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Changes to my life as a result of just four weeks of daily meditation

182 points by philipkd 16y ago

enduser 16y ago
I highly recommend "I Am That" by Nisargadatta Maharaj for anyone who has been meditating for a while and is looking for some orientation in the face of changing reality. "I Am That" is a pure, direct discussion on understanding the nature of reality, with no dogma, no particular Hindu leaning other than some of the language used. edit: PDF: http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf
- rhizome 16y ago
  a pure, direct discussion on understanding the nature of reality, with no dogma i don't mean to open a can of worms, but these two statements conflict with each other.
  - gte910h 16y ago
    Depends on technically if he just uses Hindu religious concepts to talk about things science knows. Then it's not dogma. Dogma is a specific set of beliefs about the world. If he's only talking about empirically verifiable things (such as we all must die, etc), then it doesn't necessarily go into dogma.
  - enduser 16y ago
    if a discourse is based purely on direct experience (evidence) and not at all on authoritatively settled doctrine, i feel comfortable saying "with no dogma". Maharaj does not refer to any teachings or doctrine other than being instructed by his teacher to let go of all of the illusions attached to the concept "I am". His questioners in the book do sometimes bring up doctrine from their personal history, but Maharaj always responds directly from experience of reality.
    - rhizome 16y ago
      I appreciate that, but my point is more that the assertion that reality has a nature at all is dogmatic. This may be an issue more with your description than the actual teachings, though, which is fine. I'm not saying anything is worthless here. :)
      - jemfinch 16y ago
        Insofar as words have meaning, reality has a nature. That's not dogmatic, that's simply true.
        rhizome 16y ago
        Worms have emerged, so I'm leaving well enough alone.
mdink 16y ago
This is really interesting - thanks for posting. I have a goal this year to meditate for 3 weeks straight and have not started yet. Very inspiring.
- locopati 16y ago
  What's stopping you?
  - mdink 16y ago
    This is going to sound so lame, but... time. My goal was to do it the "right way" and thus I wanted to get through these: http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ before I started. Perhaps I should just read something and jump in....
    - defilade 16y ago
      I like to say that "the biggest barrier to success is failure." In other words, the longer you let a goal go unrealized, the harder it becomes to start because your repeated failures build up into a mental obstacle. Turning something into a habit takes a lot of repetition so it's better to just get started with a modest objective so you can create a pattern of success.
    - ehsanul 16y ago
      I've been listening to those talks. They're only about an hour to 1.5 hours long, and there's only 6 of them. They are supposed to be spread over a 6 week period. So every week for six weeks, you need to find an hour to spend listening to the talk for that week. You will be meditating during part of the talk. Other days, you will meditate 20-30 minutes. This is not a large time commitment, and since you're on HN, I'm guessing you'd be able to manage. Good luck! The first two talks have been pretty nice so far.
      - shadowpwner 16y ago
        Is it similar to self-hypnosis CDs?
mdink 16y ago
Actually I also have a question. One of the main reasons that I wish to start meditating is to stop being so negative about BS stuff. I hear things on the news, get cut off in traffic, shit breaks at home, have to pay unexpected bills and I tend to get bitter. I need to just CHILL the F OUT. I am not sure if you can relate to this, but I would be curious to hear anything that might be a motivator to use meditation to decrease negativity.
- gte910h 16y ago
  There are multiple types of meditation. Some are about introspecting about ideas, others are about letting go of them and focusing on a simple task (counting, breathing, flames, whatever). Some of the latter type can really help with that stuff you are worrying about, as you will get better at removing yourself from that stuff. Even though I last regularly meditated over a decade ago, I can still do the "just let it go" trick usually. Helps tons Non aff link to book that talks about lots of techniques. I did the counting to 4 one: http://www.amazon.com/How-Meditate-Self-Discovery-Lawrence-LeShan/dp/0316880620 http://www.amazon.com/How-Meditate-Self-Discovery-Lawrence-L...
- rhizome 16y ago
  as the story goes, meditation helps against "stuff that ain't you." you might get something out of it.
johnarleyburns 16y ago
"I waste less time on mind-numbing activities like reddit" - what about posting to Hacker News?
kunley 16y ago
Interesting. Who was/is your meditation teacher? I think I missed it from the article.
- philipkd 16y ago
  End of the article refers to a book Mindfulness in Plain English, which you can also read for free: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
  - kunley 16y ago
    I don't mind to bash your enthusiasm in any way and I'm happy of your already gained insights, but i think you should know that in the long term it may be counterproductive or even dangerous to practice such kind of meditation without direct guidance from a teacher.
- georgieporgie 16y ago
  I think it was self-taught from the book linked at the bottom (and available in PDF and .epub for free, as mentioned in comments here).
papaf 16y ago
