Ask YC: Meditation Advice

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=454146

by andr • 17 years ago

59 78 17 years ago

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I am getting a lot of stress lately and have trouble focusing, so I'm looking to start meditating to help my case. I failed to find something useful on searchyc.com. My only experience with this are the 5-minute meditations a professor made us do in class. I am basically failing to see the difference between meditation and sitting on the couch and watching empty space for a couple of minutes.

So, what is the hacker way to meditation? Do you have any tips as to how to approach it? Thanks!

CulturalNgineer2• 17 years ago

try biofeedback... with meditation type exercises... search for WildDivine I think...

I found it helpful..

andr• 17 years ago

That looks useful, but I would prefer not to have to sit in front of the computer.

CulturalNgineer2• 17 years ago

Agree and understand.. after brief basic use can use the biofeedback feature alone (i no longer use the "game" aspects) with simple finger clip... (get "grapher" option) and then may not even need that...

aristus• 17 years ago

Best meditation advice I got was completely unexpected so I took it to heart. It was in a footnote in a book called "Ventriloquism For The Total Dummy".

1) Dark room. Dark.

2) Lie in bed or on the floor.

3) Breathe.

4) More slowly.

5) Nope, slower. Hold it in tension.

6) Concentrate on breathing. This is not a nap.

netcan• 17 years ago

I would add:

7) Practice. This isn't magic. You are trying to get your body & brain to do something. It's not something it just does regularly by itself. Think of it as exercise.

skmurphy• 17 years ago

This is good advice. I learned Transcendental Meditation a while ago and found that it did relieve stress. I also found that when I was tired I would fall asleep instead of meditating since that's what my body needed. I try and do it when I first wake up in the morning for 20 minutes and again sometime before dinner. Sleep and exercise are also good at reducing stress, but I have definitely found that meditation helps me to relax and reframe my perceptions.

rscott• 17 years ago

You have to realize it IS different than staring into empty space. The breathing is the most important part, as aristus mentioned. Just try some deep belly breathing with your eyes closed for five minutes. The effects can be drastic. Good luck.

unohoo• 17 years ago

if you're looking for yogic meditation, then its true essence lies in the breathing technics.

There are variations to the breathing technics - so its important that you do a little research on it rather than just randomly trying out something.

Search for 'baba ramdev' in google/youtube - he's a yoga guru in India who's achieved cult status.

code_devil• 17 years ago

yes, he has some good techniques.

Also 'Art of Living' does some basic and advanced courses. They are helpful too.

Update: http://us.artofliving.org/art-of-living-course/index.html

nose• 17 years ago

Have you read "Autobiography of a Yogi"? I'm half way through the book and am loving it.

zupatol• 17 years ago

This book tells about so many miracles that I mostly appreciated it for its weirdness.

I liked the part where the immortal himalaya yogi instantly makes a palace appear, walks in it for a while with his pupil, and makes it disappear again. The point was just to get rid of a desire for luxury that remained in the pupil's karma (or something like that).

aneesh• 17 years ago

He's up to date on technology, and has a sense of humor too :)

See http://tinyurl.com/cx39vd

staunch• 17 years ago

Meditation isn't a silver bullet. If you're not sleeping enough, you should do that first. If you're not exercising enough, do that second.

khafra3• 17 years ago

I do internal martial arts (Which are Chinese arts which partake of Chi Gung a bit '(Xingyi Bagua T'ai Chi)) in a class where we actually hit each other--near full strength, but slowly. There's nothing like it, in my experience, for stress relief; it's far beyond static meditation or hitting the open road on my motorcycle or dancing at a club.

Having a punch completely take your equilibrium because you let your mind get trapped in an analysis paralysis loop is a wonderfully effective biofeedback mechanism.

jscn3• 17 years ago

In my experience, punches take your equilibrium due to physics, not your thoughts on the punch...

mnemonicsloth2• 17 years ago

Sounds fun. How do you learn, and can you recommend a source?

jscn3• 17 years ago

Personally I find any activity which forces you to lose that constant mind chatter to be very relaxing. My favourites are sparring (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), weight lifting and Life Drawing. I guess it's that old 'flow' thing.

