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I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so

I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so, and I've studied meditation literature pretty seriously for about the past year. At least in my case—and I think this isn't so unusual—there is a steep learning curve: for most people there's just not enough reason to stick with it. That said, at this point I can hardly imagine something more worthwhile. After acquiring some facility with it, my everyday experience with life feels more substantial—more 'real.' There's a kind of energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm that now often presents itself which I hadn't seen in a long time—maybe since I was ~22 or so (I'm 30 now). I also feel way less need to do things like smoke/drink, and have a restored sense of smell and taste. If you've felt like the world's turned grey at some point, give it a try. This is my favorite source of info on the subject—very substantial content, yet light and even entertaining at times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A

obvio171 11y ago
Thank you for this video. I'm just starting to get interested in the subject, and I think I was approaching it more in the "Meditation Seals" mentality. Glad I saw this video before going in.
hotcool 11y ago
I used to meditate for 20 minutes daily, but my mind still acted like a spoiled petulant child, so I upped it to two hours first thing in the morning (in one sitting). I use one of these meditation posters as a focal point: http://zenpusher.com http://zenpusher.com The results have been profound. My mind is quiet and obedient now. I experience equanimity throughout the day.
- kristiandupont 11y ago
  That's a lot of meditation! I am doing 20 minutes at the moment and I feel similar to you: I still have serious trouble staying focused on anything. Did you keep it up or was there a lasting effect?
  - swsieber 11y ago
    Not one who meditates, but my mom advocates it. She says that having done meditation for a while (over a year? I'm not sure how much longer than that), she can now feel positive effects just after 5 minutes.
  - hotcool 11y ago
    I made meditation the top priority of my day. I do not leave the house or answer the phone/door until the two hours are finished.
  - mclovinit 11y ago
    What worked for me was basic yoga asanas to loosen up and then closing my eyes and focusing on relaxing every area of my body from my forehead, eyes, jaw and so on. I would do this thing where I wouls stretch my arms up as high as possible and tense up and much as I could and then relax my body as if to touch my toes. Works great if you have a tight neck or back. I never saw a need to go beyond 30 minutes. In my opinion there is no right way. The breathe is key. Irregular breathing is a problem for many of us if we spend most of our day sitting in front a monitor tightening up.
  - perseusprime11 11y ago
    You should read the book Power of Now. It will give you some tips.
- EC1 11y ago
  I need this. I just about have a breakdown at work every single day because I work in an extremely loud open office setup with no escape to a place of solitude. Everyone on the floor sees me as a wretched asshole, because it's true. Where should I start with meditation?
  - hotcool 11y ago
    You don't need anything to get started. No app, poster, book or garb. Just sit.
    - criddell 11y ago
      Technically you are right, but I think most beginners benefit from more guidance than that. It's like telling someone that all there is to golf is to hit the ball into the cup.
  - marcbernstein 11y ago
    I'm a fan of both https://www.headspace.com https://www.headspace.com and http://www.calm.com http://www.calm.com to get started. Both have free options to start out, and don't require a large amount of time to get started. The guided meditation at Headspace was key for me to get walking down this path.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - jrwoodruff 11y ago
    Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana has been a good start for me. It explains meditation, different flavors of mindfulness, as well as techniques and what to expect when you first start. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-English-Bhante-Henepola-Gunaratana/dp/0861719069 http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-English-Bhante-Henepola-Gu...
  - neves 11y ago
    Read the book "Search inside your Self" from the googler Chade-Meng Tan. I've read some books about meditation and this one was the one that really resonated with me (a technical person).
- saeranv 11y ago
  Did it take a couple of sessions for you to be able to handle one hour in one session? I started with 20 minutes like you and have incrementally increased it to 40. I'm aiming for 60 minutes, but every time I increase my sitting length I find it incredibly difficult to sit through. Often I feel very stressed and like I'm about to break down due to the boredom. Did you experience this?
  - hotcool 11y ago