As a counter to this I have stopped daily meditation (2 hours a day Vipassana) after about 7 years of practice because I hit a rut where it didn't seem to be improving things. I certainly remained calm through all the years but cannot honestly say that it made me a happier person. I was certainly content with the results at first but after much serious practice I found it less and less effective. I'd recommend most people to try serious meditation but think that its important to manage expectations - a tiny proportion of Westerners that start with meditation feel enough benefit to continue it for the following years. In my own experience, Yoga had more noticeable effects and a better 'buzz' - this as someone that also gave up Yoga a few years ago. The advantage of Yoga is that you also feel healthy. I hope fight off my current laziness and restart Yoga again.
- dmm 16y ago
  If a person lifted weights for 7 years and never became stronger I would guess he was doing it wrong[lifting too much, lifting too little, not increasing intensity, etc]. If a person meditates for 7 years and can sees no effect...
  - krschultz 16y ago
    Lifting weights with the proper diet will give results. That is a biological fact. Is mediating leading to a better life a scientific fact?
    - Detrus 16y ago
      The scientific fact is it changes how your brain works, it's obvious on a brain scanner. That's when they scanned experienced monks, champion meditators. A better life is something else though, hard to quantify.
    - runjake 16y ago
      An important question and I'm not sure why you were downvoted into oblivion: Yes. Quick link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation
ccarpenterg 16y ago
Why not boxing or exercising? It's healthier. I do 60 sit-ups and 50 push-ups every morning before breakfast. It definitely changed my life.
- heyitsnick 16y ago
  Why not both? The two are hardly mutually exclusive and both have somewhat different goals despite some overlap.
- gnaritas 16y ago
  > It definitely changed my life. How so?
  - ccarpenterg 16y ago
    - I feel more relaxed - I can easily manage stress - I've improved my posture - I've become more self-confident - I don't have breasts anymore (I'm male) - etc
- Evgeny 16y ago
  Boxing as in being repeatedly hit in the head with considerable strength? I have my doubts about this being a healthy lifestyle, but I would be interested to see statistics on longevity among people who were active boxers compared to the rest of population.
  - dustyreagan 16y ago
    I've thought about picking up boxing. It seems like the desire to not be hit in the face would be good motivation to exercise regularly between matches. Like you though, I'm a bit worried about the risk of concussion and having my nose broken, and thus haven't taken the plunge.
    - bmelton 16y ago
      I might recommend something like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instead. It definitely can cause physical pain, but concussion generally isn't something you worry about with BJJ. That isn't to say that it's impossible, but I do believe the risk is SIGNIFICANTLY lower. Arguably, BJJ works as a better self-defense art than boxing as well, though for it to be truly effective, you generally pair it with a striking art.
sfphotoarts 16y ago
What has become of my beloved HN? Doesn't a devout 20 minutes three times a day on HN count as meditation. Next we'll be discussing horoscopes...
hellodude129 16y ago
In my experience people who are very much into meditation are those people who are still seeking the holy grail of how to feel better about life and about themselves, people who have experienced a lot of pain in their lives or periods of depression. Meditation won't solve that.
- heyitsnick 16y ago
  - In my experience this isn't the case at all. Everyone I know drawn to meditation wasn't due to periods of depression nor pain in their lives but for a variety of other reasons which pretty much all come down for personal development. - Meditation is used in clinical situations specifically for paid and stress reduction. If you want sources for this there's of citations on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
  - haploid 16y ago
    Stress reduction? I have a novel idea for stress reduction: Stop stressing. Are you going to die tomorrow? No? Then settle down and stop worrying. I tell this to everyone I know who "suffers" from stress, and I get some variation on the same response, "it's not that easy for me". Actually, it is easy. It's 2011. Predators aren't chasing you across the savannah. You're not more than 3 days away from a source of potable water. You're not more than 7 days away from safe, nutritious, calorie dense food. You aren't in immediate danger of being washed away in a flood or dying of heatstroke in the desert or freezing to death. Realize that your "stress" is so far removed from its genetic origins as to be laughable, realize how good you really have it, and enjoy life.
    - heyitsnick 16y ago
      > Realize that your "stress" is so far removed from its genetic origins as to be laughable, Realize that your "diagnosis" is based on absolute rather than relative terms; it's laughable. This really isn't the place to try to dissolve a complex psychological subject in to such flippancy as "well life is so much better than back in hunter-gatherer days". If you wish to try to trivialise mental illnesses with unsourced off-the-cuff remarks then take it elsewhere; I've no interest in engaging you in the conversation.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- heyitsnick 16y ago
  Because it clearly piques the interest of many. You may wish to check up on your definition of fad; it may have grown in popularity recently [1] but a a practice dating back over 1000 years isn't really a fad [2] [1] http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=meditation&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=meditation&ye... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
  - shadowpwner 16y ago
    Irrelevant, but I love how you cited n-grams.
gohat 16y ago