The nice thing about exercise is it will help you sleep better, which I find is half the battle in trying to maintain focus (especially for us programmers who spend most of the day sitting at a desk).

aaronblohowiak2• 17 years ago

Lose your mind and come to your senses.

tjic• 17 years ago

Lifting is good.

I took a blacksmithing class the other day, and that was excellent.

noodle2• 17 years ago

this. for the vast majority of people, meditation does not relieve stress. its good for other purposes, but not heavy-duty stress relief. and this comes from someone who meditated almost daily for several years.

in general, the best ways to relieve stress follow the rule of thumb: "take care of yourself". sleep long/well enough, exercise, eat right, ensure personal health (go to doctor/dentist, get a massage, etc.), and take the time to do the things you enjoy.

pchivers• 17 years ago

Seconded. In my experience, meditation can lead you into some wonderful states of consciousness, but its effects on stress reduction are relatively minor compared to other options e.g. getting enough sleep, exercising, eating a healthy diet, removing causes of unnecessary stress.

PStamatiou• 17 years ago

and if you're not having (much) sex, you should do that third.

bad_user• 17 years ago

http://www.mindfulnesscds.com/author.html

vikram• 17 years ago

Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans has a bunch of recipes which deal with meditation. You could probably get it on http://safari.informit.com I think the first couple of weeks is free.

Fourfold Breath is the basic technique. Or google pranayama yoga. I idea is to control your breathing and through that control your being.

robg• 17 years ago

If stress is the problem, I would try a more active martial art like karate, tai chi, kung fu, etc. Exchanging sitting in one place and breathing for another place and breathing doesn't seem like an optimal solution. Better to get moving around while learning to control your breath. Running does that too, but I find it's rough on my joints.

EDIT: I neglected yoga, which is excellent for de-stressing and working out daily kinks. The problem is it's popular and so it's expensive. As an extra bonus, if you're single, there are many worse places to be than in a yoga class.

cadalac• 17 years ago

I play on a hockey team. Helps you forget about other things. Plus smacking a puck, or people occasionally is good for relieving stress. The only draw back is getting an intense work out right before going to bed doesn't really help your sleep.

zensmile• 17 years ago

I have tried meditation at the local Shambhala center (2 years) and also meditation after Vinyasa Flow Yoga session (1 year so far). I found both rewarding. They were rewarding for different reasons though. It would take volumes to note the differences. Essentially, the first was more spiritual and the second was physical and spiritual. This book may help you... http://tinyurl.com/bfqdq9 I go to yoga class weekly and practice sitting meditation less, but try to fit in a session once or twice a month. Good luck.

jpancake• 17 years ago

http://www.dogensangha.org/video.htm has a couple (slightly tilted) videos explaining the basic posture of zen meditation.

Your body needs to be in an alert or awake position in order for you to be able to settle into yourself. Sitting on a couch will just make you sleepy.

It's also hugely important not to expect anything out of your meditation. "Having trouble focusing" is only a symptom of what's actually going on. Meditation won't make it go away; but, if you stick with it, you'll likely gain insight into the causes of it, and hopefully find more productive ways of dealing with it.

llimllib2• 17 years ago

> It's also hugely important not to expect anything out of your meditation

Thanks for saying that... it's such an important bit, but so difficult to actually live, and it's ignored by most.

gcheong• 17 years ago

http://www.relaxationresponse.org/steps/

michael_dorfman• 17 years ago

I'd suggest finding a meditation teacher, most likely through a meditation center. Meditation is not easy to learn from books, and the instruction really benefits from discussions around how it is going for you in particular.

