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Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

calm.com

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Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#121

Post by doorhammer »

Dewie wrote: post #103
zenbowman wrote: post #75

This picture sums up my thoughts perfectly: http://anticache.img0.joyreactor.com/pics/post/comics-before... Anyone who has looked into causes of stress cannot avoid the fact that a lack of PHYSICAL activity, a lack of PHYSICAL presence, and a lack of PHYSICAL stimulation is a major, if not the major factor. Trying to get the average person today to meditate on a computer screen is like trying to get your average desk…

I've used a computer program in order to aid me in meditating. That was a program dealing with sound, not with anything visual. You're right that computers for computers sake is missing the point. But so is dismissing computers because they're computers, or because they're used in unconventional ways. I can at least say that using that program made it a lot easier to get into a more meditative state. And it was not s…

"once he reaches his destination at the far shore, does the wise man pick up the ferryboat and carry it with him?"

- http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/ferryboat.html

(linking to an angelfire page on hn is probably my favorite thing of the day)

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#122

Post by livepreview »

Lambdanaut wrote: post #95
tucosan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this cynical? It is rather cyinical to offer such a service. Meditation like most things in life takes deliberate practise, effort and can be dull, hard and boring at times. This is not meditation but distraction. If you want to medidate, first, don't do it alone. Do it with other people. Go to your next zen dojo, or Yoga school or whatever is available in your area. And then sit together with the people in th…

> This is not meditation but distraction. If you want to medidate, first, don't do it alone.` To me this is a practical oxymoron. At least when I was first learning to meditate, I had to be completely alone in a quiet place. Being surrounded by others sounds really unnecessary and distracting.

Shared focus, accountability, and retrospect. Also, a potential group of friends who won't judge you for doing nothing but sitting on a pillow for a half an hour (or more) every day.

There are pros and cons to everything.

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#123

Post by eevilspock »

csmeder wrote: post #81
zenbowman wrote: post #75

This picture sums up my thoughts perfectly: http://anticache.img0.joyreactor.com/pics/post/comics-before... Anyone who has looked into causes of stress cannot avoid the fact that a lack of PHYSICAL activity, a lack of PHYSICAL presence, and a lack of PHYSICAL stimulation is a major, if not the major factor. Trying to get the average person today to meditate on a computer screen is like trying to get your average desk…

It saddens me such a cynical response made it to the top. I will use this app. Some days I walk to a local park to meditate. Some days I go to the meditation class we have at work. However, some days I plan to use this app, even if for just the 2 minute meditation. In my experience, in regards to stress prevention even 2 minutes of meditation is better than none.

"zen" bowman vs "cs" meder. coincidence?

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#125

Post by KingMob »

andrewcooke wrote: post #27

what kind of meditation needs (or is helped) by this? i kind-of do mindful meditation (i'm no expert) and this would be just one more piece of sensory data to acknowledge and then largely ignore. if you're doing "concentrative meditation" (i'm using terms from wikipedia) then i would have thought this would be distracting. is this more like new age tv?

I agree with you in several ways, but to be charitable, just look at the site as a place to go to get some guided meditations for newbies.

I think over time, people turn away from guided meditations as distracting (I know I do), but something like this could be helpful to the right person.

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#126

Post by KingMob »

dbtc wrote: post #102
thucydides wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. The site's 10 minute guided meditation right now does not sound like the forms of Zen meditation I'm familiar with, and it doesn't sound like mindfulness meditation. What is it? And is it evidence-based? I practice Zen-style breath-counting meditation (susokukan) now. No doubt many different kinds of meditation are beneficial, but I suspect they have different effect sizes. Probably some do nothing for…

breath-counting meditation sounds really interesting, where did you learn about it? Any recommended resources?

I can give you basic instructions based on what I've been given at Fire Lotus Zendo and Insight Meditation Society:

Sit, get comfy, and calm down. Relax your eyes, your jaw, your shoulders, and anywhere you're carrying tension.

WHen you're settled, focus on your breathing, pick one spot (belly, nostrils, nose, etc) and count each breath in your mind. Try to count softly; you want to pay attention to your breathing, not your counting. Start at 1 and go to 10. When/if you reach 10, start over again from 1.

When you find yourself distracted by a thought (and you will), that's normal. Just acknowledge the thought, and start counting again from 1.

Get curious about your breath. Is it hard or soft, fast or slow, dry or wet, smooth or ragged? Notice the pauses at the ends of the inhale and exhale: what's it like? What are the parts in-between like as it comes and goes?

If you find the counting helpful, stick with it. If you find the counting too distracting, just try to pay attention to the breath without it.

Lastly, don't worry too much if your mind is bouncing around like a monkey on a sugar rush; that's pretty normal. Most of the practice of meditation is continually coming back to the present moment, not attaining blissful thought-free emptiness (which is quite rare, even on retreat).

Good luck

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#127

Post by onnoonno »

zenbowman wrote: post #99
csmeder wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It saddens me such a cynical response made it to the top. I will use this app. Some days I walk to a local park to meditate. Some days I go to the meditation class we have at work. However, some days I plan to use this app, even if for just the 2 minute meditation. In my experience, in regards to stress prevention even 2 minutes of meditation is better than none.

I see that comment as a voicing of my anger at seeing the direction in which we are heading. I'm not cynical about technology, I'm upset about our becoming slaves to it and losing our humanity to it instead of using it for connection and rediscovering and enhancing ourselves. BTW I feel very similarly about many other meditation services offered, even in the outside (non-tech) world. Far too many gurus who purport to…

OTOH, I am spending more and more of my free time at the local hackerspace. Talking to people and combining computer with real world stuff. Also, manual work.

I have the impression that there has been/there is a society-wide phase transition, recently. More and more people seem to realize now that being in front of the net all day isn't really fulfilling, either.

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#128

Post by KingMob »

jimmaswell wrote: post #53

I've read about meditation, and a consensus I'd seen was that you're not doing it right if you need an external aid. You're supposed to learn to do it on your own entirely.

Well, that's not strictly true.

If by "aid" you mean the video, well, the Pali Canon (the oldest known buddhist meditation writings) talk about kasinas, which are visual meditation objects, though they're not especially popular these days.

And of the "Three Jewels" that support buddhist practice, one is the sangha, which can be translated as community, so it's not always true that meditation should be a solitary practice either..

I think guided meditations like this may be useful for beginners, though that being said, I think no stimuli may be better in the long-run than even soothing stimuli.

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#129

Post by KingMob »

RankingMember wrote: post #8

Actually, integrate this with some kind of consumer-grade portable EEG to monitor progress and I'll be the first person to give you my money.

Former neuroscientist and current meditator here (even went to the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute to combine the two once). While it's nice to want objective measures of meditative progress, there are two caveats:

a) Once you start meditating, you will probably notice subjective improvements that will be of more importance than things like vertex electrode amplitude.

b) This is still early days for brain science. Our tools (EEG and fMRI) are way cruder than the populace at large believes, so take their results with a grain of salt.

Re: Meditate in front of your computer with Calm

#130

Post by KingMob »

joeevans1000 wrote: post #115
joeevans1000 wrote: post #110

cool! to get rid of the annoying logo in the top left paste: $('#logo').hide(); into the console of the dev tools (option-command-i on mac)

by the way, if this resonates with anyone for whom meditation is new and they want to learn more, a great book is Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki that's a great book for anyone, new to meditation or not.

I second this. Good book.
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