He doesn't spend much time visiting Reddit anymore - except to submit articles saying he doesn't.
- philipkd 16y ago
  I find I go directly to subreddits I like now, like r/wikipedia or r/cogsci I still surf the Internet, but it's more focused, and less like bodysurfing through shit.
eelco 16y ago
The book the article links to in the end, Mindfullness in plain English is also freely available online (and as a download): http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
- Herring 16y ago
  Here's a quick intro for beginners who may not be ready for the full book. http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/ http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/
- sh1mmer 16y ago
  One thing that threw me a little when I read Mindfulness in Plain English the first time was how they describe following your breathing in Vipassana. There are a number of methods people use including the one mentioned in the book, observing the breath at the nostrils, and any of them are ok. I personally find the chest and throat works best for me. Another thing I found hugely helpful getting started (other than finding a sangha) was getting a sense of body. When you start to sit just feel your body, is it heavy, energetic, etc. Feel places your body is touching, the floor, the chair, etc and then slowly focus in on your breath. A final piece of advice, try not to meditate on pain if you can help it. When you first start out sitting will probably hurt (that doesn't mean you should fidget or ignore it). However meditating on pain is actually pretty easy. You'll quickly realise that it makes everything else harder to meditate on because it is extremely intense so you less sensitive to other things. The solution is to spend a little time making sure you are sitting right or spending some session in seated meditation. Contact details are on my profile. Feel free to ask me any questions. I've been practicing Theravada and Vipassana for a while.
  - Deestan 16y ago
    > spending some session in seated meditation. First I misread this as "sedated meditation", which had me wondering: Does moderate alcoholic influence impair or improve a meditation session? I know it may sound weird, but I find it tremendously easier to concentrate on and really understand heavy mathematical material after a glass of whisky or two.
mromano 16y ago
thanks for this reminder. I've witnessed good things from meditation as well but find it very difficult to do. I am inspired to try again.
topherjaynes 16y ago
I meditated for the throughout grad school to keep my sanity, but slowly transitioned into running with no music and no talking if I am running in a group as my form of meditation. Basically I combined my mediation time with my running time. It wasn't a conscious change, but I found that actively not thinking during long (13 mile+)runs gave me the mental benefits of meditating (focus, relaxation, spurred creativity) but also gave me the benefits of being an active runner. You might say how can you focus on not thinking during a rain, well like anything it takes practice--it won't happen over night.
- aik 16y ago
  I've attempted running and meditating. So far I haven't figured it out. Lately instead and towards the end of my jog I start walking earlier and meditate during the walk a few minutes before reaching home. Seems easier for now anyway. Building up that capability has also allowed me to have effective de-stress/meditating walking sessions during the working hours.
  - kirse 16y ago
    Just as a quick tip (from someone who has run for about 20 years now)... What "meditating" just means is keeping your focus on a given thought/feeling/whatever... so it truly can be anything... whether it's music, running, a concept like love, the present, etc... you'll get the same root benefit, which is a capability to direct your focus. Obviously the secondary benefits come from the type of meditation you're doing. When you run, you're usually not trying to focus on a thought in your head (although you can)... usually you're focused on the present experience - the pain, the pleasure, the runners high, the beauty of nature around you, etc. However, any true runner here will tell you the thing that brings the greatest mental focus is pain. We LOVE pain. The greater the pain, the greater the pleasure. It's odd, but the more pain you experience the more you have to use every ounce of mental energy and focus (i.e. meditation) to overcome it. That's why my easy runs almost always result in me picking up the pace and murdering the second half as compared to the first... There's something I just love about the pain and focus. Same with why when I've had a stressful day the first thing I want to do is just pound out a blistering pace on a treadmill. The pain gets your focus off everything else. We runners are insane though, so if you're just into jogging, I'd suggest focusing on the beauty of nature and the present. When I manage to stick to a jog, usually I use it to just reflect on all that is good, thanking God just to be alive, for nature, etc... Helps to have existing cardio training so you can talk to yourself while jogging. If you do push the pace and get tired or feel pain, change it to a repetitive positive thought track like "I can do it" or something. Usually that's kinda in beat to my steps too. Each step closer you ultimately realize you can, in fact, do it! Feels great.
mhartl 16y ago
