If you are particularly fidgety and have trouble concentrating, here is a thought experiment that might help:
Sit in a room with minutes to spare and task yourself this: to get to the market and back from your house. Maybe you shop for some fruits or something.
Step into your mental realm imagining every step you have to do in this task. Changing your clothes, tying your shoe lace, locking your door...everything. Not in frames but in a continuous motion as in a movie. It could be boring and I have felt the strong need to snap out of it. It still is difficult to power through, imagining every step and "looking" at the trees and shrubs along the way, picking up and inspecting an apple and putting it in the basket, paying for the goods, etc.
The whole thing is much more difficult than it sounds if you are the kind of person who gets restless easily. With practice, it gets better. Hopefully this helps you get in the productive zone. Good luck!
That's a great tip. I occasionally sit through a somewhat exotic variant: I imagine I can take to flight like a bird (slow flight only, not like Superman) and mentally take off from the balcony and imagine what the town would look like from above. The end of the exercise would be taking a full trip and 'returning' home.
It's a bit more engaging to figure out the aerial view of a place you normally navigate only by road. It's very hard to sustain this practice for even a minute or two initially.
Sit down in comfortable position, close your eyes, try to concentrate on your breathing in and out (your mind will start to wander - keep coming back to the breathing). Repeat everyday.
You'll have the chance to "optimize" and "improve" your meditation experience later on. First, build the habit.
To add to this, one thing I found helpful was to count with every breath in or out, up to ten -- breathe in, one; breathe out, two -- All the way up to ten, then back to the beginning.
Having something so easy and menial, yet requiring constant attention helps immensely to keep the mind from wandering.
I agree that it's better not to use an app, since you don't want to be dependent on a specific voice to get you going, among other things.
The technique you describe (which I also use) is explained more fully by Roger Wells in "Happy to Burn"[1] which I found out about from the "Mind Perfomance Hacks" book[2] originally.
I agree. Relying on an app and voice guide is a bad idea. You are supposed to not concentrate on anything, except for breathing, and having a voice guide would take away from that.
I have done meditation for years now and found it to be very beneficial.
However, I find this article to be very Cargo Cult and am disturbed that nowhere in this entire thread has it been called out as such.
"Look! Meditation must do things because we can make these colored charts telling you about beta waves. What are beta waves? Well, it doesn't really matter, just think of them as bad, because look, meditation does things to your brain, okay??"
The benefits of meditation to mood, creativity, etc are pretty easy to verify for yourself, subjectively. It disturbs me that we feel that adding scientismic mumbo-jumbo gives it credibility somehow. What is presented in this article is not actual science.
There is actual science involving meditation and the brain, but it is in extremely early stages and is hard to draw conclusions from. Our understanding of the brain, in general, is very early! Please be suspicious of pretty colored charts showing brain activity.
> There is actual science involving meditation and the brain, but it is in extremely early stages and is hard to draw conclusions from.
IMHO the best place for information on the science of meditation is the Buddhist Geeks podcast. There are talks on YouTube from their annual conference, which is are also great. The talk this year from Willoughby Britton does a pretty good job outlining the current state of contemplative science:
I belong to a religious group where initiation into meditation happens at about 10-12 years of age for boys. This initiation ceremony is an important ceremony (called thread ceremony) in a male's life. After initiation, every male has to perform a ritual called Sandhya Vandanam [1] thrice every day for the rest of their lives. The ritual has different components. The two important components are Praanaayamaa (breath control exercise) and mantra meditation. A mantra is a Vedic Hymn that is chanted/repeated again and again (for pre-specified # of times). In the Sandhya Vandanam ritual the mantra that is chanted is the famed Gayatri mantra. The mantra is chanted with the following schedule:
Morning at sunrise - Praatah Sandhya - 108 times
Midday - Maadhyanika - 32 times
During evening twilight - Saayum Sandhya - 64 times
The Vedic definition of mantra is "mantaaram traayate iti mantrah". In English this translates to "That which protects the mind is called mantra".
When I was young, I used to perform this ritual regularly. Though I performed the ritual regularly, I used to wonder about the requirement of such a ritual. Over the past few years I have come to know some fascinating things about the ritual and also the Vedas. After gaining the insights, it is ironic that nowadays I do not perform the ritual regularly at all. This article has come at the right time for me to get back into the meditation routine.
As far as I know, sandhyavandana is not a kind of meditation. Sandhyavadana is mostly japa. Meditation is dhyana. When people cite benefits of meditation, they are usually citing studies of mindfulness meditation. Perhaps you'll see some benefits from sandhyavandana/japa also, I doubt it, but that's not what the studies that laud meditation are talking about.
