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The Impact of Meditating Every Day

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Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#51

Post by stillworks »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #26
spodek wrote: post #7

> I try to meditate every morning for about 15 minutes and been doing that for quite some time now. I find that doing any Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity will improve your life tremendously, meditation being just one type of SIDCHA. While the benefits differ slightly, the magnitude of benefit from other SIDCHAs -- like exercising, drawing a picture, writing a blog post, writing three business ideas, c…

“I find that doing any Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity will improve your life tremendously, meditation being just one type of SIDCHA.” That’s how I feel about diets too. Most people have such terrible nutrition that almost any diet will make things better because it gives people some structure around eating habits.

Well, not sure if this is related to the actual topic (meditation), but I would agree with this.

For the last one month, I have been sticking to intermittent fasting (16:8) and giving up on sugar entirely and redcuded carb intake to very small amounts.

Can say that the diet is almost keto although I think I do go over the 30gm of prescribed carbs. However I do notably experience the metallic taste in mouth regularly indicating ketosis.

I have noticed...

- Drop in anxiety

- Improved self confidence

- Goes without saying, lost about 5/6 kg weight

To me it seems like this is a permanent lifestyle change which I look forward to continue with.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#52

Post by tryitnow »

Whenever I hear about a particular technique that is supposedly backed by evidence I wonder what specific protocol was used in the studies supporting it. I also wonder how many studies have been conducted and for how many years.

For those of you who want an actual evidence-based practice check out Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). It's the most frequently studied protocol and it's been studied for decades. When you read stories about studies showing how meditation does XYZ and ABC, it's almost always MBSR that the researchers are using.

"Meditation" is a huge category, there's a lot of stuff in there. Some of it probably works, a lot of it doesn't (other than the placebo effect).

What you think of as "meditation" may not be what actually has been researched in a given study.

Of course, all of the above is only applicable to those of you who want to pursue evidence-based techniques. If you're just satisfied with trying stuff you read about on random blogs and HN posts then go ahead and try anything: prayer, astrology, witchcraft, etc - you'll probably realize a little positive benefit as long as you genuinely believe it will work.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#53

Post by virtualwhys »

nabla9 wrote: post #18

I have been meditating 20 years now (zazen). I do 2-4 hours a day. Several 7 day retreats per year. My starting motivation was philosophical and academic interest. I was curious how it affects the mind. Then I did it because it seemed so hard to do, mind seemed like a buggy device I had no control over. I also had self improvement goals at some point. And feeling balanced is a good feeling. But there is no way I can…

> I do 2-4 hours a day. Several 7 day retreats per year.

I did the same in my 20s, but then slowly, my interest in sitting for hours a day, long retreats, faded. Not sure why, the experience itself is obviously deep, but it became a kind of attachment like coffee, and gradually I returned to the world.

> If I worship something, it's this moment

Wonderfully put.

May I ask, if you didn't sit, would this moment cease? Put differently, without practice would something be lost?

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#54

Post by spectaclepiece »

I began meditating every day after I wake up four years ago and it has been the most beneficial change I ever introduced into my life, quitting cannabis securing a stable second place.

I began with five min and worked my way up to 15. Now I have an iOS shortcut “hey Siri, start meditation” which sets a timer randomly between 15 and 20 min to counteract the body clock expectation of a fixed duration.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#55

Post by jrochkind1 »

EamonnMR wrote: post #50

I've tried in the past, but I wonder: how do you know if you've successfully meditated or not?

So in the kind of meditating he's talking about, you sit there focusing on your breath. When you notice your thoughts doing something else, you non-judgementally bring them back to your breath.

That's it. If you're doing it, you're succesfully meditating. It doesn't matter how often your thoughts go somewhere else, or for how long before you notice. No matter, if when you notice you focus on the breath, you're doing it successfully. Really, that's the whole thing.

If you're just starting out, you might find some introduction guidance helpful, either from an online video or app (there are many, OP mentions a couple), or from someone in person (If there's a Shambala temple in your area, they probably have intro to meditation sessions; there are other options).

