Do you meditate?

[Kodos]

I'm thinking of taking up meditation, and was curious if we have anyone who regularly meditates on the board.

[Drake]

Do you consider daily/intentional prayer as meditation?

* Asking for a friend

[RainMaker]

I was using the Headspace app for awhile. Kind of cool. Probably should have kept at it.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Drake

Do you consider daily/intentional prayer as meditation?

* Asking for a friend

Yes. Meditation can be of the religious or secular variety. Basically, just putting aside time to quietly explore yourself, talk to your higher power if you have one, get in touch with the universe, send positive thoughts to others, etc.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Yes. Meditation can be of the religious or secular variety. Basically, just putting aside time to quietly explore yourself, talk to your higher power if you have one, get in touch with the universe, send positive thoughts to others, etc.

For whatever it's worth, that's the exact opposite of my understanding of the purpose/practice of meditation, which is to clear the mind entirely.

[Kodos]

I think it's clearing the mind and then listening to the universe/god/etc.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

For whatever it's worth, that's the exact opposite of my understanding of the purpose/practice of meditation, which is to clear the mind entirely.

Yes to this. Meditation and prayer have some similarities in how you are generally calm and focused spiritually, but the act of prayer is completely different than meditation. The benefits of meditation come from clearing the mind.

[PilotMan]

Meditation has been great for me. I find the Insight Timer App is good for directed, but mostly I prefer the silence or sounds of nature for meditation. I am a more balanced person when it's a part of my routine. The hardest thing about it is shutting off your mind and focusing on the present. Letting go of the things that weigh you down and demanding your mind bend to your will takes practice. It's like practicing any kind of skill. It's not praying or thinking, it's quite the opposite. It's recognizing that you're alive in this minute and to take in the world around you. It's the lack of conscious thought to simply be and appreciate all that entails. I also use it to prepare for big events, to visualize goals, and calm myself.

[PilotMan]

Ping Lorena on this one too.

[BYU 14]

I kind of work it into my morning Yoga, so yeah

[cuervo72]

I'm not against it - relaxation is a good thing - but if I'm going to do anything relaxing it should probably be more sleep.

[Radii]

I took an 8 week course called "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction" a few years back and documented my experiences in a dynasty here:

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course - A RL Writeup - Front Office Football Central

I wrote a LOT. There were lots of activities that I learned about in this class related to mindfulness, but the main thing I came away with was a meditation practice.



There are different types of meditation, with different focuses and different aims. Most apps as I understand them (I've personally used HeadSpace) focus on Mindfulness Meditation, which is the the type of meditation I practice.


I would describe meditation as weightlifting for your brain/emotional well being. When you go to the gym and lift weights, you have an intense session where you train your muscles, your body physically changes based on this, and you become stronger in day to day life, over time and experience benefits in your day to day life.

When you practice mindfulness meditation, you are giving yourself an intensive mental workout. Over time studies show that this does actually change things within your brain, and you can develop skills that you can use in day to day life to enjoy the little things more, to improve your mindset about stress, to improve dealing with anger and stressful situations based on your "exercise" of meditation.

"For whatever it's worth, that's the exact opposite of my understanding of the purpose/practice of meditation, which is to clear the mind entirely."

I would take slight issue with this, because "clear the mind entirely" is a common idea and it leads many new people to frustration because they "fail" at completely clearing their mind.


Let me describe mindfulness meditation briefly as I see it and do it:

You sit in a quiet area, relaxed (but not so relaxed that you'll fall asleep, which is why posture and stuff comes up in things you google but IMO it doesn't truly matter much), close your eyes and focus on your breath. For the duration of your meditation, you simply aim to notice your breathing - in whatever way this might mean for you (a light focus on your stomach/chest moving as you breath, feeling the air enter your nose, a silent internal "in/out" mental note each breath).

While you're doing this, thoughts will pop into your head. Your aim is to notice the thoughts, but to let them pass by without latching on to them and interacting with them. You may start thinking about your grocery list, you may notice your leg is a little stiff, you may focus on some major problem currently in your life. Your aim is to let those thoughts go and to return to your breathing. Everytime this happens, consider it a "rep" - going back to the weightlifting analogy.