I find it helpful to think of a muscle as an analogy for my brain. Thoughts are like contractions - sometimes they are purposeful when they are part of a movement, an extension of my will. But sometimes they are not; in that way the incessant chatter of the internal monologue, or worse yet, stress, is similar to a cramping muscle, a flood of contractions that come unbidden. Meditation, then, is similar to relaxation exercises, doing stretches or posture training - teaching your muscles how to be at rest. This can then also translate into efficiency and economy of motion when you choose to move, not to mention more energy, because all the useless contractions/thoughts haven't worn you out beforehand. Also, yoga makes a lot of sense when you think of it this way, because you literally do this for both your body and brain at the same time.
Is reducing beta waves actually a good thing? It might allow for focus and relaxation, but I wonder if that might do something like clear your working memory and make you less able to make connections between things. Could anyone that has a good grasp on this comment on whether this might be true?
"I wonder if that might do something like clear your working memory and make you less able to make connections between things."
Your list is sometimes in internal conflict with itself. I have excellent conscious concentration ability and food memory leading to sometimes getting stuck in local maxima for a given situation. Clear the working memory, remove the "stuck" and suddenly free to snap onto the global maxima for a given situation. Or sometimes not. Complex tools are not like screwdriver; sometimes you can't even tell what the right tool for the job is, much less expect it to work. Often enough, using a different tool works better than trying harder with one thats already not working.
Perhaps it's analogous to CPUs? Perhaps it's better to power down your brain when you're not really using it rather than keeping it running hot at full frequency? The idle mind being the devils workshop and all...
Perhaps (and again speculating) it allows currently active pathways to cool down, allowing different ones to activate. This is especially useful if you're trying to solve a difficult problem and seem to be going in circles along the same line of thought. Your inability to break out of the line of thought might at times be more neurological than cognitive.
The benefits of meditation (and any potential problems) do not result in permanent physiological changes. It's like makeup that purports to reduce the signs of aging - it only works if you keep applying it.
Interesting because this is a rarely reported consequence. It seems no one would object to have denser grey matter, but if it is thinner somewhere, it feels like you lost something.
Smaller isn't necessarily worse (and vice-versa). Maybe its a refactoring process where some abstractions builds, rendering other sub-graphs unnecessary.
In the same vein as what everyone else is saying, perhaps what's being thinned out could be related to the types of activity within the brain that meditation seeks to ease, the racing of thoughts, short attention span, etc.
I'm skeptical of articles like this because they tend to draw conclusions from studies that only provide weak correlations. The only concrete evidence I can find is that meditation can help some people relax and temporarily reduce their stress levels. My experience confirms this but I prefer other means of achieving the same effect (like exercising).
"I prefer other means of achieving the same effect (like exercising)."
Other than the obvious muscle workout aspect, I found weightlifting to be highly meditative. Highly structured repeated form every other day, breath control, counting reps/sets, stare at the wall, repeat.
I do a fair amount of hiking / snowshoeing and that can be somewhat meditative. If you relax as you stroll down the trail and let your mind wander intentionally into pure nothingness rather than getting stuck on something specific...
My wife does Tai Chi and from what I see from the outside and from occasionally playing long, its basically slowly moving meditation.
Obviously if you define exercise as "soccer" or "bouldering" then this analogy is not going to work terribly well.
If you are interested in meditation but wary of the eastern mumbo jumbo, I suggest checking out Jon Kabat-Zinn and his works on mindfulness from a scientific perspective.
Not to put words in your mouth but staying on topic you probably want his book titled "The Mind's Own Physician" in comparison to his book on mindfulness as applied to parenting, or his other books. He has written quite a few books on related topics.
He may have (recently?) written a book more specifically on topic than the one abov,e that I'm not aware of.
One of the biggest publishers of meditation products is MindValley (http://mindvalley.com). The story of its founder, Vishen is well documented, and really inspiring. He bootstrapped and grew his business to seven figures without external funds. His purpose is not only monetary; he seeks to "push humanity forward" with his groundbreaking programs.
The descriptions are generally accurate, although very broad. The reticular formation is part of the brain stem, responsible for supporting breathing, cardiac function, and other somatic functions. The most relevant function is it's control of alertness and circadian rhythms.
The thalamus does function as a 'gatekeeper', although that's a bad term, the level to which the thalamus processes sensory input isn't fully understood / agreed upon. It's more like a transit hub connecting all the various parts of the brain and sensory tracts. It receives a lot of sensory fibers from the eyes, nose, ears, tongue.
