If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This • Hacker News Board

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#71

Post by Evbn » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:23 PM UTC

jonsen wrote: post #19

zoul wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s better to let yourself to be swallowed whole by your current activity (be it just doing the dishes) than to continue in the endless chatter of your mind. Doing the dishes can be fun if you pay attention to the textures, temperatures, smells and sounds. You can plan your future later, giving it full attention again. That’s the idea.

Your subconscious mind is still planning your future. And it may do better when not disturbed by your attention.

Conscious planning may be better than suppressing your concerns and letting them subconsciously stress you all the time.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#72

Post by KirinDave » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:26 PM UTC

bennesvig wrote: post #67

KirinDave wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the Willpower Instinct contain any sort of actual empirical analysis of the subject? Or is it just someone with a PhD saying something? Because medical professionals can believe in magic and bullshit just as easily as anyone else.

Yes. It mentions actual studies and evidence. http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/01/24/brain-structure-chan...

But these studies are on noticing structural changes, not changes in the subject's capability.

What makes meditation better at this than, say, sitting down and doing math homework or going out and doing exercise? There's a lot of research to strongly correlate regular physical activity with intelligence (random googled summary with many citations here: http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/brainandex.htm...).

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#73

Post by hntester123 » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:28 PM UTC

stephth wrote: post #4

Focus on your breath going in and out. Every time you have a thought or an urge, notice it and bring yourself back to your breath. From what I've heard so far, meditation is based on focusing on your body in order to quiet your mind. Are there other schools/techniques?

http://www.google.com/search?q=meditation

Some interesting links there.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#74

Post by pallinder » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:29 PM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #68

codegeek wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Meditation has what do with this, exactly?" I think you are taking an extreme position on this issue. Meditation may not have everything to do with this but it does play a significant part. In my experience, meditation helps you analyze, hold and channel your thought process better. If your thought process is better, you have better control over your impulses.

It's "extreme" to ask for evidence on something testable now. :(

Im with you, this whole thread is quite odd.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#75

Post by Agathos » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:32 PM UTC

dschiptsov wrote: post #29

Oh, come on. Meditation is not the way to "exercise willpower muscle" (running is the way to do so). Meditation is the way to learn that your flow of thoughts is not you, it is mere side-effect, a smoke from an engine, a screen-saver, or just idle-running. Yes, the practice of meditation is beneficial for will-power and self-control, but it is not the goal.) Goal is realization that what you think you are, is just a…

Running? Really?

In my experience, my mind is quite calm when doing hard physical work such as running. So if I wanted to practice resisting distracting thoughts, I would have to begin with almost anything besides physical exercise.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#76

Post by KirinDave » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:33 PM UTC

jcl wrote: post #60

dchest wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an analogy, it may be true or false. Download speed is a muscle. By downloading more files you're building up your download speed.

The analogy is true, insofar as there are experiments that support it. https://www.google.com/search?q=willpower+muscle+research More interestingly, there is research that suggests that believing that willpower is like a muscle impairs willpower. :) http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/11/1686

That is an amazing study! Thanks for bringing it up!

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#77

Post by shock-value » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:37 PM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #46

adorton wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meditation is the focused practice of resisting distraction. Have you ever tried sitting still for 15-30 minutes, doing nothing but breathing? Distractions come easily in this state. Sometimes it's your thoughts. Other times, it's very hard to resist the urge to get up and start moving. In order to successfully meditate, you need to deal with a wide variety of distractions and other obstacles.

> Meditation is the focused practice of resisting distraction. Are we defining it this way? Because this does not jive with my experience of meditation, focusing, or resisting distraction. > Have you ever tried sitting still for 15-30 minutes, doing nothing but breathing? Yes. As a matter of fact, meditation was part of a martial arts practice I participated in for 2 years. In all that time I tried very hard to do th…

Basically you are arguing that being able to resist distractions isn't a great value in and of itself, at least compared to some other values. Fine. I think a lot of people would disagree, but it's a legitimate viewpoint.

But you also claim that taking a period of time in a day to train oneself to resist distractions does not lead to a more focused mindset throughout the day. I think most of us who have practiced meditation (and actually put real effort in, rather than reflecting on other thoughts during the practice) would disagree.

At the moment I don't have any actual studies on hand to back that up (I'm on my phone) but I would be very surprised if they don't exist, and even more surprised if there were studies disproving positive effects of meditation.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#78

Post by konstruktor » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:37 PM UTC

ricvg wrote: post #27

I highly recommend to take a 10 days retreat in a Vipassana[1] meditation center. I know that 10 days is a lot to ask but in my opinion is well worth the effort. I've been there twice in the past three years. I thought that I understood everything the first time. Boy, was I wrong. [1] http://www.dhamma.org/

If those rules don't creep you out, then I don't know what does: http://www.dhamma.org/en/code.shtml No talking, no outside contact, no other forms of practice. This is not a healthy environment unless you know very well what to expect and are sure you really, really want this. It sounds very cultish to me, even though I do know somebody who goes on Vipassana retreats regularly and seems to benefit a lot. Those retreats are for laypersons, including beginners, but the rules are similar to the most intense meditation periods of monastic buddhist life. Compare that to western zen: There's a small zen temple in my town that will not allow people on 3 day retreats unless they have meditated for a while and know what to expect.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#79

Post by dwiel » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:38 PM UTC

KirinDave wrote: post #69

johnthedebs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when most people say 'meditation' what they mean is 'mindfulness meditation' (and that seems to be the case here). During mindfulness meditation, yes, resisting urges is part of what you're supposed to do. The basic process goes something like: 1) Sit down in a comfortable position that you can stay in without moving. 2) Take deep breaths through your nose and focus your attention on the sensation of air movi…

Why is "breathing" more effective than, say, "cats"?

If you are "cats" you are also "breathing". If you are "breathing" you are only "breathing".

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#80

Post by pestaa » Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 7:41 PM UTC

Evbn wrote: post #71

jonsen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your subconscious mind is still planning your future. And it may do better when not disturbed by your attention.

Conscious planning may be better than suppressing your concerns and letting them subconsciously stress you all the time.

There are times when you certainly need to put the dishes down and think something through and solve it, but often we should just finish what we started one by one.