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Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)
- jastanton 12y agoAre there any other training programs for better memory?
- codyb 12y agoDomonic O'Brians methods work like magic with relatively little practice. They're also a form of meditation in some sense because of the concentration required to use the imagination so vividly. He has a six cd course I've never gotten all the way through but the techniques I employed helped me remember french vocabularly, art history (dates, names, etc), people and their names, and phone numbers with relative ease (especially compared to rote memorization). The best thing is, the more you do it, the better you get and the easier and faster it is. Looks like he has many books [0] here on Amazon. He won the World Memory Championships a number of times. [0] - http://www.amazon.com/Dominic-OBrien/e/B001KHNR2K http://www.amazon.com/Dominic-OBrien/e/B001KHNR2K
- sjcsjc 12y agoThanks for this. I'd never heard of him, but after a bit of googling, reading and mentally going through my house, I can see that this stuff works. Cheers codyb.
- pgrote 12y agoWhat is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?
- DigitalJack 12y agoGoogle Jon Kabat-Zinn.
- chdir 12y agoEither join a course or pick up a good book. I found this book immensely useful and simple to follow: "Mindfulness in Plain English" [1] [1] http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-English-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0861719069 http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-English-Anniversary-...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- nodata 12y agoIs that book the same as this free one? http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html Does your book contain exercises?
- vidarh 12y agoIt's the same book. I strongly recommend it. You don't need exercises: The book is a step by step "instruction manual". There is only one exercise (in this context; there are many other forms of meditation) Sit comfortably. Breath in. Breath out. Repeat. Now gently try to let go of your thoughts, and gently focus your attention on your breath. When your mind slips, bring it back to the breath. Repeat for as long as you want to sit. The reason you want to read the book is because it deals systematically with the practicalities, such as how to deal with pains and aches and distractions, or how to deal with sudden intense nonsensical urges (for example, when I started I went through a period where I'd get one minute or so in and then be convinced that I'd failed to set my timer, and that I had been sitting for way too long, and that I'd be late for something, anything; it took weeks to push past that barrier). I'd also strongly recommend this series [1] of recordings of a course by Gil Fronsdal. It covers the same practice, and fits very well with the book. And like the book, the course recording is very much kept secular. [1] http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma12/GilMed07.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma12/GilMed07.html
- thomasvarney723 12y agoHeadspace is an app I've tried and thought was interesting.
- andrewem 12y agoI've been using the Headspace app for several months and found it to be very helpful. While doing the exercise, which is a daily 15 minute guided meditation session, I feel much more relaxed. And throughout the rest of my day I find that I'm more aware of my reactions to various events and sometimes I'm able to step outside an emotional reaction and see what I'm doing, and whether it's actually how I want to act, and then behave accordingly. It's no panacea, but I have found it useful enough to keep doing pretty much every day despite the friction which tends to lead to giving up on good habits.
- fernly 12y agoHeadspace link: https://www.headspace.com/headspace-meditation-app https://www.headspace.com/headspace-meditation-app
- akeck 12y agoI found these downloads useful: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/meditation-instruction/ http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/medita...
- fernly 12y agoI know Gil Fronsdal and the community he serves. His talks are always practical and empathic. There won't be any woo or supernaturalism in these, but a generous humanity.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- vidarh 12y agoI stayed away from meditation for very long because of the "woo and supernaturalism" concern, and I agree - Gil Fronsdals stuff is great.
- trentmb 12y agoEarplugs help. It makes it easier to listen to your own breath.
- KobaQ 12y agohttp://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5B1627ADAF657A2C http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5B1627ADAF657A2C The scenery looks a bit odd ... he is sitting on a couch and the studends on the floor, kind of looking up to (admire) the master. But he is in his talks the opposite of a self-salesman. Anyway, this is very systematic and in itself the best approach I've seen so far. There are practices that need to be done and learned in a specific order. In this spirit it all starts with the basic step: Regular time and place! If we fail this, it won't happen! Followed by the other practices (inner dialog, sitting, breathing ... inspecting thoughts later on ...) in the required order. Really, the best I've seen so far. Also, very recommended his podcast "Developing Determination for Enlightenment", where he's talking about the paradox of letting go while being determined to aim for enlightenment.
