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The book "The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body" talks about how having a teacher or going on meditation retreats will help you bec

The book "The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body" talks about how having a teacher or going on meditation retreats will help you become better at meditation than just going it alone. Although these apps in no way compare to a teacher what is wrong with people using them as a support (As I do myself)? If they get people starting down the path to a daily practice, then I don't see what's so bad about them. To those dismissing people that do use them please practice some loving kindness and try and understand why we might use them.

jahaja 8y ago
> talks about how having a teacher or going on meditation retreats will help you become better at meditation than just going it alone. Maybe I'm cynical, but that reads like a pure monetization strategy to me.
- kieranmaine 8y ago
  My reading of the book suggests it has nothing to do with monetisation, but is based on years of scientific research. I'd highly recommend the book if you want to find out how meditation effects your brain.
wallace_f 8y ago
Can someone help me understand, or reference an article, what is hard about meditation? Or what are people seeking to improve upon when seeking meditation servicss?
- kieranmaine 8y ago
  I found the following hard and found an app useful in mitigating these: * Initially, committing to a daily practice. After 6 months this problem disappeared one my meditation became a habit. * Getting comfortable with the different techniques. Focusing on your breath is fairly straightforward (in practice, but equally quite difficult to start with) whereas techniques such a loving kindness and resting awareness can be a bit tougher to understand. The Headspace forums suggest everyone struggles with certain techniques, so having a guide was useful (for me). From reading of "The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body" it seems there is always more to learn but as an app meditator I can only give you the above experiences.
- meowzero 8y ago
  Have you tried meditation? It's hard. Try sitting for 15+ minutes, not moving, and concentrate on one thing (like your breath) without getting distracted. Maybe it's easy for you. There are many distractions that can happen, not necessarily mind-wandering. There are other distractions like getting bored or falling a sleep, discomfort in the body (which includes itches, pain, needing to move, etc.), outside noises, forgetting to focus on your breath, etc. Your mind is constantly seeking new stimulus while you're trying to calm it down. For me, it's hard to do that without getting distracted. Maybe the easiest part is remembering to focus on the breath after you get distracted. But that's also easier said than done.
  - wallace_f 8y ago
    Yea. I try meditation, and I consider myself really bad at it. This is because, like you said, it's hard to remain completely focused on something simple for long; but more importantly, it's not helping me with my objectives here: giving my mind rest, and extending my attention space and cognitive energy. So here's the thing, whenever I read stuff on meditation, it often quickly veers into these frankly even sometimes pretentious discussions and concepts that I honestly dont understand. I could be wrong, but it reminds me of a lot of the hand-wavy "bro science" workout advice I've heard. The best ways I've found to meditate, or rather I should say to at least reach my goals of meditation, so far are a hot bath or listening to music.
- bsenftner 8y ago
  There are many forms of meditation. The particular forms being popularized by these apps actually is of the more difficult forms to achieve. Revealing my age, back in the mid 70's when I became interested in meditation, I surveyed the available forms. There was a lot more readily available information on mediation back then, without the click-baiting poor journalist wrapping too. All the information back then was organic and authored by the practitioners themselves. Anyway, I choose Transcendental Mediation because of the form of the meditation: one is assigned a nonsense mantra phrase, which the meditation technique is nothing more than finding a comfortable position, closing the eyes, and repeating the mantra in one's head for 20 minutes. Thing is, after about 5 minutes a complete psychedelic trip occurs; the nonsense mantra fills your head with nothingness, no logic to "think". After 5 minutes your brain just trips. I'm aware of the mantra's echo, but I'm in fractal landscapes skipping tra-la-la with Bambi and blue meanies. Really. This is why I think all these meditation apps are a joke, as they impede too much, they guide too much to enable experiences as I get when I meditate.

jahaja 8y ago

> talks about how having a teacher or going on meditation retreats will help you become better at meditation than just going it alone. Maybe I'm cynical, but that reads like a pure monetization strategy to me.

kieranmaine 8y ago
My reading of the book suggests it has nothing to do with monetisation, but is based on years of scientific research. I'd highly recommend the book if you want to find out how meditation effects your brain.

wallace_f 8y ago

Can someone help me understand, or reference an article, what is hard about meditation? Or what are people seeking to improve upon when seeking meditation servicss?

kieranmaine 8y ago
I found the following hard and found an app useful in mitigating these: * Initially, committing to a daily practice. After 6 months this problem disappeared one my meditation became a habit. * Getting comfortable with the different techniques. Focusing on your breath is fairly straightforward (in practice, but equally quite difficult to start with) whereas techniques such a loving kindness and resting awareness can be a bit tougher to understand. The Headspace forums suggest everyone struggles with certain techniques, so having a guide was useful (for me). From reading of "The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body" it seems there is always more to learn but as an app meditator I can only give you the above experiences.
meowzero 8y ago
Have you tried meditation? It's hard. Try sitting for 15+ minutes, not moving, and concentrate on one thing (like your breath) without getting distracted. Maybe it's easy for you. There are many distractions that can happen, not necessarily mind-wandering. There are other distractions like getting bored or falling a sleep, discomfort in the body (which includes itches, pain, needing to move, etc.), outside noises, forgetting to focus on your breath, etc. Your mind is constantly seeking new stimulus while you're trying to calm it down. For me, it's hard to do that without getting distracted. Maybe the easiest part is remembering to focus on the breath after you get distracted. But that's also easier said than done.
- wallace_f 8y ago
  Yea. I try meditation, and I consider myself really bad at it. This is because, like you said, it's hard to remain completely focused on something simple for long; but more importantly, it's not helping me with my objectives here: giving my mind rest, and extending my attention space and cognitive energy. So here's the thing, whenever I read stuff on meditation, it often quickly veers into these frankly even sometimes pretentious discussions and concepts that I honestly dont understand. I could be wrong, but it reminds me of a lot of the hand-wavy "bro science" workout advice I've heard. The best ways I've found to meditate, or rather I should say to at least reach my goals of meditation, so far are a hot bath or listening to music.
bsenftner 8y ago
There are many forms of meditation. The particular forms being popularized by these apps actually is of the more difficult forms to achieve. Revealing my age, back in the mid 70's when I became interested in meditation, I surveyed the available forms. There was a lot more readily available information on mediation back then, without the click-baiting poor journalist wrapping too. All the information back then was organic and authored by the practitioners themselves. Anyway, I choose Transcendental Mediation because of the form of the meditation: one is assigned a nonsense mantra phrase, which the meditation technique is nothing more than finding a comfortable position, closing the eyes, and repeating the mantra in one's head for 20 minutes. Thing is, after about 5 minutes a complete psychedelic trip occurs; the nonsense mantra fills your head with nothingness, no logic to "think". After 5 minutes your brain just trips. I'm aware of the mantra's echo, but I'm in fractal landscapes skipping tra-la-la with Bambi and blue meanies. Really. This is why I think all these meditation apps are a joke, as they impede too much, they guide too much to enable experiences as I get when I meditate.