You will rarely, if ever, "clear your mind" - some days may be "good", some "bad" - as far as thoughts coming and going. Sometimes you latch on to thoughts and it takes awhile to "return to focus on your breathing". But that's the aim. And there are days where I've meditated for 30 minutes and my timer went off and it felt like 2 minutes, and it honestly felt magical. But the days where I meditated for 30 minutes and it felt like 2 hours... those are equally important. It's all "practice".


I've probably typed too much. I'm extremely passionate about this and consider meditation and mindfulness to have been lifechanging for me, I'd be happy to answer any questions about it.

[Schmidty]

Yes. I meditate every morning and try to every night. It’s part of my therapy and it has worked wonders. I use mindfulness meditation, vipassana, and even some meditations from St. Francis. It actually changes often, depending on what I need at that time.

My favorite places to listen to guided meditations and such are usually Theravadan Buddhist sites. I’m a Christian, so I personally filter out the the stuff I don’t need or want, and take the rest. I love how the Buddha even said that he wasnt a god, he was simply fully enlightened and honoring him isn’t to honor a god, but to honor the potential of each of us to be enlightened.

I need to pick up my daughter, so I need to go, but I’ll be checking on this thread again later.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I picked the Trout option because while I've meditated before, I never did it regularly and I don't do it now. That made the "I used to meditate" option feel wrong, since it was never really a concerted / regular effort on my part.

My wife, on the other hand, meditates daily. She suffers chronic and debilitating migraines, and the meditation really helps with her pain management and mental state. I have thought about incorporating some sort of meditation myself, but it's really, really difficult for me to stop thinking about all the things I have to do, and I typically end up bailing on any effort to focus my thoughts inward after a short time.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Dola - along the lines of what Radii mentioned: I find it impossible to "let idle thoughts by," and end up focusing on them. It makes the effort frustrating rather than relaxing for me.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Dola - along the lines of what Radii mentioned: I find it impossible to "let idle thoughts by," and end up focusing on them. It makes the effort frustrating rather than relaxing for me.

One thing that helps me when thoughts come, don’t pushed them away, accept them kindly, and let your body feel gravity and allow yourself to settle without an expectation.

One person who I love to listen to is Mel Weitsman. His teacher was the great Zen Master Suzuki Roshi who built one of the first Zen centers in San Fran. When people ask him how to meditate, he says to simply sit and know that you’re sitting. It helps me because wanting something to happen hinders meditation for me. My greatest sits and insights come when I just sit and allow things to happen.

There is a great saying from St. Francis (I might be wrong) that says, “Birds will fly over your head, but you don’t have to let them nest in your hair”.

[Chief Rum]

When I was first getting into meditation, a friend of mine put the thought thing this way, and it made sense to me. He said that when you have a thought and you allow it to leave, or even if you latch onto it, and then remember and refocus, each time you do this is like a weight lifting rep for your mind. You won't be really good at it at first, but as you do it morr, you will get better at blanking your mind and not latching onto thoughts for too long.

Personally I have gotten the best results by focusing on the touch of a body part. Such as focusing on the feel of my fingers on the arms of the chair I am in. Once I have that focus, I gradually try to widen my focus, feeling my back against the chair back, my feet on the floor and taking in the sensations of the environment (any sounds I hear or smells). All the while, keeping my breath even as Radii mentions.

When I'm successful, I feel great and I'm surprised when my alarm goes off. When I'm not, I'm distracted and can't wait for the alarm to go off so I can get going with the rest of my day.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Dola - along the lines of what Radii mentioned: I find it impossible to "let idle thoughts by," and end up focusing on them. It makes the effort frustrating rather than relaxing for me.

I would say that is a reason to want to meditate more, or it would be to me. Over time, that is a thing you may become better at through practice, and the benefits from that can carry over into the rest of your life in a positive way.

An aim of meditation to me has never been for any sort of immediate benefit. Its the long term benefits that aren't even related to future meditation sessions that I'm after.


If I am looking for immediate relaxation, then I'm going to go lie down and set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and practice deep belly breathing. Breathing into your diaphragm is the only way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system which is the opposite of the system that controls stress and fight or flight sensations (with related hormones). I don't care what i'm thinking about, i can be watching something on my phone while i do that, as long as i'm breathing properly, it'll work. https://yogainternational.com/articl...dote-to-stress seems useful/accurate/informative on this.

