
How to meditate - lazydon
http://www.wikihow.com/Meditate
======
Tenoke
I ask this fairly often - Can anyone show me some decent studies (with
significant sample sizes, good controls etc.) that show any benefits of
meditation worth the 30-60 mins a day that you need for it?

Alternatively, can I get the same benefits from just lying on my bed or
listening to music for the same amount of time?

~~~
emperorcezar
Don't know if anything in this helps, but Wikipedia links to some reasearch.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation)

~~~
Tenoke
I've checked random studies from this wiki on multiple occasions and they
weren't very convincing.

------
chunkyslink
I've taken to meditating while running. I've tried many of the techniques
described here but I find myself most able to work with while running is
'follow your breathing'.

Sometimes I've 'come round' after a 20 mins or so and I've literally run
miles. By 'come round' I mean I am able to manage about 20 minutes.

Of course always be aware of your surroundings and this is often better on
trails and tracks where there are no cars.

~~~
SeanDav
I used to meditate while running (at least for some definition of meditation)
- but the downside is you have to be exceptionally fit to do it. Can't imagine
me being able to do that now!

~~~
hessenwolf
I tried and failed to get into running on my own for years, until one day I
went running with a colleague, who was also a seargeant in an Asian national
army, and regularly ran two marathons in a day.

The first thing he said is, you are running too fast. You should run slowly
enough that you can breath regularly, or you will never last. So, I slowed
down, and I can do 12k an hour or so, which is pretty fair, but I only ever go
for a max of two hours at a time.

I find it incredibly meditative, and use it as my creative problem-solving
time.

One tip though, NEVER run on your heels. Get some barefoot shoes or just
concentrate on not doing it. You lose the spring in your angle and knees, and
just bang the hell out of your joints.

------
lbsnake7
I've been trying to find a no bullshit guide to meditation for a long time now
but I can't. None of this energy, chakra bullshit. Just a proper guide to
relaxing your body and calming your mind through breathing exercises, positive
thoughts and maybe some external stimuli (like music). But almost every guide
I read has to do with how the stars channel their energy through your heart to
make you feel one with nature.

~~~
mbrock
Try instructions from the Theravada Buddhist tradition, or zazen. Though
Buddhism itself is enormous and diverse, these traditions of meditation
instruction are in themselves rational, unsuperstitious, and useful. I
particularly recommend Gil Fronsdal's introductory series on
[http://audiodharma.org/](http://audiodharma.org/) \-- which comes from a U.S.
tradition of secular mindfulness meditation inspired by Theravada and Zen.

~~~
dwc
Very good advice. For an excellent primer, I recommend Mindfulness in Plain
English[1], which has been around for 20+ years and remains one the best and
most recommended books. There _is_ a little mystic stuff! but it's easily
ignored.

1\.
[http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html](http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html)
\- links to buy, or scroll down to read first edition PDF for free.

~~~
mbrock
Yeah. The mystic stuff might also turn out to be interesting or even true.
People are so picky with what they read! :)

------
actsasbuffoon
The problem I have with meditation is that I get too relaxed. If I clear my
mind and let my muscles go limp then my heart rate drops very rapidly. I
decided to experiment with it when I was waiting to have my wisdom teeth
removed. They hook you up to a heart monitor to make sure the general
anesthetic doesn't cause your heart to stop, and within a few minutes of
meditation I managed to set the heart monitor's alarm off.

Through years of practice I've gotten faster at it, and now I can get into a
reasonably deep meditation in less than 30 seconds. The problem is that after
about a minute my eyes start to very painfully roll back into my head. It
hurts like hell and is completely involuntary. Trying to keep them from
rolling back prevents me from meditating.

I've looked around on the internet, but I've never managed to find an
explanation of why that happens to me. Seems like I'm a pretty severe outlier
on that one. Has that ever happened to anyone else?

~~~
up_and_up
A dropping heart rate is a sign that your mind is calming way down. The same
thing happens to me. Heart rate and blood pressure both drop. It is connected
to the breathing rate. If you can reduce your breath rate down to 1-2 times a
minute you can feel extreme calmness but it will greatly lower the heart rate.
Just do some vigorous yoga or exercises after the meditation session to get
the blood pumping again. Not sure about the eye issue. Maybe try open eye
meditation. Example of a yogi practicing open eye meditation:
[http://www.yogananda.com.au/galleries/py1/images/py1923.jpg](http://www.yogananda.com.au/galleries/py1/images/py1923.jpg)

------
spodek
My one-step way worked great, which was to go on a retreat with this
organization -- [http://www.dhamma.org](http://www.dhamma.org). It's suggested
donation.

The challenge is the first time you go has to be for a full ten days. No
reading, writing, or talking. The idea is you are a monk for ten days. I had
never meditated before. I showed up with comfortable clothes and toiletries
and they took care of everything else. Very challenging, but as rewarding and
life-changing as anything I've done.

I wrote up my experiences -- [http://joshuaspodek.com/vipassana-
meditation](http://joshuaspodek.com/vipassana-meditation),
[http://joshuaspodek.com/goenka-10-day-meditation-
retreats](http://joshuaspodek.com/goenka-10-day-meditation-retreats), and
[http://joshuaspodek.com/jumping_for_joy](http://joshuaspodek.com/jumping_for_joy)
\-- for more background.

EDIT: copying from the first link to save a click (losing the formatting,
sorry):

A reader emailed me about mindfulness and self-awareness. I mentioned to him a
meditation retreat I did a few years ago and found an old post I wrote about
the experience, answering another reader’s questions about the course.

I did a ten day Vipassana course a few years ago.

