Yeah, every time I meditate and I use a guided meditation that tells me to take a deep breath and expand my lungs, I always think of Miracle Max using a bellows on Westly checking to see what Westly has to live for.
Yeah. I get other, fleeting weird thoughts too, but this is the one that comes up almost every day. Like why the heck the gods made male cats … junk the way it is? Does Tony Stark get a massive wedgie in the Iron Man suit? Things like that.
Have you been asking yourself what you have to live for? Are you the nice lamb on rye type? Do you bluff? Or have you found True Love?
I was always asking what Love was, until I got punished for trying to find out. That’s gone, but I’m still here.
In my humble oinion, you may be accessing the Universe’s fun side during your meditations. Enjoy it. Meditation doesn’t have to be all serious and no play.
Fabulous. My meditation is its usual disaster, tried every app under the sun. Now I’m on Disney+ recommended by my GP, to use something I love to meditate to. So I’ve downloaded the Finding Nemo Seascape scene which is 3 hours of watching fish (no sound just the water sounds). All I hear now in my head is, “keep swimming”
I have ADHD and I am most likely on the autism spectrum, so meditation is quite difficult for me and random and often silly thoughts tend to pop in my head. It’s hard to maintain focus on the present moment for me but I know it’s something that it’ll be gets better at with practice.
Silly question, but just in case, have you tried mantra meditations, like Nam Myoho Renge Kjo or YHVH?
These are meditations where you speak in a rhythmic pattern and it can help keep your subconscious mind focused when you’re starting out.
I get swamped with all kinds of weird and random things when I start meditating. It’s in the second “stage” - after I sit down, begin to quiet my body, and work through the immediate thoughts and worries of the day. Once those finally begin to quiet down, it’s like my brain falls into wild mode. It just starts throwing random things to try to get me to think again.
Someone once told me that it has something to do with how the brain works - that the conscious, task-accomplishing part of your brain doesn’t want to go quiet. In order to keep you thinking, it starts giving you “rewards” - interesting, funny, and curious thoughts to keep you hooked.
That being said, while it makes logical sense to me, I can’t find any sources or psychology notes that back this up. I also can’t remember where I heard it. So take it with a grain of salt! I’ve found the key is to acknowledge it, maybe laugh at it, but then let it go. If it’s something really curious, you could also write it on a note to think on or research more later
If I go back after a few days I can do it again, just not two days in a row.
That makes a lot of sense! Cool!
Yeah, I’ve been doing that mostly. Like I said, the one that pops up the most is from Princess Bride and that helps me visualize my lungs expanding so I figure it’s all good!
I’m going to paraphrase something I heard. If meditation were easy, everyone would be doing it. Meditation does not always go perfectly.
Our brains are designed to be active, to process thoughts, and to deal with emotions. Having errant thoughts while meditating doesn’t mean you’ve failed or that you aren’t trying hard enough. It just means you have a brain doing what brains do - think about things, process ideas, come up with new ideas, and interpret sensations.
The challenge to meditating often is accepting that your brain will wander and that it is ok when it does. You acknowledge the thought or diversion and come back to the focus.
So don’t be hard on yourself if meditation is difficult. Or if your mind wanders. It happens to us all!
Some of the answers are quite funny. I had to read them all and chuckled more than once.
I’m a long time meditator (I just realized I have to be careful with that line), and I rarely have really weird thoughts. The thing that does happen occasionally is I think about sneezing and then I have to. That really destroys the whole mood and I have to start over.
If I am visualizing something, I will occasionally get caught up in the visualization and start wondering about it and completely lose whatever thread I was trying for aannnddd I have to start over.
In any case, here is a meme - an old one that you may have seen a few times - that grabbed me when I started doing heavier stuff - it was the cover on my BoS for a whiile.
Fabulous. My meditation is its usual disaster, tried every app under the sun. Now I’m on Disney+ recommended by my GP, to use something I love to meditate to. So I’ve downloaded the Finding Nemo Seascape scene which is 3 hours of watching fish (no sound just the water sounds). All I hear now in my head is, “keep swimming” 
otherwise I’ll just “keep swimming” 
It just means you have a brain doing what brains do - think about things, process ideas, come up with new ideas, and interpret sensations.