For the parietal lobe, 'orienting you in time and space' just means that the parietal lobe creates a 3D grid system that helps in coordinating muscle movements. This system is supported by sensory input (auditory and visual). The parietal lobe will receive input from other lobes as well as the thalamus.
The frontal lobe is fairly well described, it basically handles higher level thinking, moral decisions, etc. It receives input from other lobes, the thalamus, and the brain stem.
An important take away is that these are really non-specific anatomical regions, the thalamus has ~30 distinct regions all handling different things. The frontal lobe has numerous gyri (regions) with different functions ranging from executive to motor skills.
What he's saying is pretty bs too. The logical conclusion is not that meditation specifically reduces brain activity, it's more that any lack of sensory stimulation will cause brain activity to slow down because less neurons are firing, this can be achieved with other techniques as well, simply staring at a wall will do the same thing.
I can post sources if you'd like but this information (about the compartments of the brain) is very well accepted by those in the medical sciences.
The app is just to help you to get into a rhythm. I downloaded the app and really liked the user flow. Will definitely use to begin my meditation.
In my experience, I have seen a sea change in people who have started meditating. They are much more calmer and happy. There is a flip side as well. Many people get into a happy mode and start giving up in life.
I think those people are the ones who are getting into in an extreme way, for long periods at a time. And if they are "giving up on life", then they are probably using the euphoria it can cause to hide their problems the same way people use drugs or religion.
[+] [-] davyjones|12 years ago|reply
Sit in a room with minutes to spare and task yourself this: to get to the market and back from your house. Maybe you shop for some fruits or something.
Step into your mental realm imagining every step you have to do in this task. Changing your clothes, tying your shoe lace, locking your door...everything. Not in frames but in a continuous motion as in a movie. It could be boring and I have felt the strong need to snap out of it. It still is difficult to power through, imagining every step and "looking" at the trees and shrubs along the way, picking up and inspecting an apple and putting it in the basket, paying for the goods, etc.
The whole thing is much more difficult than it sounds if you are the kind of person who gets restless easily. With practice, it gets better. Hopefully this helps you get in the productive zone. Good luck!
[+] [-] kranner|12 years ago|reply
It's a bit more engaging to figure out the aerial view of a place you normally navigate only by road. It's very hard to sustain this practice for even a minute or two initially.
[+] [-] 300bps|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dodyg|12 years ago|reply
Sit down in comfortable position, close your eyes, try to concentrate on your breathing in and out (your mind will start to wander - keep coming back to the breathing). Repeat everyday.
You'll have the chance to "optimize" and "improve" your meditation experience later on. First, build the habit.
[+] [-] edf825|12 years ago|reply
Having something so easy and menial, yet requiring constant attention helps immensely to keep the mind from wandering.
[+] [-] dpapathanasiou|12 years ago|reply
The technique you describe (which I also use) is explained more fully by Roger Wells in "Happy to Burn"[1] which I found out about from the "Mind Perfomance Hacks" book[2] originally.
[1] http://www.sankhara.com.au/shop/products/detailFree.html?Pro...
[2] http://www.worldcat.org/title/mind-performance-hacks/oclc/64...
[+] [-] miloshadzic|12 years ago|reply
I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of your post.
[+] [-] smk11|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jgeerts|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jblow|12 years ago|reply
However, I find this article to be very Cargo Cult and am disturbed that nowhere in this entire thread has it been called out as such.
"Look! Meditation must do things because we can make these colored charts telling you about beta waves. What are beta waves? Well, it doesn't really matter, just think of them as bad, because look, meditation does things to your brain, okay??"
The benefits of meditation to mood, creativity, etc are pretty easy to verify for yourself, subjectively. It disturbs me that we feel that adding scientismic mumbo-jumbo gives it credibility somehow. What is presented in this article is not actual science.
There is actual science involving meditation and the brain, but it is in extremely early stages and is hard to draw conclusions from. Our understanding of the brain, in general, is very early! Please be suspicious of pretty colored charts showing brain activity.
[+] [-] Alex3917|12 years ago|reply
IMHO the best place for information on the science of meditation is the Buddhist Geeks podcast. There are talks on YouTube from their annual conference, which is are also great. The talk this year from Willoughby Britton does a pretty good job outlining the current state of contemplative science:
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2012/10/bg-266-mindful-binge-dr...
