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

Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

news.harvard.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 185 posts

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#31

Post by arbitrarywords »

peatmoss wrote: post #27
pgrote wrote: post #3

What is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?

I'll second this, with the specific request for recommended secular resources. I've found I get pretty turned off the higher the quantity of mysticism / spirituality, veneration of random leader persons, and faux eastern cultural elements thrown in as color.

I found Waking Up by Sam Harris pretty interesting. It's a bit more abstract than a how-to manual, more why and what. http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Spirituality-Without-Religio...

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#32

Post by _nullandnull_ »

pgrote wrote: post #3

What is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?

The best resources I have found are books, audio tracks, a good meditation app and discipline. In regards to the latter, the hardest thing about meditation is consistently doing it.

Books: "Calming the anxious mind" by Jeffrey Brantley, "Mindfulness: An eight-week plan for finding peace in a frantic world" by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, "Mindfulness for Beginners" by Jon Kabat-Zinn (my favorite), "Wherever you to there you are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Audio: The second and third book both have cds or downloadable tracks. The audio tracks are a good way to start.

App: Insight timer. I have been using it for years.

Most of these books approach meditation from a non-religious approach.

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#33

Post by chrissyb »

The thing i don't like about the term "meditation" is that its too closely intertwined with spirituality. Where meditation should actually be associated with relaxation.

This article only mentions the control group twice, once to say "None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time". This is just bad reporting - How about telling us what the control group were actually doing?

If they (control group) were not taking part in any type of consistent relaxation for 8 weeks then how would you expect to see any changes in the control group?

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/yoga-woo/

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#34

Post by fernly »

akeck wrote: post #8
pgrote wrote: post #3

What is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?

I found these downloads useful: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/medita...

I know Gil Fronsdal and the community he serves. His talks are always practical and empathic. There won't be any woo or supernaturalism in these, but a generous humanity.

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#35

Post by rory096 »

redmaverick wrote: post #23

There are different types of meditation styles. I had experience with a type of meditation mentioned in the article. It is known as mindfulness meditation. Even in mindfulness meditation there are different approaches. Mine is mindfulness through the awareness of bodily sensations. http://www.dhamma.org/ This is the 10 day course I underwent. It is pretty brutal and intense. You meditate for 8 hrs a day in total sile…

Can you offer some background on why you decided to attend? How much experience with mindfulness did you have beforehand?

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#36

Post by pwr22 »

sravfeyn wrote: post #30
redmaverick wrote: post #23

There are different types of meditation styles. I had experience with a type of meditation mentioned in the article. It is known as mindfulness meditation. Even in mindfulness meditation there are different approaches. Mine is mindfulness through the awareness of bodily sensations. http://www.dhamma.org/ This is the 10 day course I underwent. It is pretty brutal and intense. You meditate for 8 hrs a day in total sile…

Why and in what way is thinking about sensations and one's body different from thinking about past or future? Aren't there other ways to condition mind to bring back its thoughts away from the Past or Future, why is focusing on breathing the only way that meditation teaches?

Focussing on breathing is one particular instance but not the only thing you can do. Essentially you are practising focus and learning things about your mind you might not have noticed before

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#37

Post by fernly »

peatmoss wrote: post #27
pgrote wrote: post #3

What is the best way to learn how to meditate? Any good resources?

I'll second this, with the specific request for recommended secular resources. I've found I get pretty turned off the higher the quantity of mysticism / spirituality, veneration of random leader persons, and faux eastern cultural elements thrown in as color.

The Mindfulness in Plain English book mentioned above, or the Insight Meditation Center talks linked below, are both without fake spirituality or mysticism.

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#39

Post by kranner »

chrissyb wrote: post #33

The thing i don't like about the term "meditation" is that its too closely intertwined with spirituality. Where meditation should actually be associated with relaxation. This article only mentions the control group twice, once to say "None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time". This is just bad reporting - How about telling us what the…

They weren't expecting to see changes in the control group. Control groups represent the baseline, untreated state.

Also, meditation and relaxation are not the same thing.

Re: Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)

#40

Post by [deleted] »

rohitarondekar wrote: post #9

I'm not well versed with reading research papers etc but I have one question. Could it be possible that by simply practicing mindfulness meditation the brain restructured itself via a placebo style effect rather that because of the meditation itself? For anybody who has access to the paper what did the control group do during the eight weeks?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN