Cloudscape

When you are too distracted by thoughts during meditation while being still, try to meditate more while moving, for instance, in yoga, tai chi, dancing, walking, exercise, work, or another activity. If you are too distracted by thoughts during active meditation, try a more passive meditation, like insight meditation, mantric meditation, prayer or hypnosis.

Since meditation is merely mindful experience, meditation can be both active or passive. There must be a balance between active and passive meditation, and if this balance is not respected, then the meditation may cease to be effective or even become harmful. People have slipped into psychosis from too much passive and too little active meditation. On the other hand, too much active and too little passive meditation will only lead to an obsessive concentration.

In any case, however it is very important that any activity during meditation can be more or less automatized, that is to say, that it can happen without much thought, as it is not concentration, but experience, that matters in meditation. It is impossible to experience if one is forced to concentrate on thought.

People who have too little yang might focus more on active meditation, lest they only lose focus in passive meditation. People who have too little yin might instead focus more on passive meditation.

1) Experience (Input)

Be lovingly, curiously, intriguedly aware of your current experiences;

Be thankful for them, knowing that they might as well not be there, that they will not last, and that they are unique for every moment, and beautiful in that unicity;

Perceive all things as being novel and impossibly, paradoxically wonderful in the fact of their existence;

Perceive all things as though they were living beings, and lovingly interact with them, while forgiving them for any disharmony felt with it.

Take a walk, remembering to be fully anchored in one's experiences;

Say to yourself repeatedly "I live" whenever you find yourself slipping into unconsciousness, and set your determination to stay firmly in your experience;

Meditate, focussing on absolutely everything you experience, and let the experiences come to you rather than seeking out the experience;

Repudiate judgmental thoughts.

2) Imagination (Processing)

Perceive the world as being a dream, and as such part of oneself over which one has full control;

Trust that everything that happens has a meaning and reason, and perceive them as being part of a design;

Feel the infinite love of the universe;

Ask for whatever you want, trust you will get it in time, and wait for it, as on a parcel;

Feel a connection with the earth (yang) which keeps you firm, and a connection with the sky (yin) which keeps you open-minded;

Imagine whatever you dream of, or whatever would make you feel happy, as vividly as possible.

Whenever you catch yourself in an unpleasant daydream, mend whatever has happened in the daydream, and make it become as positive as possible.

3) Activity (Output)

Do whatever you feel like doing, without thinking about it whatsoever;

Always keep busy with at least one thing (even if it's just experiencing in some way, as long as you commit yourself to doing so wholeheartedly);

Take a walk or engage in other kinds of exercise, remembering to remain aware of doing so every moment;

Review your past achievements, and compare them as a proof of your progress so as to gain confidence and motivation;

After having accomplished something, spend some time contemplating it, either to figure out what you need to work on, or to reinforce your self-esteem;

Experiment and playfully try new things.

Neither resist nor cling to either sadness nor joy, for both will become both harmful when and only when we do so. Know when either comes among the other, for then it is time to become mindful of it; if you ignore it, it will eventually seize control over you. Instead, we should just let them be what they are when they come, and love them as part of our experience with neither fear nor craving.

Our emotions are a compass for what we should do; we should therefore listen to that compass. We must know when we feel negative energy that it is time to rest, and we must know when we feel positive energy that it is time to work. If we do not do so in time, the transition will become painful.

This is especially important to people who are bipolar. Bipolar people are in pain because out of craving they cling to their (hypo)mania so long that when they finally face their depression, it is painful. Eventually, when they've accepted their negative energies, the depression then assumes the form of a deep peace. Out of fear, they then cling to the tranquility of their depression so long that it eventually becomes painful again when they face their hypomania. When they've then accepted their positive energies, their hypomania then assumes the form of a deep happiness. Then, the cycle begins anew. In fact, neither depression nor (hypo)mania have to be painful, as they are just periods of inactivity and activity, respectively. Only the transition can be painful if it is resisted.

All of us have such a cycle, although for the average human, it is less significant. Because of this, the bipolar cycle can be a useful model to understand the average human's emotional cycles as well.