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For me, I have become happier in the moment via insight meditation, which focuses on noticing thoughts and feelings without action or reaction. Part of the wis
by WhompingWindows 6y ago
For me, I have become happier in the moment via insight meditation, which focuses on noticing thoughts and feelings without action or reaction.
Part of the wisdom of meditation lies in the following: There is baggage we all carry, the self, this belief we're the center of it all, the author of (and subservient to) our own thoughts. How do I stop doing what makes me unhappy, if that's "who I am"? But, in reality, I can abandon "who I am" and find new processes of living and new ways of thinking about the world.
In practice, this resetting of your mind is achieved without training by various psychdelic drugs, which peel back the layers of the onion in an effortless fashion. In meditation, you train your mind to actually pay close attention, eventually achieving an effortless open-ness that drugs achieve very simply. Once you're good at following your breath, you can turn to thoughts and feelings, recognizing them as mere arisings in consciousness.
Mere arisings in the mind do not require response: there's no need to act upon our desires, urges, distraction, and regular patterns, they are just heuristics or mental shortcuts the brain uses over and over to save time/effort of decision making. Do we have to respond to all our noticing sounds, light, smells? If not, why do we have to respond to negative thoughts?
Negative thoughts may become crystallized into negative actions. However, if you know what behaviors of your own contribute to unhappiness, you can always pause for 10-15 seconds, meditate briefly, drawing upon your training of the brain's meditative ability, and you will notice the actual feeling of the urge to behave, and not act upon it. It will disappear like very other appearance in consciousness.
- perlpimp 6y agoThis. I have recently discovered after many years that I have fear thoughts and laziness antithoughts that convert into anxiety and fear and sometimes indignation. Its a mine field out there in a mind. Mental health is as much work as keeping up with fitness/gym routine.
- OnACoffeeBreak 6y agoChanging your mind is almost as good as changing the world. That speaks to the point of controlling what you have control over and also the fact that our experiences is the only way we have if perceiving the world
- saltedonion 6y agoVery insightful. Please share more. I’ve been taking up meditation and bubiddism but still very much a novice. I find that as you open your mind and see through more things, in a way things gets less interesting. It’s that feeling that you’ve seen this movie before. Maybe this is normal for older people but I’m in my 20s and it feels very odd. How do you deal with that and not feel like a zombie.
- mping 6y agoThings get less interesting because you get detached from what people consider worldly pleasures. In Buddhism, happiness comes from cutting afflictions down through training and practice. If you find a good knowing teacher, they can guide you through a process where you can attain the bliss of meditation, which is completely worth it and different from "regular" happiness. As you practice, this newfound happiness becomes ingrained and you become happier. It's very natural.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- playing_colours 6y agoI guess many things are interesting just because they produce dopamine spikes, they are kind of superficial, and meditation reveals it. Meditation does not erase deep and sustained interests in me. But maybe it is age - I am in my mid 30s.
- yeowMeng 6y agoI listened to the record again; Popple, crackling, the sound of streams; The tape is transcribed; From the spinning disk to my mind; Let’s listen again but this time one rut deeper; The orbit quickens but the beat is steady; The needle stops vibrating for a moment in between tracks;
- pphysch 6y agoSeeing through abstractions and illusions is a possible outcome, but it also frees the senses to look deeper into the once-negligible. Get a pencil, paper, and small object that you can fit into your closed palm. Like a nut, or other piece of plant. Set a timer for 10 minutes and spend that time describing as much as you can about the object. How it feels, looks, tastes, sounds. From all different angles in different contexts. Abandon preconceptions and play with the object. You might be surprised how much detail there is and how quickly the 10 minutes passes.
- bitKong 6y agoAptly put. Very insightful,
- zwkrt 6y agoDon’t minimize the importance of acting though if you constantly find the same stressors intruding on your thoughts. If meditation helps you deal with street noise, that’s great, but you might also consider closing the window. I see lots of meditative techniques suggested to employees of larger companies through the likes of Happify, but if people really listened to their bodies their employers would be in for big trouble!
- foolproofplan 6y agoI've always struggled with what to think about how companies have recently jumped on the mindfulness bandwagon. I appreciate the support but the cynical side of me still feels like it is an attempt to keep employees complacent with the growing decrease in a positive work environment.
- MarxOk 6y agoIt sounds like you're advocating drugs as a kind of shortcut to resetting the mind and noticing thoughts as passing arisings. Can you talk more about your experience with this?