Meditation, to me, is a totally separate act with a totally separate aim.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

One thing that helps me when thoughts come, don’t pushed them away, accept them kindly, and let your body feel gravity and allow yourself to settle without an expectation.

This resonates with me as well. Using mindfulness terminology - acceptance without judgement.

My mindfulness teacher used an analogy that helped me a ton. He said to envision your thoughts as clouds in the sky, they are there, you can look at them, you cannot control them, and they will pass by. Sometimes when I'm meditating and really finding myself latching on to something in my head, I'll actively try to picture the thing in my head as a cloud passing by to let it go. Sort of like you might imagine sheep as you count them to sleep.

I've heard others use different analogies that help them as well.

[path12]

I've been flirting with Buddhism for the past couple years and though my general apathy/dislike of religion has kept me from delving as deeply as I'd like (so far at least) I am trying to work daily meditations into my life.

Currently do 3-4 days/week. I do find it helpful though it is hard for me to quantify exactly why I feel that way.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by path12

I've been flirting with Buddhism for the past couple years and though my general apathy/dislike of religion has kept me from delving as deeply as I'd like (so far at least) I am trying to work daily meditations into my life.

I also generally find Buddha's basic teachings and practices to be useful because they never reference any kind of divinity or higher power. As such it doesn't necessarily fall under my definition of 'religion', and the practices seem generally to be internally focused, on mental/emotional health in particular. That said, my understandings are extremely shallow, and it also seems that there are several flavors of Buddhism (Tibetan in particular?) that do indeed add that religious/divine/mystic aspect, which seems almost contradictory.

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Ping Lorena on this one too.

How funny. I haven't been on the board in quite a while but something propelled me to come... I HEARD YA!!

Should you meditate? Absofreakinglutely!! I cannot begin to tell you how much it changed my life. I went to a Vipassana Mediation retreat where we meditated at least 10 hours a day. I went from "practicing" for 5 minutes a day, to hard-core 2 hours at a time. It was the hardest thing I've done in my entire life, but I'll do it again in a heartbeat.

There are different ways to meditate. Some prefer guided meditation, some prefer visualization, but I prefer complete silence. And it's not about sitting in the Lotus position with your hands on your knees, eyes closed. Running is a form of meditation, some people do a "meditation walk", where you're completely mindful of every step, muscle movements, sensations around you. You can sit in nature and "watch the trees grow." I absolutely love doing that. Sometimes I'll be at work, sitting in my cube and practice Mindful Meditation. It's intentionally focusing on breath, and paying attention to sensations around your body. Yeah you're holding holding the mouse, but how does it feel? How are my eyes feeling after staring at the monitor? Strained, warm, tired. I feel my arms on the handrest, and feel the soft, but comfortable pressure on my elbow.

Well, you get the idea. Have at it Kodos!! 2 things that really stuck with me:
1 - everything is impermanent. As I sat for 2 hours, with my ass hurting, we just concentrated on the sensation of how it felt and sure enough, it eventually went away.
2 - when bad/sad thoughts creep up, take some hard breaths. ALWAYS come back to breath.

It takes practice. I'm not saying I'm perfect, because I don't meditate as often as I should. But you'll be surprised how helpful those hard breaths are.

Best of luck, Kodos. I know Meditation Retreats aren't for everyone, but when I left, I left with so much love and compassion for everyone. My hope is for my friends/family/acquaintances feel what I felt after my stay there.

Oh, and one last thing, I highly... HIGHLY recommend 10% Happier by Dan Harris. He was a complete skeptic to meditation. It took a breakdown on national TV to compel him to give it a try.

Sorry, I just keep typing heh heh. I started a dynasty on my meditation retreat. I'm terrible at keeping up with it, but hopefully I'll get time to finish it. Up til Day 10.

I hope you come back and give us an update, I'd love to hear how it goes with it.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Running is a form of meditation, some people do a "meditation walk", where you're completely mindful of every step, muscle movements, sensations around you.

Funny you mention this. I absolutely hate running, but cardio is an important part of my lifestyle and I recently started incorporating meditation into my running, playing hippyish rock (think Greta Van Fleet, Warren Zevon, etc) in my head phones and just staring at the clouds, trees or distant mountains as I run. It has actually turned running from a chore into an experience that I look forward too. 4 miles went by yesterday like nothing and I feel totally relaxed when I am done.