Personally, I learned to meditated from a Shambhala center. They teach shamatha/vipassana meditation, which are the two most common forms of Buddhist meditation. The (over-simplified) explanation is that Shamatha is about quieting the mind, and Vipassana about awareness/insight.

In terms of your basic question, meditation can be as simple as sitting on the couch and watching empty space for a couple of minutes, if you are sitting on the couch and watching empty space the right way. Generally speaking, there are postures that serve better than couch-sitting, and instructions that are more sophisticated than "watching empty space", and a qualified meditation instructor can help you with those.

If you really don't have access to a local instructor, get in touch with me privately, and I'll see what I can do for you.

jscn3• 17 years ago

Try reading http://thegrowinglife.com/2008/03/meditation-guide/ followed by http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

MaysonL• 17 years ago

Sit on the couch, stare into empty space, and notice your breathing. Now, notice the thoughts that creep in - don't fight them, don't obsess over them: just observe them. Welcome them, and let them go. Keep noticing your breathing.

Rinse, repeat (daily).

llimllib2• 17 years ago

If you're interested at all in what zen is, I really enjoyed this very small book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0802130550/ .

10ren• 17 years ago

An aspect of some meditation is getting into a sensing mode instead of a judging/thinking mode. One way to do this is to focus on perceiving:

- focus on your breath (count to N as you breath in; count to N as you breath out - where N=4 or some other integer that is comfortable for you. I sometimes use N=2 if I'm very stressed).

- focus on the texture of something in the real world - trace the actual edge of a rock, or a doorway, or a road. Don't skip ahead with your idea of the edge - trace the actual edge, observe the actual texture of it.

- focus on the sounds around you, middle, near (your own sounds, breath, cloth moving) and far (traffic hum, birds, wind).

Being in nature, and thinking about what is stressing me, then observing infinite reality around me (sky, ocean, plants, earth) somehow calms me and puts things in perspective: those things are much more complex. I also get ideas from this new perspective. :-)

Not saying these will work for you. But one of them might.

rokhayakebe• 17 years ago

Work out daily (even for just 20 minutes). Have more sex (differentiate).

lallysingh• 17 years ago

Mine's pretty simple:

1. Get a good noise-blocking pair of headphones. Such as the Etymotic ER-6is I have.

2. Get some relaxing music. I usually pick up an album a month of new music. It keeps the music effective.

3. Walk around a bit with the headphones playing the music. Just outside the office is fine, maybe up & down a street or two -- depends on where you/the office is.

tjr• 17 years ago

Shameless plug: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/trevisr

bumbledraven• 17 years ago

http://dhamma.org puts on 10-day silent Buddhist meditation retreats at retreat centers around the world. They're supported entirely by donations: they don't charge for the retreats, nor do they accept donations from people who haven't attended one.

I've participated in retreats at a few of their locations and helped out on the volunteer staff a few times. The stuff they teach, though basic -- observe your breath & observe the sensations in your body -- is really useful.

cool-RR2• 17 years ago

I recommend this organization too. I would recommend to anyone to attend one of those 10-day courses.

They assume you have no background knowledge whatsoever about meditation, and they teach you everything you need to know. The course is very intensive and hard, but it's really really rewarding. It's a life-changing experience.

I attended this course a few years ago, and while I don't meditate regularly, I do meditate sometimes for 30 minutes. I do it when I feel stressed, or overworked, or when I feel my urges are controlling me. It works great against these things. I feel like this meditation is a sort of super-powerful weapon that I can pull out when life gets tough.

As I said, highly recommended.

jodrellblank• 17 years ago

Can you explain more about what it involves and in what ways it is intensive/hard, please?

(Genuine curiosity not dismissiveness)

rsheridan6• 17 years ago

Five minutes just doesn't cut it. Think about how long it takes to get in the proper state of mind for hacking. I don't even bother if I know I'm going to have to stop in less than an hour. Meditation is similar (but I'd say you need 20 minutes, not an hour).

