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The Impact of Meditating Every Day

pascalprecht.github.io

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Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#111

Post by athenot »

thomk wrote: post #76
cols wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Ex cannabis user here, so I thought I'd give you my empirical perspective & and opinion. I will tell you what I would tell my own child: Cannabis, like any recreational drug, steals the most precious resource we have: our time. I've been on benders in my life that I simply can not remember what I did during that period, sure, but that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is the time any person needs…

This is well written. Reading this, I can think of other pleasure-based escapes in life that follow the same pattern. Thanks for sharing this!

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#112

Post by mistermann »

thomk wrote: post #76
cols wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Ex cannabis user here, so I thought I'd give you my empirical perspective & and opinion. I will tell you what I would tell my own child: Cannabis, like any recreational drug, steals the most precious resource we have: our time. I've been on benders in my life that I simply can not remember what I did during that period, sure, but that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is the time any person needs…

On mobile and don't have time for a substantive reply, but in my experience this comment is misleading. Rec drugs can be a waste of time, depending on how used and particularly when abused, but when used to supplement meditation, I find the experience much more informative than plain meditation.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#113

Post by _ks2y »

EamonnMR wrote: post #50

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

Approaching meditation as a goal to be completed according to some measurable standard is orthogonal to many traditions of meditation.

There are techniques, such as observing your breath, thoughts, emotions, and/or somatic sensations.

Depending on a multitude of factors, our capacity to maintain this level of observation and awareness will vary. Another part of the technique is, when you notice that you've strayed from your point of observation, is to meta-notice that noticing, and gently return to the foci of observation. If you never do that, you still haven't failed. There is no failure, and there is no success -- the path is the goal.

Other techniques simply invite you to sit or lay in a comfortable position (e.g. be careful of attempting to fit your body into one of the classical meditation poses, it's more important to find something that you are truly comfortable being in for 15 - 60 minutes at a time), and "do nothing" at all, to simply Be. This is perhaps one of the most somatically oriented forms. No technique is the highest form of technique.

After all, when you haven't had any thoughts for some period of time, can you remember that specific period? How would you actually know? Other than perhaps remembering when it vaguely began, and when that period ended by the re-emergence of mental content?

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#114

Post by agent008t »

jammygit wrote: post #99
theboulevardier wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people find that meditation reduces their need to sleep. A few months ago when I was meditating for around 1.5 hours per day (a mixture of walking and formal sitting meditation) I felt well rested on 5.5 to 6.5 hours of sleep, when my normal needs are 7.5 - 8 hours

Sometimes when I have insomnia I sort of daydream instead of sleeping. When I get up, I am more rested than the 3-4 hours or actual sleep would suggest. I had wondered if the daydreaming was similar enough to sleep to be a poor substitute

I find the opposite. On the nights where I dream a lot, I do not wake up well rested. The best rest I get is when you fall asleep, next moment open your eyes, and it's morning. But I haven't had much of that kind of sleep since I was a kid.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#115

Post by mlangenberg »

Personally, I find meditating on a daily basis for longer periods (months), the most difficult.

Whenever I go through a "down" phase in life, I start meditating and observe it being really beneficial, but the routine quickly starts to bore me.

When I feel good and energized, I jump out of bed, enjoy a day at work and fill the evening with stuff I enjoy.

I totally forget to meditate and (digital) reminders are easily dismissed.

(It doesn't help that I'm an evening person, so most of the time I tried to do as less as possible in the morning in order to arrive at a "normal" time at work)

How do other people cope with this?

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#116

Post by rewgs »

aNoob7000 wrote: post #11
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…

Would you recommend an app like Calm or Headspace to get started with meditation?

I’m going to be the contrarian here: no, I do not recommend ever using an app to meditate. Using an app vs simply sitting is (potentially strange analogy here) sort of like being in a restaurant with TV’s vs without. When there’s TV’s, it’s much harder to keep a conversation going because they suck our attention like bugs to a light. Without TV’s, you feel more present, more “there.” Given that, very often, the “point” of meditation (if there is one) is to cultivate a sense of being right here right now, an app seems to me a very uncomfortable and unnecessary middleman.

There is nothing to “do,” no way to make starting “easier.” Just sit, and see what happens, and proceed from there.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#117

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

mlangenberg wrote: post #115

Personally, I find meditating on a daily basis for longer periods (months), the most difficult. Whenever I go through a "down" phase in life, I start meditating and observe it being really beneficial, but the routine quickly starts to bore me. When I feel good and energized, I jump out of bed, enjoy a day at work and fill the evening with stuff I enjoy. I totally forget to meditate and (digital) reminders are easily…

Same for me. Keeping up the routine is very hard.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#118

Post by GuB-42 »

andreilys wrote: post #70
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…

> “ 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, cooking a meal from scratch, etc every day -- can be just as great.“ I’m not sure how you can equate meditations benefits to drawing pictures, or writing three business ideas. They are fundamentally different activities that produce vastly differ…

Meditation may have specific benefits. But having a fit body and knowing how to draw, write or cook is also nice.

But the important common part is that you take steps to better your life. Even activities that have no proven benefits by themselves such as magic rituals, "alternative medicine", prayer, etc... can work.

The idea is that such activities can create a positive chain of events: you going to the gym, your training calls for better nutrition so you eat better, you also sleep better and the workout schedule can impose a healthy work/life balance. You may want to start meditation to improve your focus.

With meditation you realize your body doesn't feel well so you eat better, sleep better, that pause helps you maintain a good work/life balance. You may even consider exercising.

Notice the recurring themes. Once you are in a self improvement mindset things start to support themselves.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#119

Post by gpsx »

I'm sold on meditating being beneficial. This article is a reminder that I need to start doing it regularly again. How difficult it is for me is probably a reflection of how much I need it.

I wonder about some of the _negative_ effects of meditation. Actually, I don't even mean negative, but just effects period. For example, does it make you less aggressive? In many ways this is a good thing but there are also benefits to being aggressive.

Re: The Impact of Meditating Every Day

#120

Post by ThrustVectoring »

cols wrote: post #58
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!

It's not a causal study, but there's a correlational link between low trait Conscientiousness and chronic cannabis use. It might just be that slackers are more OK with being high all the time, but the worrying risk is that cannabis use damages your ability to organize and self-motivate yourself.
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