- BeoShaffer 12y agoUCLA has some good guided exercises here http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22&oTopID=22 http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22&oTopID=22
- peatmoss 12y agoI'll second this, with the specific request for recommended secular resources. I've found I get pretty turned off the higher the quantity of mysticism / spirituality, veneration of random leader persons, and faux eastern cultural elements thrown in as color.
- arbitrarywords 12y agoI found Waking Up by Sam Harris pretty interesting. It's a bit more abstract than a how-to manual, more why and what. http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Spirituality-Without-Religion/dp/1451636016/ http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Spirituality-Without-Religio...
- adrice727 12y agoAs someone who has gradually moved away from the more "woo" end of the spectrum and more towards the practical end, I found Waking Up to be a really good read.
- fernly 12y agoThe Mindfulness in Plain English book mentioned above, or the Insight Meditation Center talks linked below, are both without fake spirituality or mysticism.
- _nullandnull_ 12y agoThe best resources I have found are books, audio tracks, a good meditation app and discipline. In regards to the latter, the hardest thing about meditation is consistently doing it. Books: "Calming the anxious mind" by Jeffrey Brantley, "Mindfulness: An eight-week plan for finding peace in a frantic world" by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, "Mindfulness for Beginners" by Jon Kabat-Zinn (my favorite), "Wherever you to there you are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn Audio: The second and third book both have cds or downloadable tracks. The audio tracks are a good way to start. App: Insight timer. I have been using it for years. Most of these books approach meditation from a non-religious approach.
- lozf 12y agoAlan Watts - The Art of Meditation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u10aHEfcEQY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u10aHEfcEQY
- estefan 12y agoWhile it's not meditation, one of the best things I've discovered recently for relaxing with minimal effort are binaural beats (also branded commercially as "HemiSync"). Put those on for half an hour before going to sleep and it's like nothing else. There are free apps for android (and probably ios as well) you can use. You just need earphones.
- MarkL4 12y agohttp://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/how-to-meditate-one-perspective/ http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/how-to-medit... http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/how-to-do-foregroundbackground-meditation/ http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/how-to-do-fo... http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/articles/ http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/articles/ "Meditation and transformative practice vis-à-vis rationality, phenomenology, neuroscience and {clinical, developmental, evolutionary} psychology because humans." (self-link)
- michaelsbradley 12y agoIt depends on the type/s of meditation in which you are interested. In the Christian West, there are several schools of "discursive meditation", or mental prayer, which developed over many centuries. This kind of meditation, practiced daily and closely connected to regular examination of conscience, is seen as an important component of the struggle to overcome vice and cultivate virtue. Two resources you might find helpful in learning how to go about discursive meditation are a short essay on Lectio Divina and the Fifth Treatise from Fr. Rodriguez's Practice of Perfection and Christian Virtues: http://j.mp/LectioDivina http://j.mp/LectioDivina https://archive.org/stream/PPCV-Manresa#page/n273/mode/2up https://archive.org/stream/PPCV-Manresa#page/n273/mode/2up See also Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's overview of mental prayer in his classic work The Three Ages of the Interior Life: http://www.christianperfection.info/tta47.php http://www.christianperfection.info/tta47.php In the Christian East, meditation generally takes the form of "passive contemplation" rather than discursive meditation. The Philokalia is probably the best resource for learning more: https://archive.org/stream/Philokalia-TheCompleteText/Philokalia-Complete-Text#page/n0/mode/2up https://archive.org/stream/Philokalia-TheCompleteText/Philok... Make sure to keep handy the glossary at the back of the book: https://archive.org/stream/Philokalia-TheCompleteText/Philokalia-Complete-Text#page/n1237/mode/2up https://archive.org/stream/Philokalia-TheCompleteText/Philok...