    Did it take a couple of sessions for you to be able to handle one hour in one session? Yes. I'd remember something I had to do or get a great idea and have to pause to write it down. I later realised it was just another trick my mind will use to regain control. The point of meditation (for me, anyway) is to stop impulsive behaviour. That means everything must wait, even scratching an itch. Often I feel very stressed and like I'm about to break down due to the boredom. Did you experience this? Yes. Just yesterday at about the 1 3/4 hour mark I got incredibly stir crazy. I tried breathing myself calm again, but I must have sounded like a marathon runner on the last mile. In the final 10 minutes or so I settled back in. You just got to ride out those rough patches. The journey is as valuable as the destination.
  - seivan 11y ago
    Do you ever feel anxious that you should be doing something instead?
    - hotcool 11y ago
      I consider meditation to be the most productive thing I can do. Since meditation affects my perspective on life, my relationships, my faith, my health - it supersedes everything else.
- seivan 11y ago
  How do you keep your mind still? I've tried counting my breaths up to 10, one for in and one for out, but honestly, it's a lot harder than it sounds. I end up having to start from 1 again a lot of times.
  - hotcool 11y ago
    I suggest not counting. Don't use your mind to tame your mind. Try to ride a tiger and it will only eat you. Escape conceptual thought entirely.
    - ZenoArrow 11y ago
      From what I understand, it's slightly different from escaping conceptual thought entirely. The idea is to not direct your thoughts, but rather observe them without judgement as they arise and fade away. So the idea is balanced observation, and this is easier to do by relaxing your mind and body.
  - lubesGordi 11y ago
    Counting is thinking. The idea is to not follow wandering thoughts. When you get it your mind is silent, and you are fully present. You can hear everything around, not even a ninja could sneak up on you.
  - amazingman 11y ago
    Keeping the mind still isn't the point, nor is it possible without effort. Effort isn't really what is being indicated when experienced meditators talk about "stillness". Meditation is fundamentally extremely simple: focus on the chosen object of meditation, notice when distraction has arisen, return the attention to the chosen object of meditation. There are many useful paths/methods/techniques that can grow from this soil, but these should not be understood as goals.
- redrummr 11y ago
  But doesn't meditation impede that little thought machine that runs in most programmers' heads? What has put me off meditation a little bit was reports of people no longer getting those algorithmic lightbulb moments at the gym or elsewhere AFK, which then makes keyboard time more productive. My best business and life ideas have happened while I wasn't in the 'moment' of whatever I was doing, and instead highly absent and still in code/entrepreneuring/brainstorming mode (whether I knew it or not). I don't know if it's worth giving up all those moments to experience life on a deeper level (I'll regret writing this).
  - queeerkopf 11y ago
    As far as i understand it, it's not so much that you can't do that anymore but that it's not automatic anymore. You can still let your mind do it's thing, e.g. hop on the thought train and let one thought lead to another. It's more that you choose to do that whereas for most people it just happens (automatically and subconciously)
- edeion 11y ago
  This thread seems somehow off topic, but it's a topic by itself… I would recommend against images. They feel helpful at first but they tend to mislead by infusing the idea that they have something to do into the meditation. Moreover, as an aside, I didn't see anyone mentioning that you don't force yourself out of thoughts: just let thoughts come and pass without considering them intentionally. (I guess that's what westoncb meant by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11135378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11135378) But what can I say? I felt the way you describe for some time. I can't even say if it resulted of meditation. And it vanished as it came, unexpectedly. I may have considered that I acquired satori and experienced the hard way that satori is not something you possess. But I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my advice is bullshit according to OP. (To anyone feeling like reading about zen meditation, I would recommend Shunryu Suzuki's book Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen.)
lsv1 11y ago
I found it difficult to meditate for very long. However, I do close my eyes and slow my breathing before I have to do something difficult, or something which causes great anxiety.
- hodwik 11y ago
  You don't need to really meditate once you get in the habit of breathing exercises. After doing meditation for a while, I found it was much easier to just breathe and calm myself while going about my daily life. Once you know how to do it on purpose, it's easy to do it in the moment. I don't feel like I really need to actively meditate -- I habitually focus on my breathing, and re-center myself all day long. I may not get to Nirvana this way, but it makes my day easier, and that's all that I was looking for.
