So where to start? What’s worked for you?

[lfine]

As with many things, there’s a great deal of literature, audio, video, etc. Where’s a good place for a newbie to start? 
 

I know it’s different for everyone, but maybe share where any of you started and what worked for you?

 

 Thanks. 

[seancswife]

 I started at a club, then learned what I wanted to read.

I went to the bulls eye league at my club.  They didn't care that I sucked and just wanted to help.  From there I started reading Brian's book, Practical shooting, and looked for training.  Like you said in your post, one size never fits all.  The low key bulls eye at the club helped me get comfortable with handling a gun. That moved on to Action shooting, 1st IDPA then USPSA.  Lots of great shooters offer classes.  Mike Seeklander was the 1st dry fire book I read.  He offers free FB training on Wednesday mornings that are pretty good., Manny Bragg, Ben Stoger, and a ton more have pod casts and written material. 

 

Ask yourself what do you want to learn the most? What do you see other shooters do that makes you say, "I want to know how to do that?" Find out where they learned to do what they do.

[lfine]

All good advice. In this case I meant to just focus on Zen and where to start learning more about it and the practice. Thanks 

[johnhhuber]

If you do a search on YouTube for Alan Watts you will find some great lectures he gave.  I don't think you can go wrong with anything you choose of his and if you enjoy the lectures, he has a lot of great books as well.

[benos]

Shunryu Suzuki's, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind - is a great place to start.

[Intheshaw1]

Mindfulness is the hot item in business now. My work actually is big on pushing meditation and other things to clear your mind to help you focus. I'm sure there was some consultant selling something but it seems to work.

 

What I do is just try to focus only on my breathing and nothing else for 10 minutes or so. If your mind wanders, bring it back. I feel like my mind needs to be recentered and work towards ignoring all other distractions.

[highhope]

On 11/19/2019 at 8:08 PM, Intheshaw1 said:

Mindfulness is the hot item in business now. My work actually is big on pushing meditation and other things to clear your mind to help you focus. I'm sure there was some consultant selling something but it seems to work.

 

What I do is just try to focus only on my breathing and nothing else for 10 minutes or so. If your mind wanders, bring it back. I feel like my mind needs to be recentered and work towards ignoring all other distractions.

Does that meditation work? Can you see the difference? 

[Intheshaw1]

17 hours ago, highhope said:

Does that meditation work? Can you see the difference? 

I feel like it helps quiet all the background noise in my head. Things that don't matter at a point in time but you are still thinking about. I haven't looked around online for programs and whatnot but for me just focusing on breathing helps.

 

I can say it's helped with my golf game a bit as I've changed my pre shot routine to focus solely on breathing for 5-10 seconds before I go to hit my shot.

[perttime]

I haven't done "proper meditation" but we had something similar back when I did karate.

 

I suppose focus is key. Pay attention - but be able to ignore all the things that don't matter now. Shooting can be a sort of meditation: that moment when you are only aware of things that affect hitting the target.

[highhope]

21 hours ago, Intheshaw1 said:

I feel like it helps quiet all the background noise in my head. Things that don't matter at a point in time but you are still thinking about. I haven't looked around online for programs and whatnot but for me just focusing on breathing helps.

 

I can say it's helped with my golf game a bit as I've changed my pre shot routine to focus solely on breathing for 5-10 seconds before I go to hit my shot.

Thanks a lot. I will practise meditation too..

[highhope]

40 minutes ago, perttime said:

I haven't done "proper meditation" but we had something similar back when I did karate.

 

I suppose focus is key. Pay attention - but be able to ignore all the things that don't matter now. Shooting can be a sort of meditation: that moment when you are only aware of things that affect hitting the target.

Totally agree, "Shooting can be a sort of meditation: that moment when you are only aware of things that affect hitting the target."

Edited November 26, 2019 by highhope

[benos]

Just knowing that you are breathing cures a lot of ills.

[lgh]

I've meditated for decades. If I could give a piece of advice it would be, "Don't think about it too much". I think Suzuki says to, "just meditate". Good advice. A lot of other things follow.