I recently tried Natural Stress Relief (NSR) meditation per Alex Payne's suggestion (http://al3x.net/2010/09/07/startup-health.html http://al3x.net/2010/09/07/startup-health.html). The technique requires carving out around twenty minutes for meditation twice a day (morning and evening). Even with a schedule as flexible as mine (i.e., extremely flexible), I found this virtually impossible to maintain; forty minutes a day may not sound like much, but it is, especially since it has to happen at specific times (before meals, not before bed, etc.). For example, I work much better if I eat within 30 minutes of waking; since (according to NSR) you're not supposed to eat before meditating, that leaves almost no slack in my morning schedule. It's also incredibly easy to forget to meditate until an hour before you have to be somewhere, and then you have to (say) shower, dress, eat, and meditate in order to keep up with the program. (Actually, per the eating rule, you would have to meditate and then shower & eat. And possibly be late to your thing.) And you know how hackers operate on the Maker's Schedule? For me, meditation became one of those things that breaks big chunks of time in two. Not good. NSR emphasizes the importance of doing two sessions every day. After a couple of weeks on the program, I found that the stress of scheduling the meditation, combined with the stress of missing the occasional session (and hence, horror of horrors, not following the program), completely overwhelmed any stress-relieving benefits from the practice. I abandoned it within a month. I'm not sharing this experience to show how much meditation sucks; I'm inclined to believe those who say meditation works wonders for them. I'd appreciate some advice from those who have faced and overcome the problems I've described—if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
- Psyonic 16y ago
  So try once a day? Don't worry so much about the scheduling? Meditate for 20 minutes if you can, 1 minute if that's all you have? It sounds like you got off on the wrong foot. A big part of meditating is learning to accept without judgement, and your post is full of you judging yourself.
  - mhartl 16y ago
    Thanks for the advice. I'm not judging myself, I'm judging the system—the NSR manual is stern in its warnings not to deviate from the program. But perhaps a meditation system more flexible than NSR is worth giving a try.
Quiark 16y ago
I've been meditating for about the same time according to the instructions at audiodharma. I'm not sure it was _that_ beneficial for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I already acquired some of the world-views he describes. I'm a pretty calm person overall, not driven by emotion very much. I do feel better about a breakup I had some time ago, but that might simply be because enough time has passed. Anyway in a moment of emotional pain, I concentrate on my breathing and close my eyes which puts me in meditation mode (because I got used to it) and I'm more or less able to remove thoughts about the pain and after I while I start thinking about something different and I do feel better. Sometimes when I really manage to clear my mind and think of nothing, it feels good. Partly because I'm glad I managed to do that :) In general, I must agree that the idea of being mindful of the present moment and not indulging into fantasies about the past or future are a good idea. But still it's hard to find the 20 minutes a day. I might even say that meditation is a harder test for your willpower than physical excercise. Not to say that the 20 minutes are pretty boring, in the beginning anyway. EDIT: So I'm a little confused about the benefits of meditation. If anyone more experienced has any tips, please share your ideas. Also, I'm probably going to visit a local buddhism center.
haploid 16y ago
This sounds like an excellent use of one's time. I wonder if the health benefits of "meditation" are as significant as those of "hatha yoga", "chiropractic", or any other such Eastern mystic pseudoscientific charlatanism. Why spend 30 minutes a day volunteering, working, or doing something else to benefit humanity, when you can spend it sitting on a pillow, indulging yourself in an act of inducing the all-powerful placebo effect to convince yourself that all the "stress" of an upper middle class American lifestyle can be magically washed away by breathing and thinking of fat bronze statues and waterfalls? Hope these amazing changes to your life continue.
- davidchua 16y ago
  The whole point about meditation is about self-reflection. Yes, you may argue that comparing meditation with volunteering, the former would seem like a complete waste of time with no benefit to society, but its only because you're looking at it in one-dimension. If the OP is able to turn his life around, become calmer, more understanding and more compassionate, his actions and interactions in the physical world would have an impact to all those around him and create a multiplier effect that is much more effective in the long run than just pure volunteering.
  - jongraehl 16y ago
    True, volunteering isn't usually very effective (except at creating emotional reward), compared to working and donating effectively.
- city41 16y ago
  You're rather judgmental and cynical. Do you have any real experience with meditation? Something tells me you don't. It sure seems like if entire cultures practice it, there must be something to it.
  - robotresearcher 16y ago
    > It sure seems like if entire cultures practice it, there must be something to it. See also clitoral circumcision, death penalty for apostasy and homosexuality, and other popular cultural practices. There are many things that are widely believed and not true. The claimed benefits of meditation should be available to scientific scrutiny, so we can actually know one way or the other. No need for faith or appeal to common practice.
rmundo 16y ago
I've read so much writing on meditation from Tibetan monks getting MRI scans to finding peace and becoming ready for love in Bali. This one is by far the most compelling argument I've read. And if it can start having an effect in four short weeks, there's no reason not to give it a try.
tfs 16y ago
What meditation technique(s) do you use?
dfan 16y ago
The main thing I noticed from meditating for a month was that my posture got a lot better. That alone made it worth it.