I did a ten day course with these guys: http://www.dhamma.org/

I found it to be difficult, but worthwhile. I'm not going to do a brain dump of my experiences here, but I came back with no shortage of focus, that's for sure.

Here's a thread where people talk about their experiences at this course: http://www.yoga.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18216&...

They tell you at the retreat that you should practice for an hour twice daily after you get back. I did that for awhile, but you feel like you're backsliding doing it for "just" two hours daily, after having put in roughly 100 hours in 10 days, and I was working 12 hour days at the time, so all I really did was work, meditate, and sleep. I ended up switching to this mantra-based approach: http://www.aypsite.org/13.html instead, because it only takes 20 minutes twice a day and seems to give you more benefit per time spent (this is not to say that this program is necessarily better than Vipassana, but it's easier to maintain while you're living in the real world). This is basically the same thing as TM, except you don't have to pay $2000 for a mantra. The people involved in this are too new-agey for my tastes, but the techniques will get you out of that permanent fight-or-flight reaction that does nothing but harm in the modern world.

The bottom line: do the 10 day course or something similar if you can and you are up to it. If not, a mantra for 20 minutes or so will help you deal with stress (although working out might be a good way to deal with too).

chris11• 17 years ago

While I'm sure there is a difference between 5 and 20 minutes, I do find a five minute meditation break useful. It's a nice break between classes, and I end up feeling more focused.

rw2• 17 years ago

I agree with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. My goal in meditation is to stop "thinking in words".

coffeemug2• 17 years ago

Your only goal should be to notice what you're feeling and thinking and to return to the object of meditation.

If you set a goal such as "stop thinking in words" you will never actually stop thinking in words because this is what you're thinking about.

rw2• 17 years ago

I mean that that is the object of my meditation, not what I think about while I am meditating.

coffeemug2• 17 years ago

Be careful. Meditation is a buzz word and has a big industry built around it. Most of it is junk. The best meditation advice is offered by people that have taken a vow not to accept money (other than donations), so if you're being charged something other than a nominal fee, it's likely a scam.

Meditation is not about relaxation, stress relief, and being in peace with yourself and the world. These things only come as a byproduct.

Meditation is not a band aid you can apply to your life to make it better. You cannot continue living your life exactly the way it is now, medidate for half an hour a day and expect improvement. It is psychological self exploration. If you maintain your life the way it is now, you will very quickly hit a boundary and will make no further progress in meditation until your life is changed.

Meditation is about observing the way your mind works. The only way to do that is to anchor it by sustaining an incredibly focused attention on a single object for prolonged periods of time. It doesn't matter what the object is (although it's normally breath) - your mind responds to any object and by learning to sustain uninterrupted attention you will observe how your mind works.

I would suggest you to seek instruction in Anapanasati from a competent teacher. Ignore new age stuff, buddhist cosmology, relaxation and stress relief business, or any related stuff. None of it will make any lasting difference.

In a nutshell just follow your breathing, one breath at a time. When you discover you've lost attention, relax, smile, accept whatever emotions you're feeling, and go back to the breath. Seek a teacher once you discover how incredibly deep and subtle this process can be.

Good luck!

EDIT: I suppose I should add a disclaimer. I am far, far from an expert. If someone (including me) claims they completely understand meditation, they probably do not.

aaronblohowiak2• 17 years ago

"The only way to do that is to anchor it by sustaining an incredibly focused attention on a single object for prolonged periods of time." -- This is one way. You can learn to attend to your attention without the focus on a mudra or sutra, but for most people this is not the easiest entry point.

nsrivast• 17 years ago

This is pretty good:

http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/mfneng/mind0.htm

dcnstrct• 17 years ago

If you want to explore a full range of meditation techniques, check out Osho's "The Book of Secrets". It explains the 112 methods from one of the ancient texts describing the various methods of meditation (or dhyana in sanskrit).

