Ask HN: What exactly is a mindfulness meditation?

And I still don’t get it.

Honestly It still looks like a big scam to me.

Some “teachers” say that you just focus your attention on breath or whatever you choose as a focus point.

But then isn’t our whole life a sequence of meditations? Because we always focus on something (with sleep breaks).

And then following Occam’s razor - why need separate concept for that?

Other gurus teach that meditation is “doing nothing”. Okay, but then again there’s nothing special about it, we all do it from time to time.

More than that, it means you can’t really practice such meditation, by its definition.

Another way to look at it - just sit peacefully and observe your thoughts.

Then again, aren’t we doing it anyway on a regular basis without introducing a word for it?

Can you please share your own personal specific definition — what exactly is a meditation for you?

Please be as detailed as possible and avoid abstract discussions and arguments (I’ve had enough of it already :), just your own experience.

Thank you.

To give you my own answer to your question: First, you say, "we always focus on something". In truth we rarely achieve concentrated focus that tunes out everything else. We rarely "just sit peacefully and observe .. thoughts", though we might think we do, we are constantly evaluating and making judgements about our thoughts. So meditation practice can help refine the skills of focusing and observing. Second, everything you say about not needing a separate concept or word is true in an intellectual sense, but to actually know and experience mindfulness is different from merely having a rational understanding of the ideas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

The items you raised as commonplace things we all do anyway is understood, but it seems you assume that most people are present for their own life, when actually people are often a million miles away thinking about something else.

Did the dinner you had last night taste good or did you not stop to enjoy the taste? Do you remember what you had for dinner last night? When you went on your last vacation were you really there enjoying it or were you enjoying the concept of it and how you could record it and share it with others on social media? There is even a psychological condition called disassociation that many people suffer from but don't know what it's called. Disassociated people see their life as a passive observer, like watching themselves act in a play.

Mindfulness is an Eastern solution attempt to counter these tendencies. In fact, mindfulness may be the only solution for disassociation because there isn't a pill you can take for that. Disassociation comes about because of trauma and a person's need to disengage from the pain. The "thousand yard stare" of war vets is an example. Mindfulness training is used as therapy by the VA but they don't call it that.

https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/prolonged-expo...

I'm not saying there aren't "mindfulness" scam teachers, but that's true of just about any topic, at least in America

Mindfulness meditation is a technique where you learn to keep the default mode network inactive while not engaged with any external activity. The resulting subjective state feels quiet (as opposed to constantly occupied with stray thoughts) and somewhat like Csikszentmihalyi's flow.