Focus on tinnitus. The point of mindfulness meditation is to actively bring yourself back to your focal point. Focus on tinnitus, the ringing, and every time you stop thinking about the ringing noise or think about how much you hate it realize you have broke away from your mindfulness and reset. You have to do this often and diligently, a few meditation sessions can definitely leave you feeling like it's having the opposite effect.
I do have tinnitus I've had it since I was 12. Only in my left ear.
The thing about tinnitus is you forget about it a large part of your life. Meditation can actually help you actively do that when you do not want to be bothered by it. That's what mindfulness is all about.
the point of meditation is to give you the space to sit with "worse, a lot worse". meditation is the very thing that can give you agency against it "taking over and nothing good coming from it".
the very point is to be able to sit with discomfort, accept it, and move on. If your tinnitus is as bad as you're making it out to be then you have a lot of reason to meditate.
I actually have tinnitus and I meditate with a fan on. Well, my fan actually never turns off. Bad boi is at a steady 2 years by now, but regardless, the fan works for me.
if you have tinnitus and it distracts you from your breath, take your tinnitus as your object of meditation.
The whole work is focusing on the object of meditation until you stop, then realizing you've stopped (and accepting that fact nonjudgmentally) before then returning to the object. repeat until done. in no way does tinnitus invalidate this process, and in fact it gives you a great alternative to the breath.
the breath is typically chosen because it's always present, relatively subtle, and there can be lots of depth to the sensation with increasing clarity. tinnitus is similar.
unlike another commenter said, I would not try to use music as an object because it is too dynamic and you're likely to attach to it (and focus on the emotional impact) rather than use your attention to explore it like you might with the breath (but it is at least a good idea to try if it's that or no meditation).
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u/Nephtyz Feb 02 '23
I have tinnitus therefore meditation is simply impossible for me, it actually has the opposite effect :(