182 points by philipkd 16y ago

I highly recommend "I Am That" by Nisargadatta Maharaj for anyone who has been meditating for a while and is looking for some orientation in the face of changing reality. "I Am That" is a pure, direct discussion on understanding the nature of reality, with no dogma, no particular Hindu leaning other than some of the language used. edit: PDF: http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf

rhizome 16y ago
a pure, direct discussion on understanding the nature of reality, with no dogma i don't mean to open a can of worms, but these two statements conflict with each other.
- gte910h 16y ago
  Depends on technically if he just uses Hindu religious concepts to talk about things science knows. Then it's not dogma. Dogma is a specific set of beliefs about the world. If he's only talking about empirically verifiable things (such as we all must die, etc), then it doesn't necessarily go into dogma.
- enduser 16y ago
  if a discourse is based purely on direct experience (evidence) and not at all on authoritatively settled doctrine, i feel comfortable saying "with no dogma". Maharaj does not refer to any teachings or doctrine other than being instructed by his teacher to let go of all of the illusions attached to the concept "I am". His questioners in the book do sometimes bring up doctrine from their personal history, but Maharaj always responds directly from experience of reality.
  - rhizome 16y ago
    I appreciate that, but my point is more that the assertion that reality has a nature at all is dogmatic. This may be an issue more with your description than the actual teachings, though, which is fine. I'm not saying anything is worthless here. :)
    - jemfinch 16y ago
      Insofar as words have meaning, reality has a nature. That's not dogmatic, that's simply true.
      - rhizome 16y ago
        Worms have emerged, so I'm leaving well enough alone.

mdink 16y ago

This is really interesting - thanks for posting. I have a goal this year to meditate for 3 weeks straight and have not started yet. Very inspiring.

locopati 16y ago
What's stopping you?
- mdink 16y ago
  This is going to sound so lame, but... time. My goal was to do it the "right way" and thus I wanted to get through these: http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/ before I started. Perhaps I should just read something and jump in....
  - defilade 16y ago
    I like to say that "the biggest barrier to success is failure." In other words, the longer you let a goal go unrealized, the harder it becomes to start because your repeated failures build up into a mental obstacle. Turning something into a habit takes a lot of repetition so it's better to just get started with a modest objective so you can create a pattern of success.
  - ehsanul 16y ago
    I've been listening to those talks. They're only about an hour to 1.5 hours long, and there's only 6 of them. They are supposed to be spread over a 6 week period. So every week for six weeks, you need to find an hour to spend listening to the talk for that week. You will be meditating during part of the talk. Other days, you will meditate 20-30 minutes. This is not a large time commitment, and since you're on HN, I'm guessing you'd be able to manage. Good luck! The first two talks have been pretty nice so far.
    - shadowpwner 16y ago
      Is it similar to self-hypnosis CDs?

mdink 16y ago

Actually I also have a question. One of the main reasons that I wish to start meditating is to stop being so negative about BS stuff. I hear things on the news, get cut off in traffic, shit breaks at home, have to pay unexpected bills and I tend to get bitter. I need to just CHILL the F OUT. I am not sure if you can relate to this, but I would be curious to hear anything that might be a motivator to use meditation to decrease negativity.

gte910h 16y ago
There are multiple types of meditation. Some are about introspecting about ideas, others are about letting go of them and focusing on a simple task (counting, breathing, flames, whatever). Some of the latter type can really help with that stuff you are worrying about, as you will get better at removing yourself from that stuff. Even though I last regularly meditated over a decade ago, I can still do the "just let it go" trick usually. Helps tons Non aff link to book that talks about lots of techniques. I did the counting to 4 one: http://www.amazon.com/How-Meditate-Self-Discovery-Lawrence-LeShan/dp/0316880620 http://www.amazon.com/How-Meditate-Self-Discovery-Lawrence-L...
rhizome 16y ago
as the story goes, meditation helps against "stuff that ain't you." you might get something out of it.

johnarleyburns 16y ago

"I waste less time on mind-numbing activities like reddit" - what about posting to Hacker News?

kunley 16y ago

Interesting. Who was/is your meditation teacher? I think I missed it from the article.

philipkd 16y ago
End of the article refers to a book Mindfulness in Plain English, which you can also read for free: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
- kunley 16y ago
  I don't mind to bash your enthusiasm in any way and I'm happy of your already gained insights, but i think you should know that in the long term it may be counterproductive or even dangerous to practice such kind of meditation without direct guidance from a teacher.
georgieporgie 16y ago
I think it was self-taught from the book linked at the bottom (and available in PDF and .epub for free, as mentioned in comments here).

