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Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

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Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#41

Post by lopatin »

babygoat wrote: post #39
lopatin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply. So, if you're injured, it still hurts. But what changes is your response, mentally. You gain the ability to peacefully endure, even study, the pain because you're smarter than it? And this ability comes as a result of meditation? Can the same thing be achieved by telling someone to "suck it up" if they stub their toe?

>You gain the ability to peacefully endure, even study, the pain because you're smarter than it? Kind of, yeah. It's something I've experimented with. The longer I focus on something painful the less it bothers me. It just sort of feels hot. But once I start to do something else with my body that agitates it, it provokes the strong response that takes my attention away immediately. I'm not that quick to take it back,…

Re "suck it up". I think you brought up two extremes: a stranger, and a loved one. But if my friend tells me to suck it up, I don't get offended, I'll just take it as an informed suggestion. And he'd usually be right. The cons of outwardly expressing the pain of stubbing a toe far outweigh the pros (are there any?).

Thanks again for your responses. A lot of the meditation talk still sounds a lot like "it was great but hard to explain, but you had to be there". I want to try it soon.

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#42

Post by babygoat »

lopatin wrote: post #36
babygoat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. We've conditioned ourselves to pay close attention to pain for obvious reasons (e.g. something presents an acute threat to our survival), and we respond by escaping the sensation as quickly as we can. With practice, we can learn to accept pain as any another sensation. If you're not afraid of death, it won't bother you at all. If (like most of us) you do, next time you stub your toe, recognize your conditi…

> We've conditioned ourselves to pay close attention to pain for obvious reasons ... Have we conditioned ourselves to acknowledge pain? It seems to me that we evolved the ability to have pain, which is, by definition, a sensation that grabs your attention right away. > If you're not afraid of death, it won't bother you at all. Am I understanding your phrasing correctly? That, if you're not afraid of death, then physi…

>Have we conditioned ourselves to acknowledge pain? It seems to me that we evolved the ability to have pain, which is, by definition, a sensation that grabs your attention right away.

I don't know if I understand what you mean. I agree that we evolved to have pain for a very important reason and that it's extremely useful to react to it differently than other sensations. But does a relatively light, non-life-threatening pain need to take so much of your attention once you realize you're not in danger?

>Am I understanding your phrasing correctly? That, if you're not afraid of death, then physical pain won't bother you at all? I don't think that's right.

I'm not saying submit to it willingly, or not to escape if it's possible, but otherwise yes. To me it's the struggling against the pain that causes suffering.

>Another q: What kind of benefit/enlightenment do you achieve by leaning into the pain of a stubbed toe? Why lean in to it and pretend that you

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#43

Post by Octokat »

x2f10 wrote: post #19
SirLJ wrote: post #2

Not much, my advice is do exercise instead, even 15 min a day will make a difference...

I agree - IMO, meditation's benefits pale in comparison to the benefits of regular exercise. That's not to diminish the benefits of meditation but to emphasis the benefits of exercise. I find that with regular exercise, I am much less prone to depression and anger.

"I find that with regular exercise, I am much less prone to depression and anger." Agreed. I think meditation touches upon a different aspect of our everyday lives: it makes us more self-aware and makes us want to think clearly in any given situation. And we learn to calm ourselves even in the most unnerving situations.

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#44

Post by babygoat »

lopatin wrote: post #41
babygoat wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You gain the ability to peacefully endure, even study, the pain because you're smarter than it? Kind of, yeah. It's something I've experimented with. The longer I focus on something painful the less it bothers me. It just sort of feels hot. But once I start to do something else with my body that agitates it, it provokes the strong response that takes my attention away immediately. I'm not that quick to take it back,…

Re "suck it up". I think you brought up two extremes: a stranger, and a loved one. But if my friend tells me to suck it up, I don't get offended, I'll just take it as an informed suggestion. And he'd usually be right. The cons of outwardly expressing the pain of stubbing a toe far outweigh the pros (are there any?). Thanks again for your responses. A lot of the meditation talk still sounds a lot like "it was great bu…

Oh definitely, I did that intentionally just to show that it was relative. I'm only speaking for myself, but I don't think an informed suggestion, even a kinder one, would have helped without having practiced giving and revoking attention to something I hadn't really looked at much before.

My pleasure - that's kind of the thing. All subjective experiences are impossible to define until we create words for them and know that we've shared the same experience with others. But we know that subjective experience is completely real. And it's everything.

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#45

Post by daSn0wie »

mankash666 wrote: post #20

Can anyone here prove their claimed benefits to actually stem from mediation? Any academic study?

here's one backing TM: http://www.tm.org/healthpro/downloads/circulation-aha.pdf

there are more, just google it.

i was skeptical as well, but i've found that TM has helped me be a bit more relaxed and 'aware'.

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#46

Post by sn9 »

mankash666 wrote: post #20

Can anyone here prove their claimed benefits to actually stem from mediation? Any academic study?

It's been a while since I've read it, but Sam Harris's Waking Up might be something you'd find useful reading.

He describes the benefits of meditation from a skeptic and neuroscientist's perspective.

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#47

Post by aynsof »

lopatin wrote: post #21
aynsof wrote: post #16

I did a ten-day silent retreat (Vipassana) and the effects were profound. I was far calmer, far more able to focus. It's hard to explain, but physical pain was also reframed from negative 'pain' to simply neutral sensation. I also found I had much less desire for stimulus. Usually when I'm cooking dinner or cleaning the house I feel the need to play a tv show or listen to a podcast, but after the retreat I could just…

> physical pain was also reframed from negative 'pain' to simply neutral sensation. What does it mean to reframe physical pain? How reframing changed your experience of physical pain?

It went far beyond what some of the other commenters are suggesting. It wasn't merely a conscious realisation that the sensation of pain could be reframed as mere sensation; it was a deep reconceptualization of the pain as 'vibrations'. (I realise how kooky this sounds, which is why I didn't go into details in the above comment.)

The pain of sitting for 10 hours a day was actually just a feeling of... energy? I struggle to find a fitting word. A fly landing on my face was no longer annoying; it was a blissful reminder to stay in the present moment.

I hope that answers your question.

Re: Ask HN: How has meditation helped you?

#48

Post by kalid »

Much less mental stress; ~90% of the issues that used to bother me don't any more. Specifically, notice that emotions/thoughts tend have a physical component which you can observe without judgment (tightness, heat, tingling, etc.).

Breaking the loop of "negative" physical sensation -> negative emotion/thought is freeing. Feeling tightness in your chest does not require you to become afraid, it just means you are feeling tightness in your chest. But typically we have years of stimulus/response conditioning so we jump to the negative thought / emotion once the sensation arises.

I meditate 10-30 minutes ~5x a week, usually breath counting or doing the above. I found Noah Elkrief's videos helpful.

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