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I picked the Trout option because while I've meditated before, I never did it regularly and I don't do it now. That made the "I used to meditate" option feel wrong, since it was never really a concerted / regular effort on my part.

My wife, on the other hand, meditates daily. She suffers chronic and debilitating migraines, and the meditation really helps with her pain management and mental state. I have thought about incorporating some sort of meditation myself, but it's really, really difficult for me to stop thinking about all the things I have to do, and I typically end up bailing on any effort to focus my thoughts inward after a short time.

Omg, don't give up!! One of the things about.meditation is this stigma that if your mind isn't blank, you're doing it wrong. In my meditation retreat, I was also extremely frustrated and felt that I didn't get it. The instructor said, and it really stuck, that whatever is happening, is right. It's supposed to be happening. In Dan Harris's book, he also talks about his frustration at 'not doing it right'. Seriously, there's no such thing. It's called practice for a reason.

It'll click for you, like it did for me and so many others. Believe me, you're not alone. If thoughts come to you, be kind to yourself.

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

When I was first getting into meditation, a friend of mine put the thought thing this way, and it made sense to me. He said that when you have a thought and you allow it to leave, or even if you latch onto it, and then remember and refocus, each time you do this is like a weight lifting rep for your mind. You won't be really good at it at first, but as you do it morr, you will get better at blanking your mind and not latching onto thoughts for too long.

Personally I have gotten the best results by focusing on the touch of a body part. Such as focusing on the feel of my fingers on the arms of the chair I am in. Once I have that focus, I gradually try to widen my focus, feeling my back against the chair back, my feet on the floor and taking in the sensations of the environment (any sounds I hear or smells). All the while, keeping my breath even as Radii mentions.

When I'm successful, I feel great and I'm surprised when my alarm goes off. When I'm not, I'm distracted and can't wait for the alarm to go off so I can get going with the rest of my day.

How funny you mention the arm rest. I'm so passionate about meditation I didn't even read the comments haha oops.

But you're spot on, Chief. I also focus on touch, it centers me and reminds me about focusing on the now, the present.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Well, you get the idea. Have at it Kodos!! 2 things that really stuck with me:
1 - everything is impermanent. As I sat for 2 hours, with my ass hurting, we just concentrated on the sensation of how it felt and sure enough, it eventually went away.
2 - when bad/sad thoughts creep up, take some hard breaths. ALWAYS come back to breath.

It takes practice. I'm not saying I'm perfect, because I don't meditate as often as I should. But you'll be surprised how helpful those hard breaths are.

Best of luck, Kodos. I know Meditation Retreats aren't for everyone, but when I left, I left with so much love and compassion for everyone. My hope is for my friends/family/acquaintances feel what I felt after my stay there.

I hope you come back and give us an update, I'd love to hear how it goes with it.

Thanks for the encouragement! I think I will try to incorporate meditation at night before going to bed. My mornings are already used for running, or sometimes (very rarely) for working out. I imagine emptying my mind will be tough for me, as my mind is usually a mess of thoughts/distractions at any given time. In general, I've been trying to be more generous/altruistic lately as part of a transition to a more spiritual nature. I've moved away from being somewhere on the agnostic/atheistic part of the religious spectrum to become someone who believes in an afterlife, but doesn't want to be penned in by any particular religion's rules. My general goal is to be nicer to others, and more giving of myself.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Omg, don't give up!! One of the things about.meditation is this stigma that if your mind isn't blank, you're doing it wrong. In my meditation retreat, I was also extremely frustrated and felt that I didn't get it. The instructor said, and it really stuck, that whatever is happening, is right. It's supposed to be happening. In Dan Harris's book, he also talks about his frustration at 'not doing it right'. Seriously, there's no such thing. It's called practice for a reason.

It'll click for you, like it did for me and so many others. Believe me, you're not alone. If thoughts come to you, be kind to yourself.

Well, my level of frustration is not particularly high, so this is nothing unhealthy

I'm in a weird place where I suspect that meditation could improve my life, but I have no real driving need to use it at the moment. I don't have anger management problems, and I'm pretty low-stress (though work lately has been testing that theory). Combine that with being extraordinarily busy (something planned or scheduled almost every evening of the week, every week), and it's hard to fit meditation in.

