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How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

well.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#201

Post by amazingman »

LunaSea wrote: post #16
personjerry wrote: post #14

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as. We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way t…

> interpretations of the world are all in our head I don't think most people are stressed because of "interpretations" of the world rather than very real problems like paying the bills and terrible working conditions.

The stress is the interpretation of/response to "very real problems". One of the habits formed in meditation is the ability to create space between perception and interpretation, in which we can explicitly notice how the mind is reacting to these problems, and where we can create a habit of asking of ourselves questions like "is this feeling/reaction useful?".

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#202

Post by amazingman »

There's a lot of false disagreement going on in these threads. It should be noticed that talking about meditation, and the resultant discussions about the uses of meditation, the strange experiences of no-self/universality/etc, the nature of the self-ing mind, et al are all ultimately recursive. At the edges of all of these conversations is self-cancelling language, and if one is to get too hung up on linguistic explanations of these things, one is almost surely going to end up arguing with herself.

Meditation is useful, possibly life transforming, and the techniques and effects are available to most people. Unfortunately, this claim exists in a grey area between/overlapping objectivity and subjectivity, and can only really be tested in the laboratories of our own minds.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#203

Post by smartial_arts »

Meditation brought about some massive changes for me: increased focus, better and more acute introspection; I became way less irritable and my stress levels reduced.

I briefly outlined my before and after experience in this blog post: http://nimblegecko.com/you-are-batshit-crazy/

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#204

Post by edeion »

hotcool wrote: post #80
westoncb wrote: post #13

I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so, and I've studied meditation literature pretty seriously for about the past year. At least in my case—and I think this isn't so unusual—there is a steep learning curve: for most people there's just not enough reason to stick with it. That said, at this point…

I used to meditate for 20 minutes daily, but my mind still acted like a spoiled petulant child, so I upped it to two hours first thing in the morning (in one sitting). I use one of these meditation posters as a focal point: http://zenpusher.com The results have been profound. My mind is quiet and obedient now. I experience equanimity throughout the day.

This thread seems somehow off topic, but it's a topic by itself…

I would recommend against images. They feel helpful at first but they tend to mislead by infusing the idea that they have something to do into the meditation.

Moreover, as an aside, I didn't see anyone mentioning that you don't force yourself out of thoughts: just let thoughts come and pass without considering them intentionally. (I guess that's what westoncb meant by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11135378)

But what can I say? I felt the way you describe for some time. I can't even say if it resulted of meditation. And it vanished as it came, unexpectedly. I may have considered that I acquired satori and experienced the hard way that satori is not something you possess. But I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my advice is bullshit according to OP.

(To anyone feeling like reading about zen meditation, I would recommend Shunryu Suzuki's book Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen.)

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#205

Post by tra3 »

awl130 wrote: post #121

2009: 1 hr 2010: 30 min 2011-2014: 10 min 2015-present: 0-10 min these are my daily averages. i have one rule: before I go to bed, I must assume the lotus position on the floor in front of my bed. 2015 was particularly a challenging year for me (startup problems), and it was all i could do to even assume the lotus position for a second. so for much of 2015 i really didn't meditate, which was ironically when i probabl…

A lot of what you say resonates with me and my recent experience. I found that when I need meditation the least, it's easy to find time and the process is effortless. When I need to meditate the most, this is when I can't find the time and settling down for even a minute is tough.

I dont know what the long term effects are, but certainly short term effects are striking. Keep on meditating :)

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#206

Post by erdojo »

ggreer wrote: post #38
erdojo wrote: post #18

There is also a growing body of evidence that for some people mindfulness and meditation can cause intense and lasting anxiety and exacerbate depression. (Just one of several recent stories on the subject: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindf... ) That has been my experience. I've done meditation retreats and the like. I do find it slows down my mind, but can also surface things that frankly I…

> I've done meditation retreats and the like. I do find it slows down my mind, but can also surface things that frankly I'm perfectly happy to leave under the surface. Please don't take this the wrong way, but to me, that sounds less like meditation and more like sitting with your eyes closed. If thoughts arise that cause feelings of fear, anger, shame, panic, etc… those thoughts and feelings can be noticed and obser…

Agree that in a meditative moment you can observe and let these thoughts go, but they've still surfaced and that can have repercussions.

I like the quote :), but I also believe there's value to postponing interacting with said truth. IMHO sometimes the best medicine is avoidance, at least until enough time has passed that the horror and truth can be acknowledged without causing one to lose their mind.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#207

Post by erdojo »

astrostl wrote: post #124
astrostl wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine this phenomenon generally has less to do with meditation/mindfulness, and more to do with Relaxation-Induced Anxiety: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22relaxation-induced+anxiety%22 . Which is its own problem, with its own treatments. Like in programming, reliable reproduction is at least half the battle in solving a bug.

Upon re-reading the OP, let me stress: generally . As in, various reports and articles about meditation triggering anxiety and/or panic. I am by no means e-diagnosing or responding to anyone in particular! Just noting that Relaxation-Induced Anxiety is a real and treatable problem, and that it would make sense for meditation to be a reliable trigger for it.

Fair enough. Looking into Relaxation-Induced Anxiety :).

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#208

Post by erdojo »

mkesper wrote: post #31
erdojo wrote: post #18

There is also a growing body of evidence that for some people mindfulness and meditation can cause intense and lasting anxiety and exacerbate depression. (Just one of several recent stories on the subject: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindf... ) That has been my experience. I've done meditation retreats and the like. I do find it slows down my mind, but can also surface things that frankly I…

... can also surface things that frankly I'm perfectly happy to leave under the surface. Mind you they _will_ hurt you over time if you just push them away. You probably should get professional help first before trying to meditate.

They may hurt you, not will.

Because sometimes it takes time to be able to face your demons.

Life doesn't stop when bad shit happens. You still have to go to the grocery store and do laundry. You still stub your toe on a curb. People still fart on the subway. Sometimes you can let life happen for awhile, let your body heal and your emotions level and your mind strengthen before diving into the reality of what happened. There's no timeframe for this. Days, weeks, months, years. Depends on the person.

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