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

I rewired my brain in six weeks

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 70 posts

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#21

Post by gonzo41 »

igor47 wrote: post #9
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Ugh this is so dismissive. I'm glad learning gratitude helped you. How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"? Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"?

You're taking that offense. He's not giving it. He's only giving his singular 1 in 8 billion opinion.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#22

Post by n3storm »

guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Thank you.

You have always been this honest? or is this something you realize you have to be after being exposed to "mindfulness" mumbojumbo?

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#23

Post by mdp2021 »

guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

> hip

I just realized that "hippie", "hip", "hep" make more sense, for the area in context, than the disgraceful label K-Z introduced.

'Hippie' was used for those who wanted to be "hip", i.e. "up-to-date", because "aware". Originally, the term was used in the underground and was 'hep'.

Now, it is pretty clear from the sound why 'hep' can be related to "awareness". And it would make more sense, in reference to that "zone", than using terms that refer to the "mind".

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#24

Post by igor47 »

bheadmaster wrote: post #16
igor47 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh this is so dismissive. I'm glad learning gratitude helped you. How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"? Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"?

> Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"? Different people have different opinions. Why not leave it at "I think the other stuff is not new age hippy trash"?

Your correction wasn't my point.

I would prefer to live in a kinder world. I explicitly appealed to the parent's likely desires for same. If you prefer to live in a world where people are casual dicks to one another, then I guess there's nothing to take away from my original comment.

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#25

Post by [deleted] »

n3storm wrote: post #22
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Thank you. You have always been this honest? or is this something you realize you have to be after being exposed to "mindfulness" mumbojumbo?

[deleted]

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#26

Post by Karrot_Kream »

Here's a timely article. I've been meditating regularly for a little bit now (not that long), in a mindfulness/insight ("vipasana" maybe?) style. I had a spill on my bike today and got some obnoxious road rash, took some fall trauma, and had to wfh; nothing I couldn't dress at home, but enough that my arm has been pussing and stinging and I've had to cover it all up in gauze for a lot of the day. It's "known" among medidators that focusing the attention on pain can cause its displeasure ("suffering") to decrease. Sure enough, I spent a bit of time focusing my meditation on the pain and it caused me less displeasure. I mean, of course I'm also cleaning the road rash, airing it, and then covering it up and using all the tools modern medicine gives us, but it's a cherry on top to be able to be able to decrease the displeasure from the pain. Cool stuff! Now to work up to being able to hold this state at will...

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#27

Post by guntherhermann »

igor47 wrote: post #9
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Ugh this is so dismissive. I'm glad learning gratitude helped you. How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"? Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"?

>How would you feel if, instead, I said "your gratitude practice is actually new age hippy trash"?

I would say: "I don't care what you think. It works for me, if it doesn't for you then it doesn't."

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#28

Post by guntherhermann »

n3storm wrote: post #22
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Thank you. You have always been this honest? or is this something you realize you have to be after being exposed to "mindfulness" mumbojumbo?

I have always been a fairly direct person, possibly to the detriment of my career :)

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#29

Post by bheadmaster »

igor47 wrote: post #24
bheadmaster wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Different people derive benefit from different things. Why not just leave it at, "the other stuff didn't work for me"? Different people have different opinions. Why not leave it at "I think the other stuff is not new age hippy trash"?

Your correction wasn't my point. I would prefer to live in a kinder world. I explicitly appealed to the parent's likely desires for same. If you prefer to live in a world where people are casual dicks to one another, then I guess there's nothing to take away from my original comment.

And I would prefer to live in a world where people can say what they mean, without having to censor or sugarcoat their speech because someone else prefers not to hear their words.

Different people have different preferences. Can't you just leave it at that? Why do you have to go around telling people not to say stuff you dislike in a public forum?

Re: I rewired my brain in six weeks

#30

Post by guntherhermann »

bheadmaster wrote: post #18
guntherhermann wrote: post #8

I took a 'mindfulness' course a couple of years back, and the biggest benefit for me was learning to be grateful. It sounds riduclous typing it out but there it is. Practicing gratitude daily, e.g. giving myself reasons to be thankful for my lot in life is 1) really easy to do, and 2) takes about 5 minutes. The rest of it felt like new-age hippy trash, if I'm completely honest.

Grateful/thankful to whom, exactly? It seems to me that the popular (American) practice of gratitude is just a substitute for Christianity, filtered out not to mention any deities explicitly, but still containing references to them implicitly. I consider universe a random and chaotic place. In that worldview, there is nobody to be grateful/thankful to, so the practice of gratitude doesn't make sense.

For being able to see

For having all of my digits

Clean drinking water

Effectively infinite light at my fingertips (most of humanity couldn't do much when it got dark).

The world's knowledge.

So much food that I have to monitor how much I eat so I don't get too fat.

For having a loving family, friends.

For being given the opportunity to go to university.

For having a career that pays well.

That's just on the top of my head, but there's many more reasons to be grateful. That kind of thing. I have some physical disabilities, but reminding myself of the good things I do have grounds me, makes me realise all the things I used to stress about aren't really that important.

Post reply on HN