[+] [-] Sven7|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] svasan|12 years ago|reply
Morning at sunrise - Praatah Sandhya - 108 times
Midday - Maadhyanika - 32 times
During evening twilight - Saayum Sandhya - 64 times
The Vedic definition of mantra is "mantaaram traayate iti mantrah". In English this translates to "That which protects the mind is called mantra".
When I was young, I used to perform this ritual regularly. Though I performed the ritual regularly, I used to wonder about the requirement of such a ritual. Over the past few years I have come to know some fascinating things about the ritual and also the Vedas. After gaining the insights, it is ironic that nowadays I do not perform the ritual regularly at all. This article has come at the right time for me to get back into the meditation routine.
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhyavandanam
[+] [-] lake99|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juanre|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m12k|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] markbao|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VLM|12 years ago|reply
Your list is sometimes in internal conflict with itself. I have excellent conscious concentration ability and food memory leading to sometimes getting stuck in local maxima for a given situation. Clear the working memory, remove the "stuck" and suddenly free to snap onto the global maxima for a given situation. Or sometimes not. Complex tools are not like screwdriver; sometimes you can't even tell what the right tool for the job is, much less expect it to work. Often enough, using a different tool works better than trying harder with one thats already not working.
[+] [-] dalek_cannes|12 years ago|reply
Perhaps (and again speculating) it allows currently active pathways to cool down, allowing different ones to activate. This is especially useful if you're trying to solve a difficult problem and seem to be going in circles along the same line of thought. Your inability to break out of the line of thought might at times be more neurological than cognitive.
[+] [-] sunwukung|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samstave|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xerophtye|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lcedp|12 years ago|reply
Well as study shows [1] meditation not only thickens cortex in some parts of the brain but also makes it thinner in other parts. Just saying.
[1] http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/1/27.long
[+] [-] dcoth|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seren|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agumonkey|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] auto|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agentultra|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VLM|12 years ago|reply
Other than the obvious muscle workout aspect, I found weightlifting to be highly meditative. Highly structured repeated form every other day, breath control, counting reps/sets, stare at the wall, repeat.
I do a fair amount of hiking / snowshoeing and that can be somewhat meditative. If you relax as you stroll down the trail and let your mind wander intentionally into pure nothingness rather than getting stuck on something specific...
My wife does Tai Chi and from what I see from the outside and from occasionally playing long, its basically slowly moving meditation.
Obviously if you define exercise as "soccer" or "bouldering" then this analogy is not going to work terribly well.
[+] [-] ioddly|12 years ago|reply
Much like exercise, if it came in pill form, everybody would take it.
[+] [-] jacquesm|12 years ago|reply
http://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_ha...
[+] [-] TausAmmer|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sagat|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VLM|12 years ago|reply
He may have (recently?) written a book more specifically on topic than the one abov,e that I'm not aware of.
[+] [-] fourthchakra|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mailshanx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mvzink|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] haldujai|12 years ago|reply
The thalamus does function as a 'gatekeeper', although that's a bad term, the level to which the thalamus processes sensory input isn't fully understood / agreed upon. It's more like a transit hub connecting all the various parts of the brain and sensory tracts. It receives a lot of sensory fibers from the eyes, nose, ears, tongue.
For the parietal lobe, 'orienting you in time and space' just means that the parietal lobe creates a 3D grid system that helps in coordinating muscle movements. This system is supported by sensory input (auditory and visual). The parietal lobe will receive input from other lobes as well as the thalamus.
The frontal lobe is fairly well described, it basically handles higher level thinking, moral decisions, etc. It receives input from other lobes, the thalamus, and the brain stem.
An important take away is that these are really non-specific anatomical regions, the thalamus has ~30 distinct regions all handling different things. The frontal lobe has numerous gyri (regions) with different functions ranging from executive to motor skills.
What he's saying is pretty bs too. The logical conclusion is not that meditation specifically reduces brain activity, it's more that any lack of sensory stimulation will cause brain activity to slow down because less neurons are firing, this can be achieved with other techniques as well, simply staring at a wall will do the same thing.
I can post sources if you'd like but this information (about the compartments of the brain) is very well accepted by those in the medical sciences.
[+] [-] mail2gaurav|12 years ago|reply
In my experience, I have seen a sea change in people who have started meditating. They are much more calmer and happy. There is a flip side as well. Many people get into a happy mode and start giving up in life.
[+] [-] smk11|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikevm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mknits|12 years ago|reply
It's free to learn.
[+] [-] L4mppu|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wads|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] vfusion|12 years ago|reply
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