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Yea... you know, surgery is extremely painful. It can sometimes be worse than whatever is the reason you're getting cut open. The recovery period is a nightmare

Yea... you know, surgery is extremely painful. It can sometimes be worse than whatever is the reason you're getting cut open. The recovery period is a nightmare too sometimes. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Non-religious meditation is sort of the same for your psyche. You bring things to light that have been plaguing you in the background. Once in the light, you have to painfully deal with it. Make peace with it, make amends, or corrective course of action. Over time, such actions become less painful and future issues affect you less because you have the experience and maturity to deal with them swiftly. This article just spins it all towards negativity. That last cop-out paragraph was a joke. A guided meditation app? I am all for a pro therapist to help people talk through their problems and help better explain their own thoughts and actions... but an app? Seriously? The whole point to meditation is for you to have better understanding of yourself. Not for someone else to dictate your own thoughts. A good therapist doesn't guide you to a pre determined path. They push you to walk your own path. Damn, these things piss me off so much. This whole article feels like the opening pitch to some asshole's self help app that they're going to charge a monthly subscription for.

troughway 6y ago
Your ire is misplaced. This article is talking about the minority of people for whom meditation does the opposite of what it's supposed to do. This reminds me of study done where, again, a small percentage of people who were exposed to sounds that are typically used to reduce anxiety had the opposite effect to. I am trying to dig up this study but it was posted to HN close to a decade ago, so who knows what happened to it. I think a number of HNers expressed the issues they faced listening to these samples as well.
- NoOneNew 6y ago
  Okay, but it's not a minority of people. If you do mindfulness right, you will feel even more depressed at times. Part of the point. You are now in control of said depression. This helps to teach you have to control it. When I started years ago, I became super depressed after realizing I should have left my ex after about 1 year instead of staying with her for 6 years. I became more depressed than when I found out she cheated on me. However, I learned a valuable lesson from it. I got rid of people in my life that brought me down and valued the people who were a positive in my life. It's not supposed to be a feel good, heroin injection process. It's a mental surgery to better understand your life. If you take the painful part away from the process, you might as well not even bother doing it. Because then it's more like masturbating with zero payoff.
- blaser-waffle 6y ago
  I mean I've known people who took LSD and instead of a fun trippy experience they had a really bad time. Totally shook them up. In the long run it was good for them, spooked them enough to stay away from drugs permanently and, ultimately, turn their life around. Meditation, like LSD, is only going to get you to a place -- what you find there is on you. If you blot out all distractions and look deep inside yourself... you may not like what you see. If you get someone with deep seated, repressed anxiety and make them bring it to the fore via meditation it's not going to make them less anxious, it's just going to make it more noticeable.
uwagar 6y ago
new scientist has always stuck me as a science magazine for the alt-right type. full page ads of BMWs on the opening page and some climate change article as well.
- NoOneNew 6y ago
  Huh... that's super interesting you said that. As a conservative, the entire "magazine" feels more leftist, snowflake to me. Avoiding painful, tough self-responsibility and action in life is what stuck out to me in this. Serious question, other than the capitalism part and climate change stuff, what else makes you think they're alt-right? Maybe also, define what you believe alt-right means. Mostly because everyone has a weird spectrum grade as what they declare is "alt-right"... which to me is just a way of calling someone a nazi without saying "nazi".
  - uwagar 6y ago
    if u let me extrapolate capitalism is alt-right. communal/social is alt-left. UK is capitalist/imperial with some socialist 'guilt' (think NHS). but when shit hits the fan, they are capitalist. new scientist magazine is pretty much a UK view of the world. sometimes though i've spotted some awesome articles in new scientist (eg., about mexican chinampas comes to mind), these seem to sneak under their alt-right radar...

troughway 6y ago

Your ire is misplaced. This article is talking about the minority of people for whom meditation does the opposite of what it's supposed to do. This reminds me of study done where, again, a small percentage of people who were exposed to sounds that are typically used to reduce anxiety had the opposite effect to. I am trying to dig up this study but it was posted to HN close to a decade ago, so who knows what happened to it. I think a number of HNers expressed the issues they faced listening to these samples as well.

NoOneNew 6y ago
Okay, but it's not a minority of people. If you do mindfulness right, you will feel even more depressed at times. Part of the point. You are now in control of said depression. This helps to teach you have to control it. When I started years ago, I became super depressed after realizing I should have left my ex after about 1 year instead of staying with her for 6 years. I became more depressed than when I found out she cheated on me. However, I learned a valuable lesson from it. I got rid of people in my life that brought me down and valued the people who were a positive in my life. It's not supposed to be a feel good, heroin injection process. It's a mental surgery to better understand your life. If you take the painful part away from the process, you might as well not even bother doing it. Because then it's more like masturbating with zero payoff.
blaser-waffle 6y ago
I mean I've known people who took LSD and instead of a fun trippy experience they had a really bad time. Totally shook them up. In the long run it was good for them, spooked them enough to stay away from drugs permanently and, ultimately, turn their life around. Meditation, like LSD, is only going to get you to a place -- what you find there is on you. If you blot out all distractions and look deep inside yourself... you may not like what you see. If you get someone with deep seated, repressed anxiety and make them bring it to the fore via meditation it's not going to make them less anxious, it's just going to make it more noticeable.

uwagar 6y ago

new scientist has always stuck me as a science magazine for the alt-right type. full page ads of BMWs on the opening page and some climate change article as well.

NoOneNew 6y ago
Huh... that's super interesting you said that. As a conservative, the entire "magazine" feels more leftist, snowflake to me. Avoiding painful, tough self-responsibility and action in life is what stuck out to me in this. Serious question, other than the capitalism part and climate change stuff, what else makes you think they're alt-right? Maybe also, define what you believe alt-right means. Mostly because everyone has a weird spectrum grade as what they declare is "alt-right"... which to me is just a way of calling someone a nazi without saying "nazi".
- uwagar 6y ago
  if u let me extrapolate capitalism is alt-right. communal/social is alt-left. UK is capitalist/imperial with some socialist 'guilt' (think NHS). but when shit hits the fan, they are capitalist. new scientist magazine is pretty much a UK view of the world. sometimes though i've spotted some awesome articles in new scientist (eg., about mexican chinampas comes to mind), these seem to sneak under their alt-right radar...