mtzaldo 11y ago
Ajahn Brahm! he is so funny and you learn a lot.I used to watch his videos. Thanks for the video n___n
lettergram 11y ago
My startup is actually building something that's helps people learn to essentially meditate: http://synaptitude.me/ http://synaptitude.me/ Basically, it should improve control over the brain, very similar to meditation: http://synaptitude.me/blog/neurofeedback-in-200-words/ http://synaptitude.me/blog/neurofeedback-in-200-words/
dominotw 11y ago
>This is my favorite source of info on the subject—very substantial content, yet light and even entertaining at times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A Why is that guy dressed in some comical outfit, I can't take him seriously.
- westoncb 11y ago
  Ha! —true, that makes it difficult at first. He's a monk in a religious tradition, but I don't think he's very religious himself. He definitely keeps the content of his talks almost totally free of religious/spiritual stuff. He also studied physics at Cambridge, and is generally pretty rational. But yeah, funny costume :)
- chc 11y ago
  Those are ordinary Buddhist monk's robes.
- xyz198 11y ago
  >> I can't take him seriously Those are normal clothes for monks. You won't take someone seriously because they wear different clothes than you ?
hellofunk 11y ago
1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis. I've read about legendary artists who considered meditation a key to their sanity, and they often couldn't do it for more than 15-20 minutes in a day. You are actually able to do proper meditation -- the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time? Or do you mean several times a day, a few minutes each time?
- mrpetrick 11y ago
  I posit that no one is really able to achieve, 'the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time' every day. Even serious gurus. This is not at all my own observation, this is what I've heard directly from longtime teachers from several different traditions.
- westoncb 11y ago
  I only mean that I sit and /attempt/ (i.e. /not/ attempt :P) for 1.5 hours/day.
  - mrpetrick 11y ago
    Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. I certainly wasn't saying you're NOT meditating for 1.5 hours a day. Just was trying to convey that when most people meditate for 90 minutes, they're tend to spend some portion of that session utterly distracted by something, even if only briefly. Or so I've been led to believe. It's certainly true for me. I was more responding to hellofunk when they said "1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis." This make me think that meditation is viewed as something you can check a box for, or as a goal to be achieved, which isn't really quite right. Particularly the use of the word 'accomplishment'... If meditation is something to be accomplished, then if you thought about that noise your transition is making on steep hills for 60 seconds in the middle of a sit, you got distracted, and thus you did not successfully meditate today. I don't view it that way.
yoodenvranx 11y ago
Do you happen to have a good link to a jump-start article about meditation. I am in a sinilar situation as you, life is gray, anxiety problems, ... How should I start doing this today (and the next 4 weeks) without doing too much initial research?
- ruraljuror 11y ago
  If you get an audio guide you can essentially start right away. If you have a streaming service, search for 'mindfulness'. On Google play there is one from Oxford. They used to have several albums from Kabatt-Zinn but they seem to have disappeared. I would recommend those. In any case, make sure to purchase so you are not interrupted by ads. If you want to do a bit of research there is a YouTube video of a Kabatt-Zinn talk at Google where he leads a short session.
  - draven 11y ago
    There's also The Healing Power of Mindfulness by Kabatt-Zinn at Dartmouth. There's a session at about 50mn in. https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I
- jwdunne 11y ago
  For mindfulness, this features as part of DBT, a therapy targetted at people who suffer from borderline personality disorder. Although a bit drastic, searching for "DBT mindfulness" will provide tonnes of resources that teach mindfulness techniques in a way that's acceptable in a clinical setting. Things such as worksheets, DBT websites, etc. Headspace is also a fantastic suggestion, as above.
- damontal 11y ago
  I recommend Gil Fronsdal's podcast. It's free and he's a very good teacher. He has a series specifically for beginners... http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
  - chc 11y ago
MIKarlsen 11y ago
Great post. I'm sometimes feeling the heat myself. I think I'm maybe expecting too much of myself. I've been attempting meditation before, but I will give it another try after your read.
filipedeschamps 11y ago
1.5 hours/day it's a lot, congratulations. Basically my routine is 10 minutes a day (in the mornings) and after one week doing this in a row I've already started to notice how differently my body react to anxiety. Later on, how I handle stress changed completely, I started to become numb to harsh events.