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#56

Post by rafaelm »

raidicy wrote: post #12
cube2222 wrote: post #6

I had always had some kind of anxiety or ocd for as long as I can remember. I'd searched for various ways to deal with it but only discovering meditation really worked for me. After meditating for 6 months every day (starting with 5 minutes daily, ending with 20-30) I've completely got rid of it. A nice side effect was that I got to be a happier person overall (though that wasn't ever a problem for me), and learned t…

I've been interested in learning more about meditating and Raja yoga meditation specifically. I hesitate to read the book in parent as it seems that Buddhist meditation is focused on love, compassion, empathy or some kind of goal. I don't think the positive emphasis of Buddhism is bad. Rather I've been more interested in "abstraction of the mind" and the general non-religious approach of raja yoga. (I am sorry if the…

Not related to Yoga, but I'm currently reading "The Mindful Geek" [1]:

The Mindful Geek details how to derive the benefits of mindfulness meditation without having to join a religion or drink metaphysical Kool-Aid.

I've recently started meditating myself using the Headspace app. It's still pretty early for me to say I've seen any benefits though.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26261124-the-mindful-...

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#57

Post by winkelwagen »

I've been meditating for about 3 months now. Mostly focussing on building the habit part of it.

I could definitely recommend 10% happier book, It's a fun read, and a kind introduction to meditation. I had an easier time connecting with that author then all the other writers that have all have been meditating for 20+ years with countless 10/30 day retreats.

This week I finished Waking up from sam harris. Have been listening to his podcast for ages. If you are interested in meditation, from a non-religion perspective I would definitely recommend it. I'm still having a tough time understanding what all this no-self and no-ego is about. That will just take some time I guess.

For me personally I've been mixing meditation and stoisism a bit to find some peace and acceptance for my very critical self image. But it's hard to find good stoic teaching, most of it just seems written by sleazy marketeers.

Last thing I would recommend for anyone interested in meditation, starting with tools like headspace a good way to get into the habit. But to be honest, I'm having a hard time still getting value out of their teachings. I went from

headspace > just settings a timer with the Oak app for 20-30 min > back to headspace.

I feel if made less progress then the simple timer. of course I'm not 100% sure if it the headspace app, or me just simply plateauing but my I think I'm going to go back to a simple timer. The headspace app is just so damn noisy.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#58

Post by cols »

spectaclepiece wrote: post #54

I began meditating every day after I wake up four years ago and it has been the most beneficial change I ever introduced into my life, quitting cannabis securing a stable second place. I began with five min and worked my way up to 15. Now I have an iOS shortcut “hey Siri, start meditation” which sets a timer randomly between 15 and 20 min to counteract the body clock expectation of a fixed duration.

You mentioned quitting cannabis. If you don't mind elaborating, I'm curious what benefits you have experienced and why you ended up quitting. Thanks!

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#59

Post by criddell »

agent008t wrote: post #29
jason_slack wrote: post #28

I have the habit now of meditation for 1 hour each morning and then for 20-30 minutes before laying my head to pillow. It's really helpful to me to get myself in a space to start a productive day and end it with a good relaxing sleep. I usually get 4.5 to 5.5 hours each night. Up at 4:30am without an alarm and to bed by 11-midnight usually. I attended a 10 day silent meditation retreat last year and it really had an…

4.5 to 5.5 hours sounds ridiculously low. I thought humans need at least 8 hours of sleep to function well? Have you tried sleeping for longer and if you did, what difference did it make to your wellbeing?

Everybody is different, but 4.5 hours feels pretty low.

I'd be tempted to trade my hour of mediation for another hour of sleep.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#60

Post by jimkri »

I started meditating in the beginning of the year and it really has helped me with a lot of things. It has helped me the most with anxiety and my ADHD/concentrating.

Ive been using Waking Up with Sam Harris, which is talked about in the article. It has a ton of learning materials, self-timers. It follows vipassana meditation and the app offers metta as well.

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