Ask HN: What changed in your life when you started meditating (and how)?

16 points by dondraper36 3 hours ago | 9 comments

It's my N-th attempt at learning to meditate.

At some point, I realized that even lifting weights, sleeping and eating well aren't enough if you can't tame your thoughts and control your stress level.

This time, I have started with the introductory course on the Waking Up mobile app.

It's frustratingly difficult to even get through the first lesson in which you are supposed to focus on your breath and minimize the wandering of your mind.

I think it would be very motivating to hear the stories of how other people incorporated the practice of meditaton into their lives and what the results are.

timoth3y 1 hour ago |

> frustratingly difficult to even get through the first lesson in which you are supposed to focus on your breath and minimize the wandering of your mind

Everyone experiences this. Please don't be frustrated by it.

The mind wandering is part of the practice. In fact, that instant where your mind has been wandering and you "snap out of it" is perhaps the most valuable.

That little skill carries over into real life. When someone cuts you off in traffic and you feel that flash of anger, your mind will catch itself and you'll just let it go and get on with your life.

You're probabably already doing things right.

adamgordonbell 57 minutes ago | |

This is the one thing I remember from my headspace app meditation dabbling.

The catching yourself and recentering is the thing.

dabinat 3 hours ago |

> It's frustratingly difficult to even get through the first lesson in which you are supposed to focus on your breath and minimize the wandering of your mind.

There’s the problem: trying to control your thoughts. Thoughts will come and you shouldn’t beat yourself up when they do. Be patient, keep practicing, and you’ll get better at focusing.

Alternatively consider something like box breathing. I use the iBreathe app and find that works better for me than meditation.

tripleee 1 hour ago |

Literally nothing, so I stopped

> I realized that even lifting weights, sleeping and eating well aren't enough

aren't enough for what?

andrei_says_ 3 hours ago |

Stopped mistaking my thoughts and opinions with reality.

Result: 90% reduction of agony.

Meditation method: remembering the sense of “I am-ness” in every waking moment, stop thinking whenever possible, focus on senses whenever I remember. When: always, unless I forget.

agcat 3 hours ago |

Short answer - stress word started feeling like a joke

vesterde 3 hours ago |

I'm sorry this seems terribly HN of me to not answer your question and go on a tangent, but consider a retreat. If you want to give it a serious try, it's night and day compared to doing it at home for 20 minutes a day, especially in the beginning when nothing makes sense and it's hard to know which direction progress even is.

The first time I did a Vipassana retreat many years ago it really showed me that "oh, right, the mind can get into a veeery different state if given the right environment".

Some might say it's an artificial environment you can't replicate at home, and I agree, but by getting much further in such a dense time, it provided a better anchor for me to know what I'm even trying to achieve in my 20 minutes at home.

But it can be very intense, it's possible it would be too much for someone that isn't in an appropriate mindspace.

I'm a very unserious meditator, but when I sit down I at least know when I'm doing "right concentration" or not, so it's possible to have a direction.

I'm speaking very vaguely, but, you know... it comes with the territory.

lostmsu 2 hours ago |

What's the problem with stress? If you have sleep problems, just put something monotone on the TV/headphones in bed and try listening to it. If you don't - just roll with the thoughts. You will most naturally sleep it off every night.