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Comment by orasis | Hacker News Reader

You could wait for the research to be conclusive, or you could dive in right now and radically improve your life.

I recommend starting with the free short book, Mindfulness In Plain English - http://www.wisdompubs.org/sites/default/files/preview/Mindfu...

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That's kind of begging the question, though. The question is, will diving in radically improve my life?

I'm not saying it won't, by the way. I myself practice something that some might consider to be mindfulness. But you are assuming facts not in evidence, as a lawyer might say.

Evidence is hard to get due to variables in such studies. You have to observe people's daily routine for a long period of time, which gets to be expensive. You also cannot fool the subject, or the people monitoring progress, so there's no way to do such studies double-blind.

For these reasons studies on nutrition are also hard and mostly flawed. But do we need a study to tell us that sugar is poison?

Well, ok, we do, but we can also notice our grandparents weren't eating that much sugar, they weren't suffering that much from obesity or diabetes and that's enough for me.

I'll grant you the note of our grandparent's diets, but I don't think it's analogous. Were our grandparents also more mindful? Perhaps I'm missing your point.

I seem to be missing it too. You don't need mindfulness to be on a particular diet, or to avoid sugar, or obesity.

I'm sorry but why on earth would you accept a vague almost anecdotal correlation, while rejecting scientifically conducted nutrition studies?

I'll grant you that nutritional science is hard, but surely holding studies to a lower standard isn't a logical solution?

I love this book so much that I bought the paperback edition. Practicing and following its advice has helped me improve my general mood and outlook over the past year.

The past year being one of the most difficult of my life. For me, I see direct evidence of the techniques personally in that it has been reducing the impact anxiety has on me when it occurs.

Its also been improving my ability to: 1) be 'present' and not have anxiety come up as often to begin with, 2) quickly address/resolve the anxiety when it does occur, using the techniques

In what concrete ways will life improve?

Also, the premise of that book is wrong (that no human is content).

you could probably get here various ways but the practice of refocusing on my breath as I get caught in thinking/fantasy/etc over and over again really trained me in daily life to sort of snap out of certain situations in order to evaluate.

like if i'm in an argument w/ my wife i'm better equipped to pause and try to figure out what is really happening even as the argument occurs.

i hate flying. after meditating for a year or so i would fly and still be scared but would able to sit and experience fear and watch it. see what it does to my body, my stomach, breathing, etc. doing this didn't completely remove the fear but it made it interesting.

haven't really meditated for a very long time but it did help me.

If this is what mindfulness could do for me I'm doubtful it's something I need; I think I have found other ways in which much the same is achieved. E.g., I've never found difficulty in disconnecting or disengaging from situations, from the moment, nor difficulty in observing my physiological and psychological responses. I immediately recognize people who are unable to perform such separation; they are too caught up in the moment to be able to observe it.

When you say "I get caught in thinking/fantasy/etc," what exactly are you referring to?

I like thinking, and I think a lot; but of course, I've recognized that some thoughts are useless, some are unproductive, and some are harmful. I've trained myself to get rid of those, and I've also made sure to have room for the thoughts I do want. Not only have I made room, but I have techniques and rules I live by which increases the interval at which these thoughts I do want occur.

By getting caught I mean that during meditation I am trying to focus all attention on the breath but inevitably I begin thinking of something else or I start daydreaming or fantasizing. The mind wanders. When you realize your mind has wandered away from the breath you bring it back.

Sometimes this can be a jarring experience. Like suddenly waking from a dream.

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