the kind that is fashionable in "western medicine" at the moment is called "mindful meditation". if you google that phrase you can find more info. it's basica

the kind that is fashionable in "western medicine" at the moment is called "mindful meditation". if you google that phrase you can find more info. it's basically practicing not giving a fuck (whatever you are thinking about you try to give up thinking about - you are aiming for a kind of "not caring about anything" state). so if you think that would be a good thing to practice, give it a go. i do it because it was recommended by my doctor for coping with the stress of having ms. which makes sense - that's the kind of thing it's easy to obsess over, but where you have little control, so being able to stop worrying is helpful. and i think it has helped. but i only do it for a few mins a day - i'm kind of surprised people are discussing doing it for hours as it's actually pretty hard work at times (also, i have better things to do!). ps it's easy to understand. you just sit somewhere and you'll notice that you're thinking about something. so you say to yourself something like "ok, i was thinking about X, so let's just drop that" and then start thinking about your breathing. at some point you start worrying about something else. and then you realise you are thinking about it. so you talk to yourself again and get back to thinking about breathing. that's it. at first you can spend a fair amount of time going round in circles thinking about not thinking about thinking, but eventually "putting it to one side" becomes easier and you more quickly get into a kind of calmness, just listening to your breathing, for a short while (but you're not supposed to go to sleep - you're still kind of focussed).