I don't really meditate, but one thing I've found helpful is to make it a point to not purposefully distract myself from mindful thought.<p>The truth is that we all have plenty of time for mindful thinking, even if we don't actually set aside time to sit with eyes closed in a "meditation" state. Think about how much time is spent just sitting on a train, or in line doing nothing. The instant impulse most of the time in these types of situations is to pull out your phone and distract yourself from thinking by looking at a web article, or playing a game.<p>I found that by reducing this habit in my life (not completely eliminated or else I wouldn't be commenting here) I had much more time for mindful thinking in my normal day to day life.<p>Another way to get started is to go on a long walk without headphones. Maybe even leave your phone at home. A year or so ago I was working through some shit and found it extremely helpful to take long walks on a trail that I loved with no electronics at all. That time spent free from distractions allowed me to develop introspection that was extremely useful and therapeutic.
Just a note - meditation <i>can</i> have negative side effects: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-dark-knight-of-the-souls/372766/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-dark-k...</a><p>This article, which has been submitted to HN before, investigates several severe reactions to meditation and the nonexistent research in, or even interest in researching, its downsides.<p>Having a negative reaction to meditation is not surprising, if you think about it. Deep introspection can lead to crippling mental states, depending on what you do or do not find. You may expect to find meaning and find none, or you may find something haunting from your past or within your psyche. Either can be a disaster for your personal well-being. I find it somewhat vapid to discuss meditation as simply an efficiency lifehack.<p>From the article:<p>> For Britton, this widespread assumption—that meditation exists only for stress reduction and labor productivity, "because that's what Americans value"—narrows the scope of the scientific lens. When the time comes to develop hypotheses around the effects of meditation, the only acceptable—and fundable—research questions are the ones that promise to deliver the answers we want to hear.<p>> ..."But," she cautions, "what about when meditation plays a role in creating an experience that then leads to a breakup, a psychotic break, or an inability to focus at work?"
From my experience it is even more than this. I meditate 2 hours a day and it has had a profound, yet subtle, influence on my daily practical life. Things are just much better. It appears to me that when you make things better on the inside, there is a direct influence on the outside.
Meditation is one of those things that people aren't allowed to not like. If you say you don't like it or it's not for you, you get overwhelmed and drowned out by the echo chamber.
This is so true! And GC is a brilliant metaphor.<p>Typing this quickly since I'm on a deadline at work, but for those interested in getting started, I set up a quarterly "Meditation Challenge" online group to track progress and keep people motivated by having a group of people and a goal. Myself and people in /r/meditation run it, so it's not a corporate anything, just a public service.<p>You an add your email and it will notify you when the next challenge starts:<p><a href="http://meditationchallenge.co" rel="nofollow">http://meditationchallenge.co</a>
I think the metaphor is OK, but in my own experience I think it misses the mark a little bit.
From what I have learned, you need to GC because you generate too much garbage; one of the ways that meditation helps is that you simply generate less garbage (less scattered, less thoughts) thus you don't need to GC/sleep/whatever that much.<p>And why do you generate less garbage? It's because you become better focused (concentration) on whatever you do (which by the way brings mindfullness as a side-effect, not on purpose). With proper concentration, you also become aware of the "dirt" (word that was used in the article from the atlatnic) and will tend to avoid this dirt. This is important, because if you want to get better at something, you must be able to recognize what's wrong. The problem with having these insights is that if you don't have a teacher to help you, you will get stuck at best or regress at worse.<p>Also there are alot of different meditation techniques, and although they are similar, the devil is in the details. I'm sure this definition is not appliable to every type of meditation, and that's OK.
I have tried meditation a few select times and over two sessions in the same year, I had the same experience. I found that I was in some sort of odd state, neither asleep nor awake. I did not have any recollection of my body. But my thoughts were strikingly aware of reality. I felt an overwhelming connectedness to essentially everything. I googled for the sensation and the closest match I could find was an Hindu word: turiya. I have no experience with this domain and have felt actually quite lost since I have never encountered anyone who had a similar frame of reference. It was quite overwhelming and has not happened but those two times. I do not indulge in any narcotics or mind altering drugs. Very unusual experience.
I use meditation to deepen good thought "rivers". The way I see my mind is... something happens and triggers a thought which goes down the deepest "river". For example, I hear some bad news at work; my mind processes this trigger and goes down the deepest "river" leading me to a feeling of anxiety.
I like the analogy as a hook and lead in but a bit disappointed to find the actual content a bit lacking, but perhaps that's the point?<p>Would be helpful to include a brief summary of the three different practises of Vipassana or insight medidation as a whole just to provide an introduction.