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Yup. I've been saying for years, the first things that humans did when we started inventing things, is we got rid of all the "boring tasks" that were letting ou

Yup. I've been saying for years, the first things that humans did when we started inventing things, is we got rid of all the "boring tasks" that were letting our brains organize themselves. Chopping firewood? Got machines for that now. Knitting? Mechanized. Walking to the next town over? Now it's a high-concentration game of GTA with a radio for extra distraction. All of these things also had a mechanical element to them. Hands busy, mind wanders. We've _so_ deprived our brains of this organizing time, that we had to _reinvent boredom_, and now we call it meditation.

shen 4y ago
Would you recommend chopping wood or knitting over modern meditation?
- myself248 4y ago
  Knitting, 100%. The hurdle a lot of people (including myself) feel with meditation is that the benefits are hard to describe and harder to measure, so it's difficult to get into, or to keep going if you feel like you aren't definitely getting something from it right away. Knitting is every bit as meditative, plus you end up with a scarf or some other useful object, which reduces the hesitancy. You get a hand-made toque AND clearer thinking probably, so even if that "probably" is a hard sell, everyone appreciates a shawl. Plus you get neat stories, like "I was knitting this when I came up with the '602 patent". Some future museum curator is gonna lust over that artifact. There's no reason you can't apply modern meditative techniques _while_ knitting, either. If you've read up on meditation but found it hard to get going or stick with it, _add_ some repetitive manual work and try again. Chopping firewood is better for cardiovascular health, but it's difficult to do year round, and the byproduct is only useful to a diminishing number of households that're set up for wood heat. It's also more hazardous if you're clumsy or didn't grow up doing similar work, so think about how many colleagues you'd trust with a knife, much less an 8-lb splitting maul...

shen 4y ago

Would you recommend chopping wood or knitting over modern meditation?

myself248 4y ago
Knitting, 100%. The hurdle a lot of people (including myself) feel with meditation is that the benefits are hard to describe and harder to measure, so it's difficult to get into, or to keep going if you feel like you aren't definitely getting something from it right away. Knitting is every bit as meditative, plus you end up with a scarf or some other useful object, which reduces the hesitancy. You get a hand-made toque AND clearer thinking probably, so even if that "probably" is a hard sell, everyone appreciates a shawl. Plus you get neat stories, like "I was knitting this when I came up with the '602 patent". Some future museum curator is gonna lust over that artifact. There's no reason you can't apply modern meditative techniques _while_ knitting, either. If you've read up on meditation but found it hard to get going or stick with it, _add_ some repetitive manual work and try again. Chopping firewood is better for cardiovascular health, but it's difficult to do year round, and the byproduct is only useful to a diminishing number of households that're set up for wood heat. It's also more hazardous if you're clumsy or didn't grow up doing similar work, so think about how many colleagues you'd trust with a knife, much less an 8-lb splitting maul...