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If one feels anger and is not mindful or "present", one is likely to act angrily. If instead one feels anger and is mindful about it, one acknowledges the ange
by thinkling 9y ago
If one feels anger and is not mindful or "present", one is likely to act angrily.
If instead one feels anger and is mindful about it, one acknowledges the anger but keeps room to decide how to act. This seems to me an improvement.
(As I mentioned above, you go from "I'm angry!" to "I notice there is anger present" and that non-identification leaves room to decide how to act. Sure, this is harder with emotions that go on a long time, e.g. being 'OK" with the presence of anxiety.)
"Absolute focus" and true constant mindfulness is a thing for advanced meditators that you won't get from 20 minutes a day.
- emodendroket 9y agoThat seems like old-fashioned self-restraint. One frustration of this stuff is the difficulty in pinning down exactly what the claims are.
- thinkling 9y agoTo me, saying "it's hard to pin down what the claims for meditation are" is a bit like saying "it's hard to pin down what the claims for psychiatry are". Meditation comes in several flavors and within the flavors is practiced in very different ways. The top level claim is "this will make you feel better" but when you try to verify that you're going to have to restrict it to something narrow that doesn't represent the whole thing. The self-restraint aspect of mindfulness is one superficial outcome of the practice, one which I think emerges quickly if you engage with mindfulness. It's not the whole thing.
- emodendroket 9y agoBut I don't mean "meditation" in general -- even if you look at one person's claims, you think you have it and then you voice a disagreement and, whoops, you haven't understood it, or else you wouldn't criticize it.