5 ms·

Extreme tl;dr: build a meditation practice before worrying about anything else.

• senectus1 4y ago
  I still don't get this meditation thing.
  • hunter-gatherer 4y ago
    I honestly think a 30 minute walk 2x/day with nothing besides maybe your dog will get you where you need to go.
    • slickdork 4y ago
      that's kind of exactly what meditation is. Not having a phone/tv/screen/book/human taking your attention.
      • d-us-vb 4y ago
        And somehow pedestrian scenery doesn't take one's attention?
    • obscurette 4y ago
      This is exactly my experience as well, but there is a problem though. Most of people in the world just don't have a luxury I have - take a walk with my dog in the woods any moment I want. Most of people in the world don't have a luxury to switch environments in the way I have. Meditation is useful for people living in noisy (in all possible ways) environments they can't escape.
    • CTDOCodebases 4y ago
      I think you are confusing meditation with relaxation.
  • wpietri 4y ago
    I get two big things out of it. One is practice in managing thoughts and feelings. If you just sit and breathe, you'll begin to notice how much the mind wanders, how much thoughts randomly arise and pinball around your head. Meditation gives you a lot of practice in not getting caught up in that. The other is what I think of as self-instrumentation. As with any sort of performance tuning or debugging, the foundation is paying attention to what's actually going on. Meditation has greatly increased my ability to introspect, which helps me solve a lot of things that in the past were mysteries to me.
    • galaxyLogic 4y ago
      Is there any theory of why meditation is beneficial? I guess most meditation could be described as "minimizing verbal thoughts". Why is minimizing thoughts better than maximizing them for instance? Is there any theory of how meditation offers evolutionary benefits?
      • throw_away1525 4y ago
        Meditation isn't really about minimizing thoughts. You can't stop thoughts from arising, its just something that your brain does. Meditation is more about training yourself to not attach to those thoughts, to let them go. And that has huge benefits - a lot of the stress and suffering in life we experience in life is due to becoming attached to our thoughts. The book Mindfulness in Plain English is a great introduction to mediation if you are curious.
        • j_maffe 4y ago
          When you say to no attach to those thoughts, do you mean all of them? Cause I've felt detached with what's going on in my mind several times before, and they've been as unproductive as when I'm overwhelmed with thoughts, even if it is more peaceful.
          • throw_away1525 4y ago
            There is a lot of nuance to this and if you are really curious, you should check out Mindfulness in Plain English... you can find it free online. But, a quick, short answer - meditation is like going to the gym for your brain. In meditation, you practice detaching from thoughts. A practical example: Let's say you have a rocky relationship with your boss or a colleague. Maybe they say something you perceive as a slight while grabbing a coffee in the morning. Instead of fixating on it all day and letting it disturb your work, you just let it go. Not attaching to our thoughts doesn't mean we can't focus very hard on things - in fact, letting your negative thoughts go is what is going to allow you to focus hard on your work the rest of the day! (Also, there are many types of meditation, this is just one form of meditation... again, lots of nuance here that is hard to get across in this format.)
  • betterburnout 4y ago
    When we start, I think the name "meditation" is misleading. It's what we have left when we feel overwhelmed. Sit and breathe. It's interesting to try to do something so simple, so complicated.
  • CTDOCodebases 4y ago
    It's a practice that's best understood by doing with zero expectation.