obvio171 11y ago

Thank you for this video. I'm just starting to get interested in the subject, and I think I was approaching it more in the "Meditation Seals" mentality. Glad I saw this video before going in.

hotcool 11y ago

I used to meditate for 20 minutes daily, but my mind still acted like a spoiled petulant child, so I upped it to two hours first thing in the morning (in one sitting). I use one of these meditation posters as a focal point: http://zenpusher.com http://zenpusher.com The results have been profound. My mind is quiet and obedient now. I experience equanimity throughout the day.

kristiandupont 11y ago
That's a lot of meditation! I am doing 20 minutes at the moment and I feel similar to you: I still have serious trouble staying focused on anything. Did you keep it up or was there a lasting effect?
- swsieber 11y ago
  Not one who meditates, but my mom advocates it. She says that having done meditation for a while (over a year? I'm not sure how much longer than that), she can now feel positive effects just after 5 minutes.
- hotcool 11y ago
  I made meditation the top priority of my day. I do not leave the house or answer the phone/door until the two hours are finished.
- mclovinit 11y ago
  What worked for me was basic yoga asanas to loosen up and then closing my eyes and focusing on relaxing every area of my body from my forehead, eyes, jaw and so on. I would do this thing where I wouls stretch my arms up as high as possible and tense up and much as I could and then relax my body as if to touch my toes. Works great if you have a tight neck or back. I never saw a need to go beyond 30 minutes. In my opinion there is no right way. The breathe is key. Irregular breathing is a problem for many of us if we spend most of our day sitting in front a monitor tightening up.
- perseusprime11 11y ago
  You should read the book Power of Now. It will give you some tips.
EC1 11y ago
I need this. I just about have a breakdown at work every single day because I work in an extremely loud open office setup with no escape to a place of solitude. Everyone on the floor sees me as a wretched asshole, because it's true. Where should I start with meditation?
- hotcool 11y ago
  You don't need anything to get started. No app, poster, book or garb. Just sit.
  - criddell 11y ago
    Technically you are right, but I think most beginners benefit from more guidance than that. It's like telling someone that all there is to golf is to hit the ball into the cup.
- marcbernstein 11y ago
  I'm a fan of both https://www.headspace.com https://www.headspace.com and http://www.calm.com http://www.calm.com to get started. Both have free options to start out, and don't require a large amount of time to get started. The guided meditation at Headspace was key for me to get walking down this path.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- jrwoodruff 11y ago
  Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana has been a good start for me. It explains meditation, different flavors of mindfulness, as well as techniques and what to expect when you first start. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-English-Bhante-Henepola-Gunaratana/dp/0861719069 http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-English-Bhante-Henepola-Gu...
- neves 11y ago
  Read the book "Search inside your Self" from the googler Chade-Meng Tan. I've read some books about meditation and this one was the one that really resonated with me (a technical person).
saeranv 11y ago
Did it take a couple of sessions for you to be able to handle one hour in one session? I started with 20 minutes like you and have incrementally increased it to 40. I'm aiming for 60 minutes, but every time I increase my sitting length I find it incredibly difficult to sit through. Often I feel very stressed and like I'm about to break down due to the boredom. Did you experience this?
- hotcool 11y ago