As I said though - I don't think this "excuses" me from meditation, just that the impediments to it combined with a knowingly ill-conceived notion that I'm "doing it wrong" add up to a difficulty in giving it a serious effort.

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Well, my level of frustration is not particularly high, so this is nothing unhealthy

I'm in a weird place where I suspect that meditation could improve my life, but I have no real driving need to use it at the moment. I don't have anger management problems, and I'm pretty low-stress (though work lately has been testing that theory). Combine that with being extraordinarily busy (something planned or scheduled almost every evening of the week, every week), and it's hard to fit meditation in.

As I said though - I don't think this "excuses" me from meditation, just that the impediments to it combined with a knowingly ill-conceived notion that I'm "doing it wrong" add up to a difficulty in giving it a serious effort.

Oh yeah, I completely get it. Here I am preaching about how completely awesome it is, but I don't do it daily. Our minds have to be ready for it, I understand

[Godzilla Blitz]

I've been meditating pretty regularly for about 8-10 months now. In the past 5 months I've maybe missed one or two days a month.

I use the Insight app for its timer. I do exclusively silent meditation, just counting breaths, constantly getting distracted, and pulling myself back to the breathing.

I've ended up on 17 minutes per session, once a day. I have no idea why I've ended up on 17 minutes. I was trying to work up to 20 and somehow just got in the habit of doing 17 minutes. Maybe it's because it feels long enough to be beneficial but short enough that it's easy for me to want to do.

I feel like it's improved my life. My focus has improved. I'm calmer too. I've come to really enjoy the time as well. It's a place to go mentally where I can just let go and turn the world off for a bit, and I come back rejuvenated between the ears. I look forward to it.

[fizeto512]

I'm thinking of meditating again, it's great, just I don't have time

[PilotMan]

Damn bots.



They've come so far in the last 10 years, I wonder if in a few years if we'll even be able to spot them or if they'll be just good enough to have some doubts.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Damn bots.



They've come so far in the last 10 years, I wonder if in a few years if we'll even be able to spot them or if they'll be just good enough to have some doubts.

I know right? Look at fizeto512 member since 2017, and 3 of his 4 posts are links to air purifiers. But he leads his comment within the context of the thread topic. Easy to miss if one is not paying attention.

[path12]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I also generally find Buddha's basic teachings and practices to be useful because they never reference any kind of divinity or higher power. As such it doesn't necessarily fall under my definition of 'religion', and the practices seem generally to be internally focused, on mental/emotional health in particular. That said, my understandings are extremely shallow, and it also seems that there are several flavors of Buddhism (Tibetan in particular?) that do indeed add that religious/divine/mystic aspect, which seems almost contradictory.

I am not any kind of expert either but you nail what for me is the appeal -- rather than an external/all powerful deity it encourages me instead to look within, and that satisfies both my instincts and my innate skepticism.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by path12

I am not any kind of expert either but you nail what for me is the appeal -- rather than an external/all powerful deity it encourages me instead to look within, and that satisfies both my instincts and my innate skepticism.

Yeah, it was particularly fascinating to me to realize that I had an American cultural bias built up around Buddhism as some sort of "Eastern Mysticism", but the more I read about it the more I realize that all of the "Eastern Mysticism" is ironically an entirely Western construct.


The best example of this that I see regularly, is the Western belief that karma is some sort of mystical force that forces balance in the universe, rewarding good behavior and punishing bad, whereas the actual Buddhist teachings seem more along the lines of "if you actively cultivate a "good" (or bad) environment, doing good work, thinking good thoughts, and surrounding yourself with good people, then those things will obviously increase the likelihood of more good things happening to you."

[Kodos]

Figured I would report back in on this. Surprised that it was over a year ago that I posted the poll. Times flies!

I'm happy to report that I did actually start meditating after I posted this thread. I started out using the Calm and Simply Being apps. Especially in the beginning, I felt like I needed a guide. Plus, I found Tamara Levitt's voice (on Calm) to be soothing to listen to, so that helped. Eventually, however, I started to find her breaking in every now and then to say something to be distracting, so lately, I have just been meditating in a quiet, darkened room with some wave-noise playing in the background (to drown out the TV show that my wife is usually watching down the hall in the family room). I don't meditate every night, but I'd estimate that it's a good 5 nights out of 7 on average. I do have streaks where I go a bunch of days without missing one, but then some nights I'm too tired and decide to skip it.