papaf 16y ago

As a counter to this I have stopped daily meditation (2 hours a day Vipassana) after about 7 years of practice because I hit a rut where it didn't seem to be improving things. I certainly remained calm through all the years but cannot honestly say that it made me a happier person. I was certainly content with the results at first but after much serious practice I found it less and less effective. I'd recommend most people to try serious meditation but think that its important to manage expectations - a tiny proportion of Westerners that start with meditation feel enough benefit to continue it for the following years. In my own experience, Yoga had more noticeable effects and a better 'buzz' - this as someone that also gave up Yoga a few years ago. The advantage of Yoga is that you also feel healthy. I hope fight off my current laziness and restart Yoga again.

dmm 16y ago
If a person lifted weights for 7 years and never became stronger I would guess he was doing it wrong[lifting too much, lifting too little, not increasing intensity, etc]. If a person meditates for 7 years and can sees no effect...
- krschultz 16y ago
  Lifting weights with the proper diet will give results. That is a biological fact. Is mediating leading to a better life a scientific fact?
  - Detrus 16y ago
    The scientific fact is it changes how your brain works, it's obvious on a brain scanner. That's when they scanned experienced monks, champion meditators. A better life is something else though, hard to quantify.
  - runjake 16y ago
    An important question and I'm not sure why you were downvoted into oblivion: Yes. Quick link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation

ccarpenterg 16y ago

Why not boxing or exercising? It's healthier. I do 60 sit-ups and 50 push-ups every morning before breakfast. It definitely changed my life.

heyitsnick 16y ago
Why not both? The two are hardly mutually exclusive and both have somewhat different goals despite some overlap.
gnaritas 16y ago
> It definitely changed my life. How so?
- ccarpenterg 16y ago
  - I feel more relaxed - I can easily manage stress - I've improved my posture - I've become more self-confident - I don't have breasts anymore (I'm male) - etc
Evgeny 16y ago
Boxing as in being repeatedly hit in the head with considerable strength? I have my doubts about this being a healthy lifestyle, but I would be interested to see statistics on longevity among people who were active boxers compared to the rest of population.
- dustyreagan 16y ago
  I've thought about picking up boxing. It seems like the desire to not be hit in the face would be good motivation to exercise regularly between matches. Like you though, I'm a bit worried about the risk of concussion and having my nose broken, and thus haven't taken the plunge.
  - bmelton 16y ago
    I might recommend something like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instead. It definitely can cause physical pain, but concussion generally isn't something you worry about with BJJ. That isn't to say that it's impossible, but I do believe the risk is SIGNIFICANTLY lower. Arguably, BJJ works as a better self-defense art than boxing as well, though for it to be truly effective, you generally pair it with a striking art.

sfphotoarts 16y ago

What has become of my beloved HN? Doesn't a devout 20 minutes three times a day on HN count as meditation. Next we'll be discussing horoscopes...

hellodude129 16y ago

In my experience people who are very much into meditation are those people who are still seeking the holy grail of how to feel better about life and about themselves, people who have experienced a lot of pain in their lives or periods of depression. Meditation won't solve that.

heyitsnick 16y ago
- In my experience this isn't the case at all. Everyone I know drawn to meditation wasn't due to periods of depression nor pain in their lives but for a variety of other reasons which pretty much all come down for personal development. - Meditation is used in clinical situations specifically for paid and stress reduction. If you want sources for this there's of citations on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
- haploid 16y ago
  Stress reduction? I have a novel idea for stress reduction: Stop stressing. Are you going to die tomorrow? No? Then settle down and stop worrying. I tell this to everyone I know who "suffers" from stress, and I get some variation on the same response, "it's not that easy for me". Actually, it is easy. It's 2011. Predators aren't chasing you across the savannah. You're not more than 3 days away from a source of potable water. You're not more than 7 days away from safe, nutritious, calorie dense food. You aren't in immediate danger of being washed away in a flood or dying of heatstroke in the desert or freezing to death. Realize that your "stress" is so far removed from its genetic origins as to be laughable, realize how good you really have it, and enjoy life.
  - heyitsnick 16y ago
    > Realize that your "stress" is so far removed from its genetic origins as to be laughable, Realize that your "diagnosis" is based on absolute rather than relative terms; it's laughable. This really isn't the place to try to dissolve a complex psychological subject in to such flippancy as "well life is so much better than back in hunter-gatherer days". If you wish to try to trivialise mental illnesses with unsourced off-the-cuff remarks then take it elsewhere; I've no interest in engaging you in the conversation.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

heyitsnick 16y ago
Because it clearly piques the interest of many. You may wish to check up on your definition of fad; it may have grown in popularity recently [1] but a a practice dating back over 1000 years isn't really a fad [2] [1] http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=meditation&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=meditation&ye... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
- shadowpwner 16y ago
  Irrelevant, but I love how you cited n-grams.

