Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation • Hacker News Board

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#11

Post by redwood » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:35 PM UTC

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

edit: a great first step would be to watch the meditative film: Baraka!!

To be honest, I would not recommend starting with a book. It'd be hard to go into meditation that way. I don't meditate daily, so what do I know? But I do know that the few times I've gotten to that place where I said "oh wow I love meditating!" were guided meditations led by someone who's good at guiding.

Basically for beginners, it's nice to close your eyes and let a guide take you through a series of thoughts/visualizations/concepts/sounds that end in a breathing- or mantra-focused meditation.

The goal in meditation is the ceasing of thought, which is probably why thinking too much and reading thus may not help. Tho it depends.

Search youtube for some good guided meditation and approaches and see if any work for you.

I often return to the best guided approaches in my own mind when I do try to meditate...

final edit: If you are by any chance near Berkeley, I strongly recommend checking out (any week is good) the Meditation, Mysticism, and the Mind decal (grad-student-led course) at UC Berkeley. They bring in a wonderful speaker each week from a different world tradition and mix lecture with guided meditation.

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#12

Post by redwood » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

a3voices wrote: post #6

Instead of meditating, you should exercise without headphones on. You get more benefit for the time spent.

Good point: you can meditate anywhere, any time. I just walk around cities and do the same thing.

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#13

Post by LeonW » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:42 PM UTC

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Hey - I've been meditating daily for the last 6 months and had the same issue as you, where getting started was really the hardest part.

Here is what I've done. The first book that really got me thinking was "Happiness: Developing Life's Most Important Skill" from Matthieu Ricards.

I then went on to use an iPhone app developed by a buddhist monk called Headspace http://getsomeheadspace.com - this is guided meditation, where he walks you through 10 minutes every day for 10 days. Absolutely awesome to get started.

I hope this helps you as much as it has myself to get started! :)

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#14

Post by patrickmay » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:43 PM UTC

The meditation that got me hooked is Quantum Light Breath, voiced by Jeru Kabbal. One version is available for free download online and a couple of others can be purchased from the usual places.

Jeru explains the breathing very clearly. I found this to be an easy introduction.

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#15

Post by neop » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:50 PM UTC

LeonW wrote: post #13

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Hey - I've been meditating daily for the last 6 months and had the same issue as you, where getting started was really the hardest part. Here is what I've done. The first book that really got me thinking was "Happiness: Developing Life's Most Important Skill" from Matthieu Ricards. I then went on to use an iPhone app developed by a buddhist monk called Headspace http://getsomeheadspace.com - this is guided meditation…

Thanks! This looks great :)

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#16

Post by neop » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:52 PM UTC

redwood wrote: post #11

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

edit: a great first step would be to watch the meditative film: Baraka!! To be honest, I would not recommend starting with a book. It'd be hard to go into meditation that way. I don't meditate daily, so what do I know? But I do know that the few times I've gotten to that place where I said "oh wow I love meditating!" were guided meditations led by someone who's good at guiding. Basically for beginners, it's nice to c…

Thanks! I'll check this out...unfortunately I'm nowhere near Berkely :(

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#17

Post by neop » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:52 PM UTC

jackbravo wrote: post #9

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I liked Mindfulness in plain english ( http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html ) and The miracle of mindfulness ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_Mindfulness ). Both have easy approaches and stick to the basics.

Thanks!

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#18

Post by Zelphyr » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:58 PM UTC

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I got started with "Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761159258/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...)

It's a very easy introduction to several kinds of meditation. The CD that comes with it are guided meditations of all the types she talks about in the book.

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#19

Post by antinitro » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 6:03 PM UTC

jackbravo wrote: post #9

neop wrote: post #7

I've been looking for a good book on how to get started with meditation. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I liked Mindfulness in plain english ( http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html ) and The miracle of mindfulness ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_Mindfulness ). Both have easy approaches and stick to the basics.

+1 for MIPE

Re: Why a CEO should develop a habit of daily meditation

#20

Post by Zelphyr » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 6:03 PM UTC

I've found that listening to Binaural Beats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats) helps me during meditation. Often its hard for me to focus on the breath for some reason but directing my attention to the tones of whatever "beats" I'm listening to seems to be easier. It may help that "7 Hz frequencies were found to enhance meditative focus..." (Sample size of 8 people so, you know; caveat emptor)

I use a nice Open Source utility called sbagen (http://uazu.net/sbagen/) which in addition to allowing you to define your own beats comes several pre-programmed beats.