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10-20 minutes/day was enough to teach me how to be 'mindful' on demand and mitigated a lot of mild ADHD-type problems in my life (impatience, anger, finding que
by rjh29 5y ago
10-20 minutes/day was enough to teach me how to be 'mindful' on demand and mitigated a lot of mild ADHD-type problems in my life (impatience, anger, finding queues unbearable, high sensitivity to noise etc.).
I spent a few months doing more, and it may not be related, but I became increasingly detached from the outside world, more self-absorbed and less motivated. Spent a lot of time just sitting and being content with nothing, which made me question why I should strive for -anything-. Always focused on improving myself, and the way I thought and felt, but it kept me stuck in my own head and not engaged with other people. There is a benefit in doing loving kindness and other forms of meditation that connect you with others.
- infogulch 5y agoA recent Dr K video tries to address this problem. I Meditated, Now I Don't Care Anymore - https://youtu.be/NnTLJtBr1zo https://youtu.be/NnTLJtBr1zo
- id 5y agoIs it good to not care?
- infogulch 5y agoTo summarize the video: Not caring is neither good nor bad, it's just a very common outcome of successful meditation practice. It means it's time to go play the game of life with your newly matured observing mind, and to identify your karmas and complete them.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- criticaltinker 5y ago“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” - Alan Watts
- kibwen 5y agoQuite often I find that Man suffers only because a second Man finds joy in the suffering of the first. Detachment will serve you well in alleviating the suffering that would otherwise arise from the uncaring, undirected whims of the universe, but will leave you unprepared at dealing with willful and directed malice.
- criticaltinker 5y agoIn the spirit of curiosity and playfulness I would like to respond with a bold claim: The distinction between self and other is simply a concept. Certainly useful in many situations, but ultimately just one perspective - one tool at the mind’s disposal. One could reasonably argue this is the central teaching of Buddhism. Alan Watts helped articulate these ideas to western audiences in many of his lectures: “You see, the point is that an enormous number of things are going on inside us of which we are not conscious. We make a very, very arbitrary distinction between what we do voluntarily and what we do involuntarily, and we define all those things which we do involuntarily as things that happen to us rather than things that we do. In other words, we don’t assume any responsibility for the fact that our heart beats, or that our bones have such and such a shape. If you become aware of the fact that you are all of your own body, and that the beating of your heart is not just something that happens to you, but something you’re doing, then you become aware, also—in the same moment and at the same time—that you’re not only beating your heart, but that you are shining the sun.”
- kibwen 4y agoI will respond with a bold claim of my own: vague platitudes such as this are a great way to instill a sense of learned helplessness that rationalizes suffering as "just the way the world is" while failing to acknowledge that the world can be changed to reduce the causes of suffering and not merely reduce the personal effect of suffering. This helplessness is perpetuated by those in positions of power as a means of effective societal control, which is to say, those who would stand to lose the most if their adherents realized the truth about who is the source of their suffering.
- leetrout 5y agoThank you for this link. I will finish it tomorrow but this seems really great.
- rjh29 5y agoThanks for the video, was interesting!
- rjh29 4y agoKind of disappointed that the advice is basically "become spiritual, do your karmas, then you have a higher meaning to your life". So anyone who isn't spiritual should just stay depressed? My brain is incapable of thinking spiritually. There must be a way to achieve higher meaning to life, but I guess I'll have to look to others for guidance there.
- bowsamic 5y agoI have experienced this as a Soto Zen practitioner. Easy to kind of "give up" on normal life, since it suddenly seems much less important
- bschne 5y agoMind sharing your routine? Dealing w/ similar issues and been meaning to try this sort of thing for a while after a few friends have recommended it…
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ativzzz 5y agoNot the OP, but I've started a morning routine of meditating for ~10 mins, brushing my teeth, journaling, a short yoga and doing misc morning chores (make coffee feed dog etc). I would say the "routine" aspect of these has been so much more impactful than any of the actual individual things that I'm doing. I'm sure 10 mins of yoga/meditation is better than doing 0 but it's nothing life changing. One of the issues with ADHD-like symptoms for me was inconsistency. Having a morning routine sets up consistency and a system within which I know exactly what I need to do to "succeed" for the day. Reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear helped me actually turn these things into habits.
- rjh29 5y ago10 minutes breath meditation each day (usually halfway through the work day). It doesn't matter how you do it so much as just being consistent for a long time.
- DeWilde 5y agoBesides the 10 minute morning breathing meditation exercise I constantly strive to be in the moment by manually breathing during the day. This especially helpful in stressful situations. EDIT Also consider the progressive muscle relaxation meditation technique. It greatly helps with anxiety and I still benefit from it today even though I did only for a few months about 4 years ago. I can recognize when I am tensing up due to anxiety and immediately relax myself.
- criddell 5y agoI think Sam Harris has talked about this, but I can’t find it now so maybe my memory is bad. I think he called them zen bums. It was people who want to do nothing else except meditate all day, every day.