- ozborn 12y agoI think if you are looking for mental self improvement this Havard article may be more appropriate (http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110 http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-...). The short summary is exercise. Not only do you get your "better brain", but the rest of your body benefits as well.
- kranner 12y agoWhy the implied either/or? Why not do both meditation and exercise?
- ozborn 12y agoIt's a personal choice. For me there is definitely an implied or because I struggle to make time for exercise as it is. I also prefer almost any form of exercise over meditation. :)
- codyb 12y agoI think many people (including Siddhartha or Buddha) used to walk for meditation. If that's the case, and you practiced mindfulness while exercising it might be possible to do both at once. Often when you hear of great athletes, especially great endurance athletes like Michael Phelps, they talk about how they don't think about the whole X meters or Y miles at once. They focus on performing the next stroke or next step or next pump of the pedal perfectly. This to me, as a layman, sounds similar to the idea of focusing on the next breath as is a common practice during some types of meditation. When I used to meditate I used to like to let my mind wander, then focus on breathing. Or vice versa. And many people prefer guided meditations. As there are so many types of meditation I do not see any reason to believe that some types might overlap with exercise quite comfortably. Guided meditations might be more difficult because it would presumably be harder to both focus on the next stroke and focus on the meditation, and I guess that goes as well for the wandering mind meditation (you really don't want to run absentmindedly in NYC where I live, maybe in the country or even suburbia it would be more feasible). Anyways, I guess to me it doesn't seem like it has to be an either or but could be one activity. If Siddhartha can do it, so can we :-). I should start running again though, that's great exercise!
- rohitarondekar 12y agoI'm not well versed with reading research papers etc but I have one question. Could it be possible that by simply practicing mindfulness meditation the brain restructured itself via a placebo style effect rather that because of the meditation itself? For anybody who has access to the paper what did the control group do during the eight weeks?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- fernly 12y agoNot clear what distinction you are trying to make. They practiced mindfulness meditation according to a specific, published plan, and brain anatomy changes were noted. It doesn't seem they are making any claim other than, this series of exercises produce this effect. The paper doesn't seem to be available, but the abstract at the author's page[0] says "Healthy but stressed individuals are randomized to either a meditation-based stress reduction intervention or health education control intervention." [0]https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/12961 https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Perso...
- insickness 12y agoIf the control group were doing nothing for eight weeks, they would expect no change. An expectation of change can illicit substantial differences. That's the placebo effect. When administering medication and checking for results, the control group is given a sugar pill rather than nothing. If they were given nothing it would not eliminate the placebo effect.
- danielharan 12y ago(You mean elicit, not illicit) Placebo might be a fair critique if we were talking about people's self-reported stress or well-being. Here we're talking about physical changes in the amygdala.
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- krick 12y agoI surfed through the links quite rapidly, but I haven't seen any description on what exactly exercises they used. "Meditation" is a term so easily abused, you know. There's quite a few schools calling "meditation" something completely different, some techniques almost opposites (quite literally) of each other. Hell, why to talk about different schools when even Zen has both very different zazen and other meditation practices, which all could be commonly referred to as "meditation" by western people! So I would hope to see some more detailed explanation of what participants were told to do, which I couldn't see somehow. In other case it sounds only a little more meaningful than "Participating in an eight-week doing something program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory".
