makes you focus on the present moment.  me doing yoga lol, my grunting would probably clear the room  .  But seriously keep doing yoga so many people find it really good. It is good to hear both your meditation and yoga is helping you. Maybe some day in the future you could run an autistic yoga class. 

I started doing yoga during the lockdown and find it so helpful. There's definitely something about slightly pushing the body while also slowing the breathing that feels really beneficial, would recommend it! Also do a form of meditation in the mornings if I can remember, or in the evenings, and think about how to make the most of the present situation and how to make things better. Find it really helpful to ask questions about problems, because sometimes answers can come that I wouldn't have been able to 'hear' if I hadn't slowed down.

its good it helps you.

I started with guided meditations downloaded from youtube ( stripped of the audio as MP3 files ) then I played them on a tiny mp3 player during lunch at work and anywhere I got the opportunity.

I now do my own meditation following the Zen sitting meditation  ( following breath ) but 

I sometimes still play the guided meditations ( Youtube ) on my telly in the living room when I alone in the house  

yea 10 years ago I would have discounted meditation but after Jon Kabat-Zinn proved scientifically that his Mindfulness meditations help anxiety and depression I decided to have a go and havent looked back since 

Really good to hear positive news stories about meditation - it's very easily laughed at by some people. I find it helps a lot - I use the Headspace app and find the guided part really helps me focus.

I have periods of using it every morning but then I slip out of that. But when I do get into a streak of doing it every morning I definitely find it beneficial, I just need to get better at being consistent! 

Because they can’t answer the deepest questions in the universe - if you astral project - you get deposited in what’s known as ‘all the knowledge in the universe’ so the question would be - how can you not know that. 

People talk about - thinking when they meditate. Meditation is not contemplation. 

well done you boyo. Desmond79's not so dumb afterall. You set a very positive example running around northern ireland in your wee car. Someday we may meet that would be funny. You can teach me how to use a smart phone i haven't a clue how to use one lol.

I use the Calm App - paying an annual subscription of roughly £24 on Google Pay, I'm now over three months into my current subscription- and I use the emergency relaxation meditations for almost six minutes; and a panic-relief one for ten minutes.

It's done whenever I need instant relaxation, and does the job.

this is like a (zen) koan I will have to read it a couple of times before I get the full meaning,,,, I am a big stupid 

It does seem to be different for everyone.  I now believe my 'self', the ego, to be a mind made object and that has helped me considerably. There are still parts of me that seem really hard to change and I am wondering if this is the hardwired austistic parts and when they kick off  I lose my calmness in a second. But I recover from these quicker and quicker and practice not to being angry with myself.  I am learning to not take myself so seriously more and more.

Best thing I have learnt recemtly is to laugh at yourself, look at yourself and laugh. How can you not laugh ? what an idiot I am 

PS can you please add details to your bio you're far to interesting to be hiding anything.

keep doing it but dont worry if u fail. The tip I have picked up is that there is "no aim" or "gain" expected from your meditation,, so if u get 3 mins to work thats actually very good. 

this is why I am asking ! could autistics actually be better at say focus based meditation  for example?

In short,, is there a new type of meditation  more suitable for autistic candidates ? The only research I found applied Mindfulness Meditation to a range of Autistic people, which did help them  but could this be fined tuned/improved to return even better results ?   

I should have done psychology at uni. I can never spell the feckin word, thats probably why !

to be honest I found meditation really difficult it took me months to achieve anything because my autistic mind was so set against it. But the evidence in scientific studies appealed to my scientific side so I kept going. Parts of Zen ( koans ) are so weird and mind bending I kept reading more and more. I have tried "out of body mediations" and they where fun. So enjoy them.

about 5 years ago. The best fun thing I ever did, and it only worked once, was a regression self hypnosis back into a past life. I was suddenly walking around a Roman village ( I was a  Roman ! )  I had a family dog house etc it was such fun. I stood looking at my footwear for at least 10 minutes !  Of course its all in your head. I tried it again but it never worked again :(  

I miss my Roman family lol

i used to do self hypnosis and it works for sure for me then I got into mindfulness ( informal type ) which was ok but i wanted more so I went into formal mindfulness meditation which is based on zen mediation ( zazen ) which I have half into ( Its tough ). Anyways I do a own mix now depending on how I feel.

I agree with nearly everything you have said :)

Wow, how could you possibly know that? Truly curious to hear your answer.

I think I may know what you mean regarding the sharpening tools.

When I started to 'get' meditation, I realised that whenever I washed up, the same effect of meditation was happening. I guess each new item to wash helped break the thought engagement and the process of meditation followed.

Walking meditation is a good one too.

It took me a while to really try meditation because many people seemed (to me) to be overhyping it. The being taught comes from a variety of videos and webpages top get the concept and general idea and also my last partner, who meditated consistently each working day.

I sometimes end up engaging in thoughts in some bouts of meditation but I don't mind that. Unless I'm doing an easy task (eg washing up) or I'm listening to music, my meditation period is probably about 3 mins. I haven't much further in terms of silent meditation so far.

Yes - I believe that only autistics have enough focus to really meditate - I can astral project - totally out of body in a session. When an NT talks about meditating theyre just playing with it like children - they have no idea what it even means or feels like 

Honing is as good as it gets! :-)

Much as I appreciate the way some monks do stuff like sweeping meditation, I would rather just sweep something that really needs sweeping.

It definitely helps, but I don't really just think of it and label it as meditation. In fact, a lot of times it seems something like subconscious or conscious self-hypnotism. And I suppose others would think of mindfulness, but I haven't really experienced that on a more formal basis yet. But it could be something I'm already doing informally. I've probably been using similar approaches for decades, to fend off depression; long before any self-identification or formal assessment took place. And I reckon that experience is quite commonplace for many other people. Yoga, sport, hobbies. Whatever it takes! Just about any activity that is capable of achieving some focus, balance and relaxation. It's a complete fallacy that people always work better under constant competitive stress. Our current economic regime really doesn't want us to know that, however. Much as I appreciate some 'self-made' persons because they have obviously found a way to self-create focus, why is it that they always want to then turn around and say "My way, or the highway!"? Can't they ever be content without always wanting to dictate other people's next step? All that approach has achieved lately is global failure.