What it’s about: It teaches you a meditation technique and gives you the time
and space to practice it. It’s based on buddhist beliefs. We meditated for
8-10 hours per day for ten days. That’s basically it. You aren’t supposed to
read, write, gesture, etc, except to ask the instructor questions. They
provide food and instruction on what to focus on.

Was it hard: Yes, it was hard. The first couple days were painful while
getting used to sitting still for so long. I started getting comfortable by
the second day. Ten days is a long time (the place I went in Massachusetts
required your first session be ten days) so it’s a mental challenge.

Keep in mind, thousands of people have done it. It’s hard, but anyone can do
it. You just have to persevere.

Main benefits: Some people had profound, life-changing positive experiences,
understanding more about themselves and their perception of the world around
them. Some people go regularly. On the other hand, some people left early. I
found the experience positive.

The main benefits were a better understanding of my priorities in life,
calmness, less attachment to things, more freedom. I haven’t meditated much
since then, but I do sometimes, and I keep many of the benefits. I’ll probably
go again for shorter sessions periodically.

I later added

By the way, I don’t like religion, so I didn’t like some of the buddhist
stuff, but no one else I talked to had a problem with it. I guess I’m more
sensitive to religion than most. You can generally ignore the religious part
if you want and just get the technique. I did, anyway.

and

Regarding location, I don’t think it would make that much of a difference. My
eyes were closed to meditate around ten hours a day, sleeping seven or eight
hours a night, meals in an eating room. There is not much room for variation.
Nor should there be. All one needs is quiet.

~~~
mbrock
I've talked to quite a lot of people who went to a Vipassana retreat,
sometimes as an exotic break from, say, partying in Thailand, without any back
info or experience, found it super amazing and intense and great — but then
didn't keep up any kind of meditation habit.

And though I think the organization is quite impressive and obviously
appealing to a lot of people, I'm quite skeptical about this approach to
beginning with meditation.

Of course I appreciate that going cold turkey into a difficult retreat is in
fact quite heroic, but I sometimes think that the glowing reviews and
recommendations are not so much grounded in a sober assessment of the best way
to start meditating.

And so I must play the boring guy and point out that there is a large number
of smaller local organizations teaching mindfulness meditation in a simple and
straightforward way. You don't have to go to Southeast Asia, and you don't
have to go on a strenuous retreat the first thing you do.

I started meditating by myself, then joined a local group for longer evening
sittings, then did some one-day retreats, then went to a temple for a weekend
retreat, then a four-day, then a seven-day, and now I try to go to a four-day
or seven-day at least a couple times a year.

This wade-in approach has been very nice and rewarding for me. It's helped me
keep up a habit of (more or less) daily meditation for a few years. And yes,
it is the most valuable and wonderful habit I know.

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
> go to Southeast Asia

Trappist and Benedictine monasteries have been running retreats for many
centuries, but the hip kids are christo-phobic.

~~~
mbrock
Eh, or they're just not Christian? Hip kids? You're being quite uncharitable
-- maybe you should try a retreat.

------
rainmaking
I have to admit that the woman in the illustrations was so expressively drawn
it had a distinct distracting effect from my inner calm.

------
jasongaya
Great Post with perfect image

------
a8da6b0c91d
You repeatedly see deep breathing recommended, which is exactly wrong. Do not
take deep breaths to calm down. Instead take shallow breaths as slowly as
possible. You want to boost blood CO2 levels. This is how bag breathing works
to reduce anxiety.

Overbreathing/hyperventilation induces anxiety. A high breathing rate is
correlated to disease and illness; the healthiest people breathe the least.

~~~
dood
Different traditions recommend different breathing techniques, but the most
common teaching (that I've come across) is to not make any conscious effort to
modify your breathing, instead concentrating on simply observing the breath as
it is.

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
Deliberately lowering the breathing rate is extremely powerful. Who cares what
some alleged "tradition" says.

More powerful is vagus nerve stimulation coupled with reduced breathing. Hold
your breath for a minute at a time with your face in cold water.

~~~
shock
I care. Vipassana meditation is about observing reality as it is and accepting
it. Trying to control the breathing would defeat the purpose. Other forms of
meditation are based on controlling the breathing and in those cases the
purpose and outcome would probably be different but not trying to control the
breathing has definitely its uses.

------
a3voices
Meditation is extremely overrated and is mostly a placebo.

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
Meditation in the context of these bobo articles is just prayer for westerners
who hate Christianity. It's a warped solipsistic form of prayer, however. Of
course if they knew a damn thing about real Buddhism or Hinduism they'd avoid
using terms from those religions, too.

~~~
locopati
You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about Westerners practicing Eastern
religions. If your practice is Christianity and you are happy in your
practice, why does it bother you how other people find the same relief?

~~~
a8da6b0c91d
I'm not christian and I have no chip. I just think the social dynamics of this
meditation stuff are highly noteworthy and important. It is absolutely rooted
in western self hatred and rejection of tradition.

Anyway, these people aren't really practicing eastern religions. They're
simply remaining ignorant enough about the faiths that their PC sensibilities
aren't triggered.

~~~
locopati
At least in the community of practitioners that I am a member of, that doesn't
ring true. Many people, including myself, did not connect with the faith they
were born into, yet found something that spoke to them in Zen practice, which
is deeply rooted in tradition (albeit one novel and unfamiliar to most Western
practitioners). To say that 'these people aren't really practicing eastern
religions' is a sweeping statement. Again, it may apply to some folks, but not
generally to members of the communities I have experienced.

I'm curious about your connection of self-hatred to 'the social dynamics of
this meditation stuff.' Could you expand on what you wrote?