Read through it, try a few, see what works for you. Different techniques work for different people.

The best is to learn in a live environment from a trained teacher. I recommend Isha Yoga (www.ishafoundation.org) They have a program called "inner engineering" which imparts a yogic practice which is quite effective at lowering stress and bringing clarity to the mind. There have even been some scientific studies looking at changes in the brain through doing the practice.

longfellow• 17 years ago

I sat down for a long time in a deep, calm, state of meditation and achieved the realization that yogic meditation = bullshit.

jonmc12• 17 years ago

Meditation, lazy style: http://www.centerpointe.com/

I've experimented with positive results. The program has also been recommended by 2 trusted friends. I'm not sure just how effective it is compared to typical meditation practices, but worth checking out.

FlorinAndrei• 17 years ago

1. Do the MSF class 2. Get an M1 driver license 3. Get a sportbike, start riding

There are some risks involved...

http://florin.myip.org/blog/node/22

...but it will disconnect you from all stress and worries in a tremendous way.

IsaacSchlueter2• 17 years ago

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. What follows is what has worked pretty good for me. YMMV. Consult your doctor before beginning this or any exercise program. Etc.

The best book that I've seen on the subject is "How to Meditate" by Lawrence LeShan. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316880620

Meditation isn't magic, it's not stress relief, and it's not easy. Approach it like working out, because that's what it is. Do some research, formulate a routine, keep track of your progress, and maybe even get a friend to join you on the path so you can help each other stay motivated. It's easy to quit, and there will be LONG stretches when it seems like you've plateaued and there's no point.

Imagine if your legs got sore and tired every time you walked from your apartment to the car. You might conclude (correctly) that you need exercise your legs to make them stronger so that you won't get sore so easily. However, the first few times you work out, you'll be much more sore than otherwise.

Similarly, stress may be indicating that you need more balance and self-awareness. Meditation can give you that, but it can be a very stressful experience! At first, it may seem like it's making things worse. In fact, if you're doing it right, you'll probably hate it a little, because it won't be comfortable.

On the other hand, stress may be indicating that you need to make your heart and lungs stronger, and increase your muscle mass. So get out and move around.

I've had great results from physical activity like biking regularly. I just recently started taking taekwondo, and it's pretty incredible. It's best if it's something repetitive that you can gradually get better at with practice.

You might also consider seeing a shrink to talk about what's stressing you out. No one gets out of childhood without scars, and there's no shame in tackling the problem head on with a professional. Do you fix your own pipes? Remove your own wisdom teeth? Sew your own clothes? Isn't your mind even more complex than all of these things? Get help. Like meditation and exercise, therapy might not "feel good"; it's work that you do for long-term benefit, and it should hurt a little.

seed_funding• 17 years ago

Simple advice of avoidance: Think of the fire in a fireplace. You can get close to it, you can stare at it. It's in front of you, but it's not burning you. If you get in the fireplace, you will instantly burn yourself! Stress is like that. Even if the environment is stressful, catch yourself when you realise its taking you (i.e. the moment you feel a tension inside you). Stop and think. Calm yourself down. You can tell yourself that nothing is as important as your well being - and its true. You can also tell yourself that as long as you feel calm and well, you can always fix the problem - also true. This is my way of avoiding the fire. You do get a few burn marks here and there, of course :)

JesseAldridge• 17 years ago

"I am basically failing to see the difference between meditation and sitting on the couch and watching empty space for a couple of minutes."

For me, they are the exact same thing. Just relax and stop working on anything for a while. Just sit there. Think about work, think about people you know, or don't think about anything at all, it doesn't really matter. Time passes amazingly slowly when you're not doing anything. I find random thoughts start naturally flowing through my head when I do this.