- kranner 12y agohttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092549271000288X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925492710... Looks like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a specific practice developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
- estefan 12y agoI can't recommend his "Mindfulness for Beginners" book enough. Although I've been "meditating" for years, this book is packed with subtleties that are easily missed. In other teachings, it can be very difficult to separate religious dogma ("all you need is love, man") to the things that actually make a difference, scientifically, to your practice ("bring gentleness and kindness to the process"). One line especially made me realise I'd missed something important for years: Be aware "as if your life depended on it". That's about it.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- ArtDev 12y agoLook for Vipassana or Mindfulness meditation. Perfect for Atheists! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81
- KobaQ 12y agoThe goal of meditation is not to get a better brain. As the goal of yoga is not to get a sexy body. These articles and even more the countless yoga ads with young beautiful ladies are really counterproductive from the viewpoint of yoga. They might be helpful from another perspective. I can't summarize the real goal of yoga properly (meditation is one of the important exercise beside contemplation; the asanas are for preparation only), but it's more to be able to let go of the selfish desires like becoming smarter, getting a sexier body, getting more money, fame, admiring ("Oh, you look so good lately" ... "Yes, you know, I'm doing yoga."). The goal is more to be able to coordinate (not suppress) the desires to avoid doing harm and at the end creating harm for yourself. Meditation gives us insight to where the desires are coming from. Are they essential? Do I need to fullfil them? Or do I need to eat another snickers just because the last one has made my blood sugar go like a rollercoaster?
- sanswork 12y ago"The goal of meditation for me." "The goal of yoga for me." You clearly take the spirituality focused route in your yoga and meditation and thats great for you but you can't proclaim that the only right way to do it is your way and everyone doing it for different reasons is wrong.
- j42 12y agoI think he's criticizing the cultural caricature that accompanies any activity becoming mainstream... but perhaps misdirected as the context in which one finds value isn't really important in contrast to value itself. Perhaps the elegance is in how deeply individual a practice it can be (turning the locus of one's awareness inward). And to the OP, isn't it great that yoga can hold so much value through both a spiritual and physical lens? I think the mental and spiritual component has a lot to offer, but it's hard to claim that someone pursuing a positive activity, regardless of motivation is a bad thing.
- KobaQ 12y agoWhat I've written is nothing that I've thought of be myself. I've tried to describe the goal of traditional yoga, which really contradicts a lot of the modern interpretations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali
- redmaverick 12y agoThere are different types of meditation styles. I had experience with a type of meditation mentioned in the article. It is known as mindfulness meditation. Even in mindfulness meditation there are different approaches. Mine is mindfulness through the awareness of bodily sensations. http://www.dhamma.org/ http://www.dhamma.org/ This is the 10 day course I underwent. It is pretty brutal and intense. You meditate for 8 hrs a day in total silence for 10 days. Description The mindfulness meditation consists of two parts. Part 1 is concentration or Anapana. Part 2. is Vipassana which is awareness through bodily sensations. The first 3 - 4 days are spent in Anapana. You simply observe the incoming breath and outgoing breath. That's it. The problem is that your mind gets hijacked into the past or future frequently. All you have to do is observe the incoming breath and outgoing breath. After a few seconds this new habit pattern of the mind gets disrupted. You don't get frustrated or despondent because this is the way the mind works. You keep bringing your mind back into the present by focusing back on your breath. You do this for 8 hours a day for 3 to 4 days with breaks in-between. What you realize is that with persistent effort you can actually stay in the present for quite a while. Your mind becomes very concentrated. Now, this concentrated mind is a tool. With your powerful concentrated mind you start observing the area under the nostrils and above the upper lip. You become aware of an interesting phenomenon. There is an interplay of a multitude of sensations spontaneously occurring in that region. The sensations feel like tiny extremely weak electric currents zapping through on the surface and disappearing. Or it could be a weak throbbing and itching sensation. Sometimes you get the feeling of the area under investigation being in a state of tension. It doesn't matter what the sensation is like. What matters is that you are aware of these sensations. The remaining days you try to stay in the present via bodily sensations. Now, instead of just focusing on the area under the nostrils and above the upper lip, you start scanning the whole body from the top of the head to the tips of your feet and then you realize that these sensations are present throughout your whole body. Again, the same thing happens. You start scanning the body beginning from the top but your mind tries to hijack awareness from the present into either the past or future. Again, you just smile to your self without getting frustrated and patiently and persistently you bring the mind back into the present moment. You do this for the remaining days. Now there are two important things you will experience via mindfulness meditation. 1. The mind and body are very deeply connected. The sensations you feel through out your body react to the contents of the thoughts present in your mind. Some traumatic event from your distant past surfaces up while you are meditating. Your natural reaction is to get caught up in it. Your bodily sensations change in response to that. Now, instead of getting caught up in it you just try to observe the sensations and try to be equanimous. This leads to point#2. 2. All the sensations you experience are impermanent. Your entire body is in a state of flux and so is your mind. Any sensation no matter how pleasant or unpleasant is only transitory. There is no need to crave pleasant sensations or flee from unpleasant sensations because they are all going to change anyways. This is how you rewire your brain by persistent mindfulness meditation. You teach your mind not to fall into old patterns and to try and be equanimous.
