How to Exist

My form of meditation is to go for a run, no music, no distractions. It usually takes me half an hour to finally reach a point where my mind goes quiet, I "solved" everything that would otherwise keep repeating in my mind while trying to sleep. I don't have to come up with a solution but at least it feels like I spent enough time on it to let it go.

Especially long runs do wonders, I get into a relaxed trance like state which sticks even after running. Maybe it's the exhaustion or the fact that the energy is spent somewhere other than my brain, but I don't care, it feels nice.

> Apart from this detail, I wonder if there are well established scientific argument that make that "genetics of behavior" the main factor in our modern behavior. At first glance it looks like a wild theory, created by a journalist who wrote self-help books and held a psychology column.

Could you expand/explain this more?

Just because something is hard doesn't mean it's worth doing. Evolution selected impatience for a reason. Of course, the flip-side is fake supernormal stimuli like screens, etc. that does more harm than good. The new environment we live in is incompatible with our old brains. But that doesn't mean you literally do nothing. It's ok to not meditate--figure out the right balance for you. I believe before meditating try getting rid of things like junk-food, doomscrolling etc. What's the point in meditating 15 minutes a day just to be distracted with cheap dopamine several of your waking hours.

I think experiences vary depending on person and personality.

I'm fine with doing nothing for a long time[0], but know friends and family members that struggle with not filling idle time with their phone. I do think this is learned behavior that people can adjust over time with practice (i.e. meditation).

0: I'm a voracious reader, frequent solo traveler, and was a paid photographer for a bit. Sitting, observing, and thinking is something that I do on a daily basis and comes naturally to me.

Another popular one is "forest bathing", being mindful and present in the moment while walking in a forest. Tai chi is quite an involved skill and is based on qigong, which I found much easier to get into on my own in an apartment. I've done some Vipasana style medication which helped reduce racing thoughts in bed (but unfortunately didn't help as much as I hoped at actually getting to sleep :/).

The one that had the most distinctive effect for me is zhan zhuang. Song Gao has a really excellent instructional video on YouTube about the basic method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCVUojtpS80

Remember that the people who teach this type of stuff (when they aren't fraudsters) put a huge amount of time into learning the technique well and need to find at least a few people that interested to pass on the technique but if you aren't working towards doing that you can get a lot of benefit in much less time. Song Gao recommends in a different video doing zhan zhuang for at least 30 mintues a day, but I would say (agreeing with the tai chi instructor whose blog pointed me to these videos) that just doing it once for 15-20 minutes (it may take some time to work up to that) provides a lot of benefit (in my case including both a distinctive feel of enhanced perception and eliminating, for at least a couple of months until it came back less intense than previously, the fairly minor pain I would get in my shoulders when I end up standing at a computer for a few hours nonstop, though of course I still try to move around more often). I started doing it a bit more often a few months after that first time so I can't say how long the pain reducing effect would retain some effect not doing it again but it is clear to me that you don't need to do it anywhere near daily to have major positive effects. While doing it I've noticed both muscle soreness in a number of places and had mild panic attacks but unless it gets too severe it seems like the brain can work through it just by holding the pose (I have a couple of times needed to stop due to increasing pain). I didn't the first time but since then often listen to music which I suspect like with qigong is not offically correct (though the videos I watched didn't say one way or another that I noticed) and likely reduces the meditative aspect in some ways but makes it easier and I enjoy it.

The article mentioned how we have a tendency to want to move on to the next thing even when doing something we enjoy, which I have definitely found to be the case (though I am disabled and have more time available than most people and already do almost everything more slowly than most people). One potentially impactful form of mindfulness would be to just focus on this part and try to be more present in the moment when doing whatever it is you enjoy. As I understand it this is a major focus of tantra (where the thing it is know for in the US is just one possible application, nothing intrinsic or even common). I haven't tried any formal methods around this but have found it valuable to intentionally be more mindful and at times consider and untangle the related ideas of satisfaction, fun, enjoyment, etc.