I've also known people who seem physically incapable of doing this. They sit for maybe twenty seconds, then some neuron fires in their brain, and they're off running again like a hamster in a wheel. Those people never seem to do well in the long run. Don't be a hamster :)

abl• 17 years ago

I often found meditation easy to transition into after yoga. If you don't feel like going to a pure meditation course, try a yoga class at your local gym, and ask the instructor if they allocate any time toward meditation.

sutro• 17 years ago

I would recommend a different m-word ending in "-ation."

holaamigos• 17 years ago

I have a meditation hack that works real well for me.

Imagine a sine wave, a real smooth one (or a circle, with a revolving point on the circumference). Breath as a sine wave, very slowly and gently reversing the direction of your breathing. Reverse so gently, that there is no clicking or jerking. It is actually quite hard and requires a lot of patience and focus. It is incredibly relaxing.... give it a try.

In contrast to the majority of the rest of the posts, I have found meditation to be very valuable to relieve work related stress.

edw519• 17 years ago

Training wheels for aspiring meditators:

http://www.mindfold.com/

(Don't laugh, nothing has ever worked better for me.)

subwindow• 17 years ago

Try progressive muscle relaxation. That works better for me than meditation because I'm doing something to keep my mind from wandering.

After you get used to it, you can do it by yourself, but starting out I find it better to do it along with a recording. I have rhapsody, so I use the tracks on this album. Both of them are good, but I think the progressive one is better.

http://www.rhapsody.com/phd-edward-a-charlesworth/relaxation...

If you don't have rhapsody, you can listen to them with the trial, or maybe try to get them from iTunes or Amazon or something.

awfabian• 17 years ago

Focus is really easy. Or at least simple. Pick something, and focus on it. Take it deadly seriously. Focus like your life depends on it. FOCUS. Keep doing it. Do not stop for anything. Do it many times per day for long periods of time.

That's how I got started. Since I was REALLY planning to focus, I wanted some basic assurance that I wasn't throwing my mind into some kind of black hole I couldn't get out of. (Remember how seriously I was planning to try to focus.) I decided that an alarm clock or timer would be my signal that I could release my focus. I was sort of worried about losing myself or my ego entirely, so I would tell myself that there's no possible way that could happen. (I'd eventually fall asleep, wake up, and my personality would be reloaded.) I made sure that everything could stay on hold for a couple of hours--no fire on the oven, whatever. Mostly, this was just to get rid of any possible excuse for not focusing to the highest degree I could ever achieve. Anyway, I did this for many hours per day while I was unemployed, and ... it works. You will focus like you've never focused before. Amazing things will happen--I remember meditating in my room, and hearing a family member call my name... except that I only perceived it as physical sensation. It was only after I was done meditating that I recalled the sensation that had hit my ears and knew that someone had tried to call me--it had no meaning during the duration the meditation. It actually can be kind of dangerous if you do it like that because you can go past the level of unresponsiveness would you get in sleep. You reach a point where even if you felt pain, you just wouldn't respond. The neurons would fire, you would perceive it, and your mind would assign no meaning; you just wouldn't "care."

If you focus to that degree, you can't be stressed, because you simply have absolutely no thought of anything that can stress you, and even if you did, you would not comprehend / respond do it. Getting good at meditating like this can steam-roll everything. I swear I was in states of mind where losing an arm wouldn't have concerned me in the slightest.

I remeber afterward, in times of stress, I would start meditating like this again. Eventually, you're just different. Like, I would feel stress start to rise, and then just decide to block it out. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but it's like if you can push your attention around so rigidly, you can just refuse to pay attention to anything, and it just goes away. You can feel the stress rise, then just focus on it an ... extinguish it. It's hard to explain. You can stop it as if it were an ordinary voluntary thought.

abijlani• 17 years ago

Meditation is not a quick fix. It is a journey inside oneself where you uncover a lot of things about yourself and especially your mind.

Stress relieving can be done in several ways such as: running, yoga, swimming or even just something simple like doodling or painting.