- chrissyb 12y agoThe thing i don't like about the term "meditation" is that its too closely intertwined with spirituality. Where meditation should actually be associated with relaxation. This article only mentions the control group twice, once to say "None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time". This is just bad reporting - How about telling us what the control group were actually doing? If they (control group) were not taking part in any type of consistent relaxation for 8 weeks then how would you expect to see any changes in the control group? http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/yoga-woo/ http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/yoga-woo/
- kranner 12y agoThey weren't expecting to see changes in the control group. Control groups represent the baseline, untreated state. Also, meditation and relaxation are not the same thing.
- chrissyb 12y agoYou're right, meditation is relaxation with a sprinkle of woo.
- mattrepl 12y agoMeditation is more concentration than relaxation.
- vidarh 12y agoYou think meditation is relaxation, you do not realise how much effort it takes. I'd suggest finding a tutorial and trying even 5 minutes. As for the "sprinkle of woo", some meditation practices comes with buckets of foo, while some are entirely woo free.
- dthunt 12y agoI've done this for an hour or so on occasion. I don't find it a particular strain. I may be doing something different than what you are doing, though.
- andersthue 12y agoI read Dan Harris' book 10% happier and started meditating for just 5 minutes a day. I can highly recommend it. I am much more aware and present when doing it than those days I do not.
- Matumio 12y agoI made a similar experience. When I force myself to sit still and focus on breathing for just 7 minutes in the morning, it seems to make me more aware of what I'm doing for the rest of the day. Sometimes I continue to 40 minutes. Too often I skip it entirely and e.g. surf the net instead, which makes me feel like a work-addicted wreck who won't grant himself just 7 minutes of peace.
- boothead 12y agoI also highly recommend the other Harris' (Sam) book "Waking Up".
- CWIZO 12y agoDoes anyone have any experience with meditation and RSI? I've been having RSI(like) problems for almost 3 years now. Recently I've read the Mindbody Prescription book[0] after finding this HN thread[1]. I must say it did help somewhat but I think I'm still in the process of healing myself. The bit I'm struggling is uncovering suppressed feelings and emotions. So I'm wondering wether meditation would help here. Any thoughts? [0] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-Pain-ebook/dp/B00FOTRPJQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417164485&sr=8-1&keywords=Mindbody+Prescription http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-P... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1269951 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1269951
- thenomad 12y agoYes, I do. I've not found meditation to be an absolute silver bullet for RSI in the same way that I found appropriate stretches, trigger point therapy, and Pilates to be. However, it's definitely extremely useful, and if your RSI stems from anxiety or similar issues, it's very good for treating the underlying causes. For uncovering suppressed feelings and thoughts, my personal recommendation would be to go for a good - note GOOD - talk therapist and see if that works for you. I've found that more effective for understanding myself than meditation. But I'd certainly encourage you to give meditation a go too - a lot of people including me find it very useful.
- CWIZO 12y agoHow does that work, going to a therapist? He knows how to ask the right questions? How many sessions did you have to go to? I don't have massive amounts of money unfortunately.
- thenomad 12y agoYou'll need a fair few sessions, unfortunately. It's not a quick process. They're trained to know what to ask, how to be useful to you, and so on - at least, the good ones are! Note: make sure you're going to a therapist - someone with years of training in the theory and practise of psychotherapy - not an untrained/semi-trained "counsellor".