  Did it take a couple of sessions for you to be able to handle one hour in one session? Yes. I'd remember something I had to do or get a great idea and have to pause to write it down. I later realised it was just another trick my mind will use to regain control. The point of meditation (for me, anyway) is to stop impulsive behaviour. That means everything must wait, even scratching an itch. Often I feel very stressed and like I'm about to break down due to the boredom. Did you experience this? Yes. Just yesterday at about the 1 3/4 hour mark I got incredibly stir crazy. I tried breathing myself calm again, but I must have sounded like a marathon runner on the last mile. In the final 10 minutes or so I settled back in. You just got to ride out those rough patches. The journey is as valuable as the destination.
- seivan 11y ago
  Do you ever feel anxious that you should be doing something instead?
  - hotcool 11y ago
    I consider meditation to be the most productive thing I can do. Since meditation affects my perspective on life, my relationships, my faith, my health - it supersedes everything else.
seivan 11y ago
How do you keep your mind still? I've tried counting my breaths up to 10, one for in and one for out, but honestly, it's a lot harder than it sounds. I end up having to start from 1 again a lot of times.
- hotcool 11y ago
  I suggest not counting. Don't use your mind to tame your mind. Try to ride a tiger and it will only eat you. Escape conceptual thought entirely.
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    From what I understand, it's slightly different from escaping conceptual thought entirely. The idea is to not direct your thoughts, but rather observe them without judgement as they arise and fade away. So the idea is balanced observation, and this is easier to do by relaxing your mind and body.
- lubesGordi 11y ago
  Counting is thinking. The idea is to not follow wandering thoughts. When you get it your mind is silent, and you are fully present. You can hear everything around, not even a ninja could sneak up on you.
- amazingman 11y ago
  Keeping the mind still isn't the point, nor is it possible without effort. Effort isn't really what is being indicated when experienced meditators talk about "stillness". Meditation is fundamentally extremely simple: focus on the chosen object of meditation, notice when distraction has arisen, return the attention to the chosen object of meditation. There are many useful paths/methods/techniques that can grow from this soil, but these should not be understood as goals.
redrummr 11y ago
But doesn't meditation impede that little thought machine that runs in most programmers' heads? What has put me off meditation a little bit was reports of people no longer getting those algorithmic lightbulb moments at the gym or elsewhere AFK, which then makes keyboard time more productive. My best business and life ideas have happened while I wasn't in the 'moment' of whatever I was doing, and instead highly absent and still in code/entrepreneuring/brainstorming mode (whether I knew it or not). I don't know if it's worth giving up all those moments to experience life on a deeper level (I'll regret writing this).
- queeerkopf 11y ago
  As far as i understand it, it's not so much that you can't do that anymore but that it's not automatic anymore. You can still let your mind do it's thing, e.g. hop on the thought train and let one thought lead to another. It's more that you choose to do that whereas for most people it just happens (automatically and subconciously)
edeion 11y ago
This thread seems somehow off topic, but it's a topic by itself… I would recommend against images. They feel helpful at first but they tend to mislead by infusing the idea that they have something to do into the meditation. Moreover, as an aside, I didn't see anyone mentioning that you don't force yourself out of thoughts: just let thoughts come and pass without considering them intentionally. (I guess that's what westoncb meant by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11135378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11135378) But what can I say? I felt the way you describe for some time. I can't even say if it resulted of meditation. And it vanished as it came, unexpectedly. I may have considered that I acquired satori and experienced the hard way that satori is not something you possess. But I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my advice is bullshit according to OP. (To anyone feeling like reading about zen meditation, I would recommend Shunryu Suzuki's book Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen.)