Like others have reported, some nights go pretty well and I feel like I'm doing a good job of focusing on following my breath. Other nights, it's constant distraction and pulling myself back. I realize that's par for the course, and I don't get upset if I get distracted. I just non-judgmentally move my attention back to the breath. Like others have said, coming back to the breath is like doing another rep. Recently, I've been trying to breathe through my nose, but I find that to be more difficult to follow. I feel more sensations breathing through my mouth. Sometimes I try focus on my stomach going up and down.

At times I go back to the Calm app because I find their meditation series on certain topics are helpful to me. I've always struggled with self-esteem issues, and I feel like Tamara's "7 days of self-esteem" series does help me to some degree. In general, I'd say that I'm less harsh on myself than I have been historically. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I've never been motivated to be a high achiever, and that this trait doesn't make me a lesser person. After I've worked an 8-hour day, I'm pretty much done. I don't want to be the person working 12-hour days and over the weekend. I've always needed downtime. I like to spend time with my family or just doing my own thing. I've never really defined myself by my job like some people do. My path has always been to find a job that I am good at but that I can put aside as soon as the work day is done. Most of my college friends (and my older brother) are more achievement oriented, so if I compare my career with theirs, I don't come out looking all that great. I'm just not built to be a business leader or a doctor or a psychologist. I'm content being a very competent person who works in a supporting role on a team. I've never wanted to be the one calling the shots. I don't want to lead meetings. I feel like meditation has helped me stop judging myself negatively for being the way that I am. I'm not less valuable because I don't value "getting ahead" like many of my peers do. My family has a nice house and nobody is left wanting. We're doing well enough in my book.

I've also been listening to talks by folks like Ram Dass and Gelong Thubten on YouTube. I feel like I'm slowly moving toward more of an Eastern perspective on the world. I kinda think they get some things right that we Westerners get wrong (materialism being one of the main things we get wrong). I feel like I would be just as happy or maybe even happier with less stuff and a simpler existence. I also enjoy listening to Stephan Schwartz and his talks about doing the quotidian choice where you try to make your everyday choices based on the greater good. For instance, buying a product from a company that is friendlier to the environment rather than buying one that is cheaper but from a company that abuses the environment. (It actually ties in nicely with the vegetarian lifestyle that I chose for myself several years back.)

Anyhow, there's my report. I feel like I'm making progress on becoming a better version of myself. I try to be kinder and more patient these days, not that I'm all the way there yet. I still get mad a slow drivers and crap like that. I have lots of room left for growth.

Oh, here's one last little nugget. Before I started meditation, I tried this game called Mindball at the CT Science Center where two people try to move a ball by producing alpha and theta waves in their mind. The first time, I was terrible at it! Lost every time. Then, late last year, we went back to the science center again, and this time, I crushed everyone I went up against. So that was a tangible result from taking up meditation, which was nice, because a lot of the time, I feel like meditation is doing good things, but it is hard to say why I feel that way or quantify anything. So now I have something to show for it!

[CrimsonFox]

would anyone be willing to run some meditations or something?

[QuikSand]

My resistance to mindfulness is almost weird. I'm a thoughtful person, have heard cascades of reports of how it has helped people I respect, and I exhibit most of the classic symptoms that it is purported to target.

I think I have committed less than one hour of my life in any sort of attempt to meditate. I would say that I get something similar out of dong crosswords, or even playing FOF, but that's born of naivete more than analysis.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I would say that I get something similar out of dong crosswords.....

This is an interesting activity that I can now totally envision QS doing. I was taken aback at first, but now, it's like the picture of him I have in my head.

[Kodos]

[Kodos]

This is at least tangentially related to meditation. It's a presentation by Laurie Santos, a psychology professor who teaches the most popular course in the history of Yale: Psychology and the Good Life. It talks about research into what makes people happy. Meditation and being in the moment are a couple of the things that scientists have found help produce happiness. If you have some time to watch it, I highly recommend it.