Mindfulness for Tinnitus Relief

[momus]

Mindfulness is certainly worth trying, it's basically Zen meditation on the go. But be mindful (sorry!) that it can go either way. Mindfulness is designed to put us in the present moment of reality. That lasts as long as it lasts, which is why we should try to make it a daily practice in order to effect things very much. So it could increase one's awareness of the tinnitus. Even so, it might be better because it should just be understood as "tinnitus" vs "TINNITUS".

Emotions can and will hop things up beyond where they really are because they bring up memories of past bad experiences as well as fears of future experiences, even when none of that is actually happening. They're simply thoughts, but can produce hormonal changes. Attaching to them creates an emotional reaction. All emotions are caused by thoughts, either conscious or unconscious, but the thought doesn't cause the bodily effects, that is caused by hormones or other chemicals that are pumped out at lightening speed and are initiated by the brain (not the mind) . Mindfulness is a way to learn to let go... w/o consciously directing our minds to let go.

Or to put it in an even more confusing way, it's not about letting go or not letting go, it's about not, not letting go. Don't even try to logically figure that out, even though it's true. We only fully understand it through the actual experience. It's like reading about swimming or having someone tell us about swimming, vs getting in the water and doing it. Words or thoughts are not the actual thing, but we often mistake them for the thing,

 

[Eliska]

@momus, so it's possible to get worse with mindfulness meditation?

 

[withintention]

Meditation is the most effective thing I've done for managing my tinnitus. I started meditating using the Headspace app when it first came out ~10 years ago. I now meditate 30 minutes - 2 hours every day and do a 10 day silent retreat each year.

When I meditate, I focus my attention on my breath. When something grabs my attention (like worrying about work or what I am going to eat for dinner), I patiently bring it back to my breath. The process of doing this tends to diminish the power of those thoughts which distract you. They become less demanding, less intrusive and you get more control over how you react to them.

Since I've gotten it, tinnitus is the main thing distracting me during my meditation sessions. But by patiently bringing my attention back to the breath each time I find that the tinnitus becomes less distracting. It is less intrusive, I have more moments when I'm not paying attention to it, and when I do I have less emotional reaction to it.

I highly recommend Headspace for anyone who wants to learn more about mindfulness meditation.