lsv1 11y ago

I found it difficult to meditate for very long. However, I do close my eyes and slow my breathing before I have to do something difficult, or something which causes great anxiety.

hodwik 11y ago
You don't need to really meditate once you get in the habit of breathing exercises. After doing meditation for a while, I found it was much easier to just breathe and calm myself while going about my daily life. Once you know how to do it on purpose, it's easy to do it in the moment. I don't feel like I really need to actively meditate -- I habitually focus on my breathing, and re-center myself all day long. I may not get to Nirvana this way, but it makes my day easier, and that's all that I was looking for.

mtzaldo 11y ago

Ajahn Brahm! he is so funny and you learn a lot.I used to watch his videos. Thanks for the video n___n

lettergram 11y ago

My startup is actually building something that's helps people learn to essentially meditate: http://synaptitude.me/ http://synaptitude.me/ Basically, it should improve control over the brain, very similar to meditation: http://synaptitude.me/blog/neurofeedback-in-200-words/ http://synaptitude.me/blog/neurofeedback-in-200-words/

dominotw 11y ago

>This is my favorite source of info on the subject—very substantial content, yet light and even entertaining at times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A Why is that guy dressed in some comical outfit, I can't take him seriously.

westoncb 11y ago
Ha! —true, that makes it difficult at first. He's a monk in a religious tradition, but I don't think he's very religious himself. He definitely keeps the content of his talks almost totally free of religious/spiritual stuff. He also studied physics at Cambridge, and is generally pretty rational. But yeah, funny costume :)
chc 11y ago
Those are ordinary Buddhist monk's robes.
xyz198 11y ago
>> I can't take him seriously Those are normal clothes for monks. You won't take someone seriously because they wear different clothes than you ?

hellofunk 11y ago

1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis. I've read about legendary artists who considered meditation a key to their sanity, and they often couldn't do it for more than 15-20 minutes in a day. You are actually able to do proper meditation -- the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time? Or do you mean several times a day, a few minutes each time?

mrpetrick 11y ago
I posit that no one is really able to achieve, 'the removal of all focus on thoughts -- for 1.5 hours at a time' every day. Even serious gurus. This is not at all my own observation, this is what I've heard directly from longtime teachers from several different traditions.
westoncb 11y ago
I only mean that I sit and /attempt/ (i.e. /not/ attempt :P) for 1.5 hours/day.
- mrpetrick 11y ago
  Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. I certainly wasn't saying you're NOT meditating for 1.5 hours a day. Just was trying to convey that when most people meditate for 90 minutes, they're tend to spend some portion of that session utterly distracted by something, even if only briefly. Or so I've been led to believe. It's certainly true for me. I was more responding to hellofunk when they said "1.5 hours per day is a very impressive accomplishment. Even some serious gurus don't pull that off on a daily basis." This make me think that meditation is viewed as something you can check a box for, or as a goal to be achieved, which isn't really quite right. Particularly the use of the word 'accomplishment'... If meditation is something to be accomplished, then if you thought about that noise your transition is making on steep hills for 60 seconds in the middle of a sit, you got distracted, and thus you did not successfully meditate today. I don't view it that way.

yoodenvranx 11y ago

Do you happen to have a good link to a jump-start article about meditation. I am in a sinilar situation as you, life is gray, anxiety problems, ... How should I start doing this today (and the next 4 weeks) without doing too much initial research?

ruraljuror 11y ago
If you get an audio guide you can essentially start right away. If you have a streaming service, search for 'mindfulness'. On Google play there is one from Oxford. They used to have several albums from Kabatt-Zinn but they seem to have disappeared. I would recommend those. In any case, make sure to purchase so you are not interrupted by ads. If you want to do a bit of research there is a YouTube video of a Kabatt-Zinn talk at Google where he leads a short session.
- draven 11y ago
  There's also The Healing Power of Mindfulness by Kabatt-Zinn at Dartmouth. There's a session at about 50mn in. https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I https://youtu.be/_If4a-gHg_I
jwdunne 11y ago
For mindfulness, this features as part of DBT, a therapy targetted at people who suffer from borderline personality disorder. Although a bit drastic, searching for "DBT mindfulness" will provide tonnes of resources that teach mindfulness techniques in a way that's acceptable in a clinical setting. Things such as worksheets, DBT websites, etc. Headspace is also a fantastic suggestion, as above.
damontal 11y ago
I recommend Gil Fronsdal's podcast. It's free and he's a very good teacher. He has a series specifically for beginners... http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
- chc 11y ago

MIKarlsen 11y ago

Great post. I'm sometimes feeling the heat myself. I think I'm maybe expecting too much of myself. I've been attempting meditation before, but I will give it another try after your read.

filipedeschamps 11y ago

1.5 hours/day it's a lot, congratulations. Basically my routine is 10 minutes a day (in the mornings) and after one week doing this in a row I've already started to notice how differently my body react to anxiety. Later on, how I handle stress changed completely, I started to become numb to harsh events.