Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

well.blogs.nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 208 posts

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#81

Post by b6 »

agumonkey wrote: post #73
b6 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting! It squares with what I've read in books like Mindfulness in Plain English -- that some desirable mental states are achieved when certain harmful habits of the mind are in abeyance.

I'm not sure I fully parse your message. But I too believe that the mind is an odd loop, where you're own self can focus/amplify different emotions and while it may feel absurd by constantly not trying to think or feel it may help rebalance the whole thing.

Sorry, my impression of how it is said to work is, if you deliberately devote your mental energy to something non-harmful, e.g., strong feelings of compassion for oneself or others, it seems to brown out some or all of the harmful habits, at least to some degree.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#82

Post by ZenoArrow »

asdrubale88 wrote: post #74
ZenoArrow wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Do you realize you are probably suffering every minute even when you don't have to sit quietly?" Why? Because it's not possible to enjoy it? Because desire is linked to suffering? Here's the thing. I get why ego can get in the way of enjoying things more fully, and that meditation can help give you a broader perspective on life, but I don't buy into the whole superiority that comes from self-denial. I don't think…

> Because desire is linked to suffering? Unfilled desire is linked to suffering. Filled desires are linked to pleasure, but after fulfilling one desire, another one appears. It's life. So it's not fulfilling desires but being conscious about how desires are born, and consciously choosing which one to fulfill.

Why can't you enjoy something for what it is? As I said, it's possible to enjoy chaos. You don't know what chaos will bring, but you can still enjoy it as it comes along.

Desire is a misused word. It's used as a catch all for all pleasure seeking, but in reality it's a special type of pleasure seeking, a directed form of pleasure seeking based on craving. If you're a pleasure seeker that doesn't have any strong craving for one type of pleasure over another you're still grouped in with those that are addicted to certain types of pleasure.

In other words, if you enjoy life as it comes, you aren't plagued with the problems of craving, therefore the same rules don't apply.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#83

Post by agumonkey »

b6 wrote: post #81
agumonkey wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I fully parse your message. But I too believe that the mind is an odd loop, where you're own self can focus/amplify different emotions and while it may feel absurd by constantly not trying to think or feel it may help rebalance the whole thing.

Sorry, my impression of how it is said to work is, if you deliberately devote your mental energy to something non-harmful, e.g., strong feelings of compassion for oneself or others, it seems to brown out some or all of the harmful habits, at least to some degree.

Most of the time you can allow to live in negative emotions but under certain circumstances you realize that it will never end and you're just wasting time, better focus on positive emotions. It's not as good a genuine self emergent good emotions though.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#84

Post by Disruptive_Dave »

bambax wrote: post #15
personjerry wrote: post #14

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as. We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way t…

Thanks, that's helpful. Did you study meditation by yourself and if so, is there a book/manual that you would recommend? I frequently spend long moments in silence "doing" nothing, but thinking about a lot of things; when I try to not think, I tend to fall asleep quite rapidly; I wonder how to not think and yet not sleep...?

I strongly recommend "Buddhism Plain & Simple" by Steve Hagen. It's much more meditation / awareness than Buddhist practice, so don't worry much about the title. I also really enjoyed "10% Happier" which was way more of a practical story vs. instruction manual. In general, meditation is NOT about "not thinking" - a major misconception about the practice. It's always helped me to view it less as a "mental getaway" and more as "training my mind like a muscle."

The practice, btw, is the whole point, it's not a means to getting to "the real part." That's a difficult point for some to grasp. Every time you sit and your mind wanders, that's the practice right there. This might be the most accurate image of what meditation is: http://www.highexistence.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/medi...

A few links that might help: http://buyalex.com/2015/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/breatheAw...

http://i.imgur.com/75wn1o9.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze6t34_p-84

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#85

Post by vinayakg »

I have been practicing Heartfulness mediation for quite sometime and have got immensely benefitted by it. It offers a simple and practical way to learn relaxation and heart based meditation. Anyone willing to try can go and check http://en-in.heartfulness.org/experience-heartfulness or try the iOS/Android app.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#86

Post by maneesh »

amelius wrote: post #66

Does anybody here have experience with a meditation headset? (I.e., biofeedback device for the brain)

yep i use the muse often and i actually discovered my device (pavlok) is useful for training meditation, although we don't market it for that purpose

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#87

Post by ruraljuror »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #61
westoncb wrote: post #13

I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so, and I've studied meditation literature pretty seriously for about the past year. At least in my case—and I think this isn't so unusual—there is a steep learning curve: for most people there's just not enough reason to stick with it. That said, at this point…

Do you happen to have a good link to a jump-start article about meditation. I am in a sinilar situation as you, life is gray, anxiety problems, ... How should I start doing this today (and the next 4 weeks) without doing too much initial research?

If you get an audio guide you can essentially start right away. If you have a streaming service, search for 'mindfulness'. On Google play there is one from Oxford. They used to have several albums from Kabatt-Zinn but they seem to have disappeared. I would recommend those. In any case, make sure to purchase so you are not interrupted by ads.

If you want to do a bit of research there is a YouTube video of a Kabatt-Zinn talk at Google where he leads a short session.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#88

Post by jwdunne »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #61
westoncb wrote: post #13

I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so, and I've studied meditation literature pretty seriously for about the past year. At least in my case—and I think this isn't so unusual—there is a steep learning curve: for most people there's just not enough reason to stick with it. That said, at this point…

Do you happen to have a good link to a jump-start article about meditation. I am in a sinilar situation as you, life is gray, anxiety problems, ... How should I start doing this today (and the next 4 weeks) without doing too much initial research?

For mindfulness, this features as part of DBT, a therapy targetted at people who suffer from borderline personality disorder.

Although a bit drastic, searching for "DBT mindfulness" will provide tonnes of resources that teach mindfulness techniques in a way that's acceptable in a clinical setting. Things such as worksheets, DBT websites, etc.

Headspace is also a fantastic suggestion, as above.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#89

Post by lsv1 »

westoncb wrote: post #13

I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so, and I've studied meditation literature pretty seriously for about the past year. At least in my case—and I think this isn't so unusual—there is a steep learning curve: for most people there's just not enough reason to stick with it. That said, at this point…

I found it difficult to meditate for very long. However, I do close my eyes and slow my breathing before I have to do something difficult, or something which causes great anxiety.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#90

Post by dustingetz »

Scarblac wrote: post #59
manuelflara wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of time? I'd say 30 minutes a day (consistently) is enough to get significant benefits. And after all, don't we all easily waste 30 minutes a day or things which really don't contribute much to our lives? Say, browse reddit or watch a TV show. Personally, I've found that trying to meditate in the middle of the day, even late at night, when I'm all "wired" from/during work, or just everyday life, is hard. What I…

I need to get up way too early, get myself and my children dressed and fed, and commute to work. In the evening it's commute back, eat, get kids to bed, do chores, and then there's about two hours of free time / social things / time to interact with my wife. So about a quarter of available time. I would be a bit more relaxed, I know, it might have other benefits. But not enough, I think.

Start with a 9 minute track on your lunch break. You ca find 9 minutes. Part of the battle for all of us is doing it when we would rather do something else.
Post reply on HN