- radva42 12y agoI have been practicing mindfulness meditation for the last 14 months - 30 minutes, everyday and I have to say that it has been virtually the most important skill that I have picked up. Because it's essentailly that - a skill. I was very stressed and the anxiety started to affect virtually every aspect of my life. My family wanted me to seek professional help (take pills), but I decided to try to take care of it myself so I started reading books... a lot of books about the brain, how it works, etc. and this is how I was introduced to mindfulness. Now, 14 months later the effects are so profound that I have hard time imagining what my mind looked like before. The biggest change I have noticed is the ability to not act on thoughts and easily let them go by accepting them. Things that used to trigger me before are just thoughts now: the thought comes, I notice it and it passes. The best word that comes to mind when trying to describe the feeling is ... grounded. I feel grounded, calm. I know it sounds cliche, but now I realize that it's true that the moment you stop fighing your thoughts and urges, they lose their power. I remember reading things again and aain and could not wrap my head about this concept before. - Does the anxiety go away? No, but my relationship with the anxiety and stress changed. IMHO Self-reflection and emotional intelligence are the most important skills one can develop. Because if you develop them, you stop being in your own way and sabotaging yourself and it leads to generally happier life. This is what I did i nthe last 14 months: - Lay down, close my eyes and observe the sensetion of breathing in my belly. - In the beginning my mind was immediately distracted with thoughts. It took me sometimes a few minutes until I was able to realize that I have been distracted all along. Then I had to force myself to ignore the distrating thought and pay attention to my breathing. It was really hard in the beginning and my sessions lasted usually 15 minutes max. - But as I got better it became easier...now I have no problems to let go of a thought ... even a very emotiaonally charged one. It's like I have a switch in my head. I have recommended mindfulness to all my friends and relatives and virtually none of them have made more than a few sessions. That makes me sad, because I can see what effects it can have, but there's nothing more than recommending that I can do - it's really a personal commitment.
- dodyg 12y agoI've been meditating on and off for the past 30 years. For people trying out, there's no need to do it everyday. Don't be stressed out with missing out on your meditation schedule. Meditate when you can. It's not a race. There is no sculpted body to show off after rigorous workout regime at the gym. It's just for yourself.
- lultimouomo 12y agoOught to wonder if today's XKCD is related... http://xkcd.com/1453/ http://xkcd.com/1453/
- jherdman 12y agoI've been using the Headspace app (https://www.headspace.com/ https://www.headspace.com/) for a few months now and LOVE it. I highly recommend giving it a try. They have a free introductory course you can try too.
- DenisM 12y agoWhat does it do, and how does that help you?
- maroonblazer 12y agoFor one, it gives you 10, 10-minute meditations for free, so you get a sense of what the whole enterprise is about without laying down any cash. For some (many?), that's all you need to get going. Second, having listened to quite a few guided meditations, I find the Headspace guy (I think his name is Andy) to be one of the best. The meditations strike a near-perfect balance of helping direct my energy and attention in a way that doesn't draw attention to himself or his voice/delivery. i.e. he gives excellent guidance and gets out of the way.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- robodale 12y agoA few lowballs of Jameson on ice combined with a heavy 3D shooter on the XBox is my meditation.
- frabbit 12y ago16 participants in the study! Neuro-imaging bolloxology. Meditation might be pleasant, but this is a pretty poor piece of science reporting.
- szx 12y agoThat's actually a pretty common study size in neuro-imaging/fMRI studies. You may still disagree with the statistical validity of the findings, but there's nothing unusual about this specific study in that regard.
