

Meditation boosts part of brain where ADD, addictions reside - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/08/meditation-boosts-part-of-brain-where-add-addictions-reside.ars

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h0h0h0
When I began to work on overcoming my addictions, I never gained any traction
on it until I made meditation a part of my routine. I don't know anything
about the scientific aspect of it but I noticed that I was more patient with
things, able to suffer/sit through things and sit with myself a lot more. I
think the sense of self-comfort that came from meditation was the most
important thing. not the sense of comfort, but being comfortable with myself.

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hop
Can you expand on how you started? Your routine?

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Herring
<http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html>

That's what works for me. It's not at all involved, just concentrate on
breathing. When the mind wanders, just pause & (non-judgmentally) go back to
observing the breath.

Of course YMMV, but I find half an hour a day is enough.

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dpapathanasiou
" _It's not at all involved, just concentrate on breathing. When the mind
wanders, just pause & (non-judgmentally) go back to observing the breath._"

That's the same method "Happy to Burn" describes, but I still find it a case
of "easier said than done", and difficult to do.

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rjurney
That is the case, and that is the point. It is very hard, in fact impossible
to do for more than a few seconds without practice. Which is the problem you
are solving by practicing. If you can make yourself just sit there, not
scolding yourself as you drift, but always returning to silence and the
breath, you can go longer and longer without thinking.

Its just like physical exercise - repetition makes you better. And just like
physical exercise, it makes your entire life better.

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dpapathanasiou
Right, and that's why I thought to comment about " _It's not at all involved_
" - it _is_ that involved.

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GiraffeNecktie
More informative article here:
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816155000.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816155000.htm)

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rjurney
Meditation is for the mind what physical exercise is for the body. That is why
people do it, because it pays off in enhanced performance and mood. It is as
difficult and painful to sit in intense focus for hours at a time as it is to
exercise intensely for hours.

In my experience, both kinds of exercise pay off about the same amount. Taken
together, they constitute a major self 'upgrade.'

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flatline
That is one very real and tangible result of meditation. There is an aspect
beyond this that grows from the concentration developed by regular meditation.
I don't know about "enlightenment" but at least for me, after several years of
steady practice, it's more about accepting things as they come and letting go
of my ideas about how they should be. Somehow this has ended up nullifying the
entire concept of an upgrade or enhancement for me, which is quixotic.

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rjurney
Sounds like you're happy :)

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kargdt
Perhaps, we stress the need too often to overcome our "disorders" versus
leveraging and unleashing the powers of being outside of the normal
distribution of the population. I have known my own symptoms that are
reminiscent of ADD (and a host of others!) for a while now but have chosen to
not overcome them through adderall,etc. but realize that these abnormalities
might make me a more creative individual. Of course, its easier said than
done, and it will most likely be an internal conflict existing a lifetime.
Meditation seems like a practical way of reducing stress and channeling
focus...

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neurotech1
I don't think this article is informative at all. ADHD-Inattentive (or ADD)is
primarily a frontal lobe condition.

I'm not convinced that meditation alone will boost attention. Meditation tends
to boost alpha activity in the brain, but that only has limited advantage in
attention.

Alpha boosting activities would help more with addictions.

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michael_dorfman
I don't know anything about the neurological side of things, but many forms of
meditation are all about attention management.

Put another way: if meditation doesn't boost attention, you're probably not
doing it right.

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neurotech1
Your probably correct; "if meditation doesn't boost attention, you're probably
not doing it right."

As an EEG tech, the stories from the 70s were somewhat legendary, about
meditation and EEG. Alpha training was considered almost magical.

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kragen
What were these stories?

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iliketosleep
interesting stuff. i tried meditation a while back and persisted for about a
year. after which i had a sense of self which was previously lacking. i'm glad
they're starting to verify this stuff with research.

