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Comment by reckoner2 | Hacker News Reader

Sailing: You don't need a boat. Most cities near the water will have some sort of sailing club where for $300 a year you can join and use their fleet of boats. My end goal is to do some sort of week long solo trip.

Rock Climbing: Lots of fun and a great work out.

Meditation: Just getting started with this, but have already seen improvements in concentration and a decrease in anxiety.

Introductory Deep Learning: http://course.fast.ai/ This is probably my favorite course I've ever taken online.

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Certainly no substitute for the real thing but having sailed quite a bit in the past, this is surprisingly 'authentic' for what it is.

VR Sailing: http://store.steampowered.com/app/579050

>have already seen improvements in concentration and a decrease in anxiety.

Interesting to hear. Meditation is something I have considered looking into for a similar purpose. Do you have any recommendations on a good place to start?

First, I did a few random 'guided meditations' off youtube (Sam Harris has a popular one) and discovered that I enjoyed it.

After that, I've been enjoying The Mind Illuminated, by John Yates, and I think others on hackernews will as well. It doesn't bother with a lot of the eastern spirituality aspects, but instead focuses on how to become good at meditating and find the most benefits from it.

Any recommendations on starting meditation?

Edit:. Both how and why.

How: check out Headspace which is a great app to get started with meditation.

Why: It makes me feel happier and less stressed. Read "Search Inside Yourself" for even more compelling reasons.

Thanks! A quick followup, how long have you been doing this? And, I guess, are you a generally skeptical person?

Picked up "Search Inside Yourself" on Audible. Looking forward to it!

I'll admit that building the meditation habit is difficult, due not to skepticism (I definitely feel the benefits) but just because meditation is hard. It's much like going to the gym. I'm generally open-minded, not skeptical, but I definitely do explore ideas and "facts" before I come to my own conclusions. I definitely encourage you to try meditation a couple times (the first dozen times will be difficult), keep an open mind, and you will very likely discover the benefits on your own accord.

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