gohat 16y ago

He doesn't spend much time visiting Reddit anymore - except to submit articles saying he doesn't.

philipkd 16y ago
I find I go directly to subreddits I like now, like r/wikipedia or r/cogsci I still surf the Internet, but it's more focused, and less like bodysurfing through shit.

eelco 16y ago

The book the article links to in the end, Mindfullness in plain English is also freely available online (and as a download): http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

Herring 16y ago
Here's a quick intro for beginners who may not be ready for the full book. http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/ http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/
sh1mmer 16y ago
One thing that threw me a little when I read Mindfulness in Plain English the first time was how they describe following your breathing in Vipassana. There are a number of methods people use including the one mentioned in the book, observing the breath at the nostrils, and any of them are ok. I personally find the chest and throat works best for me. Another thing I found hugely helpful getting started (other than finding a sangha) was getting a sense of body. When you start to sit just feel your body, is it heavy, energetic, etc. Feel places your body is touching, the floor, the chair, etc and then slowly focus in on your breath. A final piece of advice, try not to meditate on pain if you can help it. When you first start out sitting will probably hurt (that doesn't mean you should fidget or ignore it). However meditating on pain is actually pretty easy. You'll quickly realise that it makes everything else harder to meditate on because it is extremely intense so you less sensitive to other things. The solution is to spend a little time making sure you are sitting right or spending some session in seated meditation. Contact details are on my profile. Feel free to ask me any questions. I've been practicing Theravada and Vipassana for a while.
- Deestan 16y ago
  > spending some session in seated meditation. First I misread this as "sedated meditation", which had me wondering: Does moderate alcoholic influence impair or improve a meditation session? I know it may sound weird, but I find it tremendously easier to concentrate on and really understand heavy mathematical material after a glass of whisky or two.

mromano 16y ago

thanks for this reminder. I've witnessed good things from meditation as well but find it very difficult to do. I am inspired to try again.

topherjaynes 16y ago

I meditated for the throughout grad school to keep my sanity, but slowly transitioned into running with no music and no talking if I am running in a group as my form of meditation. Basically I combined my mediation time with my running time. It wasn't a conscious change, but I found that actively not thinking during long (13 mile+)runs gave me the mental benefits of meditating (focus, relaxation, spurred creativity) but also gave me the benefits of being an active runner. You might say how can you focus on not thinking during a rain, well like anything it takes practice--it won't happen over night.

aik 16y ago
I've attempted running and meditating. So far I haven't figured it out. Lately instead and towards the end of my jog I start walking earlier and meditate during the walk a few minutes before reaching home. Seems easier for now anyway. Building up that capability has also allowed me to have effective de-stress/meditating walking sessions during the working hours.
- kirse 16y ago
  Just as a quick tip (from someone who has run for about 20 years now)... What "meditating" just means is keeping your focus on a given thought/feeling/whatever... so it truly can be anything... whether it's music, running, a concept like love, the present, etc... you'll get the same root benefit, which is a capability to direct your focus. Obviously the secondary benefits come from the type of meditation you're doing. When you run, you're usually not trying to focus on a thought in your head (although you can)... usually you're focused on the present experience - the pain, the pleasure, the runners high, the beauty of nature around you, etc. However, any true runner here will tell you the thing that brings the greatest mental focus is pain. We LOVE pain. The greater the pain, the greater the pleasure. It's odd, but the more pain you experience the more you have to use every ounce of mental energy and focus (i.e. meditation) to overcome it. That's why my easy runs almost always result in me picking up the pace and murdering the second half as compared to the first... There's something I just love about the pain and focus. Same with why when I've had a stressful day the first thing I want to do is just pound out a blistering pace on a treadmill. The pain gets your focus off everything else. We runners are insane though, so if you're just into jogging, I'd suggest focusing on the beauty of nature and the present. When I manage to stick to a jog, usually I use it to just reflect on all that is good, thanking God just to be alive, for nature, etc... Helps to have existing cardio training so you can talk to yourself while jogging. If you do push the pace and get tired or feel pain, change it to a repetitive positive thought track like "I can do it" or something. Usually that's kinda in beat to my steps too. Each step closer you ultimately realize you can, in fact, do it! Feels great.

