Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation • Hacker News Board

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#141

Post by aaimnr » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #52

ephextom wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the pages [1] on The HeartMath site references Dr Bruce Lipton. If you're interested in understanding more about the interplay between experiences, emotions, physiology and genetics, I can strongly recommend his book, The Biology of Belief [2], and his many interviews and presentations that can be found on YouTube. His research and writing focuses on the notion that subconscious beliefs are the major influence…

>All this stuff draws contempt from curmudgeonly skeptics (of which I used to be the worst kind), but from painful experience I've found these techniques to be far more effective than any of the more conventional approaches I'd tried previously. Yes, throwing away your critical eye towards the world in favor of starry-eyed credulity can certainly kick the placebo effect into overdrive. If you're constantly questionin…

"Curmudgeonly skeptics" love to think about themselves as realists. Skeptic is not a realist, however - when you think about yourself as a skeptic, you already set the limit to what you can experience and how your mind and skills can change and evolve. "Mindset" by Carol Dweck comes to mind.

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#142

Post by daptaq » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 2:45 PM UTC

pkaye wrote: post #7

I misread this as "medication" and was confused for a while.

Not as bad as me who thought this was "Meditation" vs "Vaccination"

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#143

Post by cypherpunks01 » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 2:48 PM UTC

cJ0th wrote: post #121

criddell wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you love coffee and don't want to remove it from your life, try taking some L-Theanine with your morning cup of coffee. For me, it eliminates anxiety and jitters without tempering the cognitive benefits of coffee.

Or enjoy a cup of sencha or gyokuro which comes with caffeine and L-Theanine. It is a lovely combination indeed. :)

Cannot recommend this enough! Upton tea carries really a really good sencha called 'Japanese Super Sencha Kamakura' and their Gyokuro is brilliant too.

Never hurts to carry around a few 200mg L-Theanine capsules though.

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#144

Post by mordocai » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 2:49 PM UTC

noja wrote: post #63

zuzuleinen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend HeadSpace https://www.headspace.com/ . I think it's great that you start slowly and guided which is perfect for a beginner.

Seconded, HeadSpace is amazing. Surprised to see it only mentioned here once.

Quite frankly, from their marketing(their home page doesn't even seem to mention meditation!) it looks kind of dumb and seems expensive after the 10 day trial.

However, with all the good ratings here and elsewhere and wanting to start meditating I think i'll give it a try

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#145

Post by cypherpunks01 » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 2:58 PM UTC

elcapitan wrote: post #51

not_an_account wrote: post #25

Mindfulness meditation is one of the pillars on which my life rests. If you have never done it before, realize that it's hard, especially if you fall anywhere on the ADHD spectrum, and it's just brutal for the first few weeks for anyone. As your brain becomes more still and your focus improves you'll notice your productivity improve. As the mental chatter drops you'll also notice the problems in your life, that you'v…

> I rarely talk about meditation in professional circles because, for one, people think it's weird No, it totally makes sense. Long walks in the woods or long runs are almost like meditation for me, and it is definitely like vacation for the mind. I just wonder where to get started with actual meditation - I have to admit I find the predominant literature about that topic extremely esoteric, and that's something that…

Find your nearest meditation center and attend a beginner drop-in when you're able! Starting out in a group has enormous benefits.

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#146

Post by droopyEyelids » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 3:11 PM UTC

lujim wrote: post #136

neves wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what bothers me about meditation. Sometimes meditation looks like a panacea. Your life s cks, your boss is an ssh*le, your personal relationships a mess, but if you meditate everything will be all right. Better to put some prozac in the water system.

Life doesn't relent. Even young, rich, beautiful people are susceptible to feelings of unsatisfactory-ness that leave them reaching for the booze and hard drugs or just feeling all around unfulfilled and miserable. Humans are built to run on a hedonic treadmill, not to be content in the moment. Meditation is a tool so that when your life scks, your boss is an ssh*le, and your personal relationships are a mess, THEN s…

Your example was extreme with the 'running them off the road' bit, but actually meditation isn't helpful unless it pushes you to that breaking point.

You need to get worked up, speak your mind, start the argument, quit your job when things get too bad. Life isn't a float on the lazy river. Feelings of anger and pain exist for a reason.

Thats why meditation, as it's sold, is bullsh*t. You're describing an alternative to xanax.

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#147

Post by neves » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 3:11 PM UTC

lujim wrote: post #136

neves wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what bothers me about meditation. Sometimes meditation looks like a panacea. Your life s cks, your boss is an ssh*le, your personal relationships a mess, but if you meditate everything will be all right. Better to put some prozac in the water system.

Life doesn't relent. Even young, rich, beautiful people are susceptible to feelings of unsatisfactory-ness that leave them reaching for the booze and hard drugs or just feeling all around unfulfilled and miserable. Humans are built to run on a hedonic treadmill, not to be content in the moment. Meditation is a tool so that when your life scks, your boss is an ssh*le, and your personal relationships are a mess, THEN s…

Great reply. I really know that the world wouldn't become a better place, but I'm sure that some karate lessons would make feel better than meditation :-)

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#148

Post by neves » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 3:14 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #128

neves wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what bothers me about meditation. Sometimes meditation looks like a panacea. Your life s cks, your boss is an ssh*le, your personal relationships a mess, but if you meditate everything will be all right. Better to put some prozac in the water system.

That falsely assumes that meditation's only effect is to make you emotionally more durable. One of the interesting effects is that when you become more durable, and able to endure, you're also able to make better decisions. You can "zoom out" and perceive options that were invisible before. Sometimes this means the often painful realization that you are the asshole, and need to change. But other times this means seei…

I'm fond of meditation. I just dispute the idea that in a world full of injustices, that meditation is the path to happiness. We need a bunch of extreme anger and indignation to change the world.

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#149

Post by sp332 » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 3:21 PM UTC

blawson wrote: post #42

puranjay wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any strategies to cut? If I don't drink my morning cup, I get bad headaches around the evening and basically stop functioning.

The painful way is pretty simple! Wait until you have a few days you can be "down" and just go cold turkey. I find I do OK the first couple of days, then get a pretty bad headache. When that's gone I'm back to normal.

I'd like to point out that gradually decreasing the amount of caffeine intake works very well and is a lot less painful.

Re: Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation

#150

Post by amerkhalid » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 3:23 PM UTC

If anyone gets turned off by spiritual/religious aspects around Meditation, I have found this podcast very helpful in understanding: https://secularbuddhism.com/ It is not mainly about meditation but general Buddhist concepts. I am finding that it is helping me be mindful more often and meditate once in awhile.

If you do start listening to it, start with first 5 episodes.