- burke 12y agoIt's always funny watching peoples' reaction to meditation as a means to an end. People want to meditate for cognitive benefits, but meditation purportedly teaches that meditation should not be done for any particular benefit. I think the real source of this dissonance is Zen, which tends to center around elimination the ego, or the sense of self. Doing this type of meditation for any sort of benefit seem incongruous, since you're practicing elimination of self with the intention of improving the self. There are a lot of kinds of meditation though. The weird paradoxical component is kinda unique to Zen, AFAIK. A lot of styles are quite comfortable with the idea of meditating for cognitive benefit. Even with Zen, I don't think it's incongruous to practice selflessness via Zen in the moment with the intention of applying that skill in other moments to benefit you in various ways.
- fsloth 12y agoMeditation seems to sound really weird to lot of people but the zen breathing exercises I've done are mechanical and completely devoid of mystical culturally relative concepts. Simple introductory exercise in meditation for those unfamiliar with it. No mystical chanting required. The only caveat is that it can be as boring as hell. I'm not an expert but this should contain the essentials of a simple zen practice: Equipment: timer and a comfortable place to sit without interruptions Time: 10 minutes (or 5, whatever you feel like but try to commit to the timespan you choose). Put the time on the timer. 1. Sit down. The position should be stable so you don't fidget around. 2. Get a good posture: keep you back straight 3. Concentrate on your breathing. Keep breathing slow and deep breaths 4. Count your breaths, mentally, from one to ten, starting from one on exhale, two on inhale etc until you reach ten and go back to one. 5.Start the timer Proceed until timer runs out. Try to maintain this: sit still, back straight, rythmic breathing, count each breath. You may observe thoughts arising. Observe the thoughts but do not get lost in them. You will notice you have been lost in your thoughts because you loose count of your breaths, at which point you just start counting from one. Do not try to block the thoughts. If you can keep complete count throughout the entire span on first try then that's great! Any weird sensations you might get are just pointless disruptions created by your mind.
- fdsary 12y agoI think this comment was important to me. I've never understood what the fuzz is about, but after reading this I decided "fuck it, why not try?". I just did a 5 minute one. Genius idea about the timer, wouldn't be possible otherwise. Afterwards I felt 5kg lighter. I will put this in my life toolbox. Thank you.
- fsloth 12y agoI'm glad you found it usefull! The relationship between this sort of meditation and the various schools that use meditation as part of their doctrine seems to me be like the difference between engaging in an exercise and exercising as part of a particular club/school. Personally I've had a few moment in my life where there introspective skills I've gained from this have probably been for the better. Not sure if it's from the practice, or just some anxiety relieving placebo effect caused by the practice, though. Seems to be good for me, whichever the underlying effect.
- rd108 12y agoThis is my old lab! I'm turning these neuroscience findings into consumer products now-- using biosensors for meditation tracking and biofeedback. http://www.brainbot.me http://www.brainbot.me Check it out if you're interested, but full disclosure- this is my company
- hunterjrj 12y agoAnother suggestion for anyone who would prefer a guide that is unbiased/free of religion and mysticism: How to Meditate by Lawrence LeShan.
- dorfsmay 12y agoIn case you wonder if this s yet another study about this matter, note that the article is from 2011/01.
- louwrentius 12y agoI see a lot of anekdotes here on HN about meditation. But anekdotes are not science. I dislike the very close relation between meditation and spirituality that turns into fluffy bullshit. I distrust peoples self-reporting because it is extremely unreliable. The 'eight weeks to a better brain' sounds like any link-bait you see on the internet (' 6-pack in 12 days!'). Also, the results may be merely from the fact that these people spent ~30 minutes a day deliberately relaxing. What would happen if the control group would just lie on a couch for 30 minutes, doing nothing? None of that in the article.
- aragot 12y agoOr that the group learnt a new skill, which involves both new physical and mental agility. For example would learning to dance for an introverted person produce the same changes in the brain?
- jahaja 12y agoI'd like this to be compared to an equal amount of non-stimulated time that is not necessarily meditation. I feel that the main issue here could be that a lot of people, in western culture at least, are constantly stimulated.
- dbingham 12y agohttp://xkcd.com/1453/ http://xkcd.com/1453/ Timely this.