4 ms·

1-2 hours daily meditation is definitely not impossible, especially if you think it is important. How many people spend 1-2 hours daily at the gym?

enraged_camel 14y ago
That's the point though. I have around 2 hours of free time on the evenings, and I spend that time in the gym. I definitely do not have an additional 1-2 hours for meditation. That said, gym is a very therapeutic experience for me. It helps me empty my mind of all stress-causing stuff in my life (e.g. work) and I get to focus on just one thing: lifting weights. I also gain additional benefits such as being strong as hell and looking great. ;)
- ca98am79 14y ago
  yeah, I know it's cliche, but it's true: you make time for the things you want to have time for. Exercise is very important for me, too, and I do it almost every day. I also meditate an hour every day. It just means I have an hour less of watching tv or browsing facebook, or something like that. What made me stick to it, and mostly what made me realize its importance, was I made it a new year's resolution in 2011 to meditate every day for 30 minutes. It had such a huge impact on the quality of my life that I haven't stopped, and I've increased it to an hour a day.
- Florin_Andrei 14y ago
  > gym is a very therapeutic experience for me. It helps me empty my mind of all stress-causing stuff in my life (e.g. work) and I get to focus on just one thing: lifting weights. I also gain additional benefits I had the exact same experience with lifting. But I've found an even more powerful vacuum-cleaner for the mind: racing sportbikes. Squeeze the throttle, hear the engine climb above 10,000 RPM, and feel the mighty rush of speed, and poof! your mind is crystal clear, free of all the daily junk. http://florin.myip.org/blog/engines-joy http://florin.myip.org/blog/engines-joy But meditation is better than all of the above. It seems like it tinkers with the hardware directly, whereas the other methods are more round-about.
  - easternmonk 14y ago
    Gym has worked with me in similar fashion.
- krrrh 14y ago
  A lot of the science looking at physical measures of stress and anxiety reduction from meditation find that you get 80/20 benefits at 20-30 minutes a day. I enjoyed the bootcamp approach of the Goenka 10 day retreat, but I also think that the hardcore nature of the recommendations can make the perfect the enemy of the good. You feel like you need to keep up the 2 hours, and you want to after the retreat, and when you slip up you end up doing no mediation. I do believe that there are larger cumulative benefits to be had with full program, but 20 minutes is definitely going to make a big difference over doing none.

enraged_camel 14y ago

That's the point though. I have around 2 hours of free time on the evenings, and I spend that time in the gym. I definitely do not have an additional 1-2 hours for meditation. That said, gym is a very therapeutic experience for me. It helps me empty my mind of all stress-causing stuff in my life (e.g. work) and I get to focus on just one thing: lifting weights. I also gain additional benefits such as being strong as hell and looking great. ;)

ca98am79 14y ago
yeah, I know it's cliche, but it's true: you make time for the things you want to have time for. Exercise is very important for me, too, and I do it almost every day. I also meditate an hour every day. It just means I have an hour less of watching tv or browsing facebook, or something like that. What made me stick to it, and mostly what made me realize its importance, was I made it a new year's resolution in 2011 to meditate every day for 30 minutes. It had such a huge impact on the quality of my life that I haven't stopped, and I've increased it to an hour a day.
Florin_Andrei 14y ago
> gym is a very therapeutic experience for me. It helps me empty my mind of all stress-causing stuff in my life (e.g. work) and I get to focus on just one thing: lifting weights. I also gain additional benefits I had the exact same experience with lifting. But I've found an even more powerful vacuum-cleaner for the mind: racing sportbikes. Squeeze the throttle, hear the engine climb above 10,000 RPM, and feel the mighty rush of speed, and poof! your mind is crystal clear, free of all the daily junk. http://florin.myip.org/blog/engines-joy http://florin.myip.org/blog/engines-joy But meditation is better than all of the above. It seems like it tinkers with the hardware directly, whereas the other methods are more round-about.
- easternmonk 14y ago
  Gym has worked with me in similar fashion.
krrrh 14y ago
A lot of the science looking at physical measures of stress and anxiety reduction from meditation find that you get 80/20 benefits at 20-30 minutes a day. I enjoyed the bootcamp approach of the Goenka 10 day retreat, but I also think that the hardcore nature of the recommendations can make the perfect the enemy of the good. You feel like you need to keep up the 2 hours, and you want to after the retreat, and when you slip up you end up doing no mediation. I do believe that there are larger cumulative benefits to be had with full program, but 20 minutes is definitely going to make a big difference over doing none.