Few good books if you really want to look into meditation are: http://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-There-Are-Mindfulness/dp/... http://www.amazon.com/Minute-Meditation-Quiet-Mind-Change/dp... http://www.amazon.com/Book-Secrets-Keys-Love-Meditation/dp/0...

rgrieselhuber• 17 years ago

Others have similar advice, but I get my best stress-relief / combined workout and meditation from martial arts (Shorinji Kempo), yoga and hiking. Zazen is something I've started a little bit. It's very challenging but fascinating in its own right. Also pottery has been good.

johnm• 17 years ago

(0) Get a check up by your physician. I.e., check for and treat any medical factors (high blood pressure, obesity, sleep disorders, etc.).

(1) Start regular exercise. For stress, it's better to do smaller amounts/intensities more often than to do too much but infrequently.

(2) Check your diet. Too much processed sugar and caffiene in addition to the usual issues around sodium imbalance. Also good to look into what and how much you eat later in the day and how that affects your sleep. Also, make sure that you're staying well hydrated.

(3) There are lots of different things that people jumble together under the notion of "meditation" -- especially as it's accreted into a big business for some people. Serious, hard-core forms of meditation that have been shown to have long-term transformative effects physiologically often induce (certain forms of) stress (otherwise, how are you going to learn to deal with it? :-). I'm all for learning this but it's not a quick fix to stress management.

(4) A lot of the basic, introductory techniques that are often passed on as being part of "meditation" are really just relaxation techniques. They are great to learn because you can often apply them nearly anytime and anywhere.

In particular, self-guided relaxation of each area of your body is a fantastic tool to help with stress. It's also each to fit into whatever chunks of time you have available (3 seconds, 3 minutes, 3 hours, whatever :-). For those quick, at your desk, self-checks I would suggest especially focusing on tension being carried in and around the mouth, face, head, neck and then shoulders. Also a good time to tune up one's posture.

(5) Do more (light) stretching. The lighter side of yoga, etc.

(6) Take more small breaks. Get a drink, pee, stare off into space, stretch, do some relaxation, take a walk, listen to some music, etc.

(7) Get enough rest.

(8) "Clean your plate." I.e., really finishing things so that you can let them go. Even seemingly silly things like keeping the sink clean, dishes washed and put away, etc. can have a bigger affect on stress levels than you might think. Doing a nightly list of things you need to deal with tomorrow is also a good ritual to start.

(9) Write in a journal. Self-reflection, venting, etc. but be sure to also celebrate, too.

Hope this helps, John

vivekkhurana• 17 years ago

I do couple of meditations like whirling, vipsana, gibberish etc. depending on the need of my body. Meditation is not a quick fix, infact initially meditation might result in fall in productivity as your body energy is re-balanced. Meditation is a long term solution and if learned properly, it will improve your productivity and make you less stressful. So, the most important point is to learn meditation from a master. I will suggest you stay away from the websites etc. which talk about meditation as most of them are money making pockets which teach half cooked ways to make you flowing money towards them. Btw, a proper sleep is one of the best form of meditation and if you are suffering from lack of sleep, you should increase the physical activity, for instance play tennis for one hour daily. This will de-stress you as well as ensure good sleep at night. Ensure 6-8 hrs of sleep everyday, this is the natures way to get rid of stress....

mrbuwch• 17 years ago

I found this book to be a good introduction: http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Mindfulness-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/dp...

subbu• 17 years ago

I was under a lot of stress some time back. I started exploring meditation, and other related stuff to solve my problem. But the actual problem turned out to be something else. I was not sleeping enough. I had a shitload of debt. I was traveling every weekend for about 1400 kilometers to be with my family. I wasn't meeting my friends. I ignored my back problem.

In the last months, I cleared a major portion of my debts, relocated to my home town, started doing yoga/exercise regularly took care of my back problem... I am solving each of my problems one by one. The stress levels are slowly coming down.

Ask YC: Meditation Advice

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