mhartl 16y ago

I recently tried Natural Stress Relief (NSR) meditation per Alex Payne's suggestion (http://al3x.net/2010/09/07/startup-health.html http://al3x.net/2010/09/07/startup-health.html). The technique requires carving out around twenty minutes for meditation twice a day (morning and evening). Even with a schedule as flexible as mine (i.e., extremely flexible), I found this virtually impossible to maintain; forty minutes a day may not sound like much, but it is, especially since it has to happen at specific times (before meals, not before bed, etc.). For example, I work much better if I eat within 30 minutes of waking; since (according to NSR) you're not supposed to eat before meditating, that leaves almost no slack in my morning schedule. It's also incredibly easy to forget to meditate until an hour before you have to be somewhere, and then you have to (say) shower, dress, eat, and meditate in order to keep up with the program. (Actually, per the eating rule, you would have to meditate and then shower & eat. And possibly be late to your thing.) And you know how hackers operate on the Maker's Schedule? For me, meditation became one of those things that breaks big chunks of time in two. Not good. NSR emphasizes the importance of doing two sessions every day. After a couple of weeks on the program, I found that the stress of scheduling the meditation, combined with the stress of missing the occasional session (and hence, horror of horrors, not following the program), completely overwhelmed any stress-relieving benefits from the practice. I abandoned it within a month. I'm not sharing this experience to show how much meditation sucks; I'm inclined to believe those who say meditation works wonders for them. I'd appreciate some advice from those who have faced and overcome the problems I've described—if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Psyonic 16y ago
So try once a day? Don't worry so much about the scheduling? Meditate for 20 minutes if you can, 1 minute if that's all you have? It sounds like you got off on the wrong foot. A big part of meditating is learning to accept without judgement, and your post is full of you judging yourself.
- mhartl 16y ago
  Thanks for the advice. I'm not judging myself, I'm judging the system—the NSR manual is stern in its warnings not to deviate from the program. But perhaps a meditation system more flexible than NSR is worth giving a try.

Quiark 16y ago

I've been meditating for about the same time according to the instructions at audiodharma. I'm not sure it was _that_ beneficial for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I already acquired some of the world-views he describes. I'm a pretty calm person overall, not driven by emotion very much. I do feel better about a breakup I had some time ago, but that might simply be because enough time has passed. Anyway in a moment of emotional pain, I concentrate on my breathing and close my eyes which puts me in meditation mode (because I got used to it) and I'm more or less able to remove thoughts about the pain and after I while I start thinking about something different and I do feel better. Sometimes when I really manage to clear my mind and think of nothing, it feels good. Partly because I'm glad I managed to do that :) In general, I must agree that the idea of being mindful of the present moment and not indulging into fantasies about the past or future are a good idea. But still it's hard to find the 20 minutes a day. I might even say that meditation is a harder test for your willpower than physical excercise. Not to say that the 20 minutes are pretty boring, in the beginning anyway. EDIT: So I'm a little confused about the benefits of meditation. If anyone more experienced has any tips, please share your ideas. Also, I'm probably going to visit a local buddhism center.

haploid 16y ago

This sounds like an excellent use of one's time. I wonder if the health benefits of "meditation" are as significant as those of "hatha yoga", "chiropractic", or any other such Eastern mystic pseudoscientific charlatanism. Why spend 30 minutes a day volunteering, working, or doing something else to benefit humanity, when you can spend it sitting on a pillow, indulging yourself in an act of inducing the all-powerful placebo effect to convince yourself that all the "stress" of an upper middle class American lifestyle can be magically washed away by breathing and thinking of fat bronze statues and waterfalls? Hope these amazing changes to your life continue.

davidchua 16y ago
The whole point about meditation is about self-reflection. Yes, you may argue that comparing meditation with volunteering, the former would seem like a complete waste of time with no benefit to society, but its only because you're looking at it in one-dimension. If the OP is able to turn his life around, become calmer, more understanding and more compassionate, his actions and interactions in the physical world would have an impact to all those around him and create a multiplier effect that is much more effective in the long run than just pure volunteering.
- jongraehl 16y ago
  True, volunteering isn't usually very effective (except at creating emotional reward), compared to working and donating effectively.
city41 16y ago
You're rather judgmental and cynical. Do you have any real experience with meditation? Something tells me you don't. It sure seems like if entire cultures practice it, there must be something to it.
- robotresearcher 16y ago
  > It sure seems like if entire cultures practice it, there must be something to it. See also clitoral circumcision, death penalty for apostasy and homosexuality, and other popular cultural practices. There are many things that are widely believed and not true. The claimed benefits of meditation should be available to scientific scrutiny, so we can actually know one way or the other. No need for faith or appeal to common practice.

rmundo 16y ago

I've read so much writing on meditation from Tibetan monks getting MRI scans to finding peace and becoming ready for love in Bali. This one is by far the most compelling argument I've read. And if it can start having an effect in four short weeks, there's no reason not to give it a try.

tfs 16y ago

What meditation technique(s) do you use?

dfan 16y ago

The main thing I noticed from meditating for a month was that my posture got a lot better. That alone made it worth it.