Meditation in New York City

I've been practicing mindfulness meditation as part of my recovery process. Can anyone recommend any meditation groups or teachers in Manhattan that might be helpful?

 

www.falun-ny.net/
These practise sites are usually in parks and always free of charge. I went to the ones in Central Park and Sara D Rosevelt Park many times and miss them since I don't live in the US anymore.

 

You might also want to check out this one:
http://www.nyimc.org/

 

Thanks so much to both of you for the suggestions. I was diagnosed with TMS nearly two months ago (after being in pain for three years) and have resumed walking, despite intense back pain. I am finding that meditation does help. I've been working through a book called "The presence Process," but haven't had a breakthrough yet. Nevertheless, I do seem to be improving, albeit slowly. I think my meditation practice would improve if I had more personalized instruction. I would love to heat what experiences others have had with using meditation to resolve TMS.

 

Check out the 37 day Structured Education Program (SEP) on this site. It really changed my life forever.

The best thing I ever did for myself was to start meditating. I love the deep belly breathing. It helps me go to sleep at night. It reduces my pain and anxiety. I feel like I have few colds and if one, less severe. I have not had any specialized training just a few short CDs to get me started.

 

I started meditating about 12 years ago. 80 % of my symptoms (foot pain, knee pain, back pain, headaches, heart pain, allergy etc.) disappeared within the first 3 months of meditating a couple of times a week. Any symptom I could forget about/let go off just disappeared. Most of them never came back. I can also highly recommend Peter Levines workbooks, they're helping me right now to finally accept/be a friend of my last (and most debilitating) symptoms (mainly CFS). Man, did I hate these last symptoms and was I afraid of them! Of course that made them stay with me so long, whatever I'm afraid of and what I dislike can't transform. I'm not there yet, but they're not that scary and debilitating anymore and I have more fun and energy.

 

I'm very encouraged that meditation can be effective. This is good motivation to continue. I have read that some people experience a certain emotional catharsis through meditation. The idea is that our minds can store painful repressed emotions that are expressed as physical pain in TMS sufferers. These emotions, and the TMS pain, can be released in the breathing meditation. A friend of mine who practices a form of Zen confirmed that he has had such cathartic experiences, although he does not suffer from TMS. I wonder if any one in this forum has obtained relief from TMS in this manner, or is the breathing practice enough by itself? In my meditation practice so far I have not had any such catharsis, although I did recall a traumatic experience I had as a very young child.

 

The Presence Process is a powerful tool. Also, the JCC on the Upper West Side offers free meditation group sessions. Tara Brach is a Buddhist psychotherapist who has practiced meditation for 30 yrs. You can listen to her free weekly lectures which are very grounding http://imcw.org/Talks/AudioBrowser.aspx A recent lecture 5/29/13 is a discourse and Q&A on meditation. (Tara can be very helpful explaining how we go into trances and how meditation can enable us to rise out of cyclic thinking patterns. Keep in mind though, she has many somatic problems herself - Perhaps she circumvents her anger and sadness through her magnanimous practice of acceptance of what is.) Headspace is an instructional tool on the web for meditation: http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/ Shambala is a well established meditation center in NYC http://ny.shambhala.org/

I practice psychotherapy with a mindfulness approach. The members of my psychotherapy groups are all familiar with Dr. Sarno and many of them have grown immensely through this work.

Sometimes we don't have a big cathartic "Helen-like" moment. Sometimes the progress really comes from gradually and continually adjusting our approach to life. Then one day, when we've taken some of the pressure off in a substantial enough way, we find a little more space in our experience of things, and we realize, "Hey, I've been feeling OK for a while now." Remember Dr. Sarno says that we can be pain free. Since you've had a memory of a traumatic childhood event during your meditation, it sounds like you are on the right track.

 

Which Peter Levine book(s) are you using? I have several on my wishlist but don't know which to order.

 

I'm halfway through the program of this Peter Levines book "Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body", it's fun (!) and very helpful. It has a CD with the exercises, which is a little fast to follow, but I pause the CD when I focus on my body sensations:
I looked into a few of his other books in the book store, they repeat the same theory. I found a couple of additional ideas and exercises in his book about pain, but it's less structured and maybe 90 % similar to "Healing Trauma". (Freedom from Pain: Discover Your Body's Power to Overcome Physical Pain.)

 

Thanks! Just ordered "Healing Trauma."