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Comment by puranjay | Hacker News Reader

In practical terms, how do you feel meditation has changed you?

Curious to learn more

Not the OP, but have a similar story. According to my goal-tracking apps, I meditate about 65% of days, and I average about 10 minutes a day. (So, not a ton, but pretty consistent.)

The most common way that meditation changes me is to help me identify that I'm in a rumination cycle and to break out of it, and to be more present in certain moments. For me, it's not that I have noticed a baseline change, but rather that it's a skill that's super-helpful in key moments. Some examples:

- When my mind is racing while trying to sleep

- In moments of anger or frustration when I'm ruminating about some slight or when someone has reneged on a committment

- Noticing that I'm distracted or anxious when out with friends or at a concert

It makes me think that meditation could just be practicing to put your mind in a quiet place. Whenever you are in a bad place, if you’ve trained well, it’s easy to grt back to that quiet place of your mind.

Yep, the skill is "refocusing." I thought it was going to be the skill of "focusing" at first, but as the parent notes you first have to develop the skill of noticing that your mind has wandered, or is locked on something you don't want it to be, then you expend effort to refocus and then maintain that new intentional focus. I also had no idea how damn hard it is.

It is that and so much more. That quiet place is infinitely deep.

> The most common way that meditation changes me is to help me identify that I'm in a rumination cycle and to break out of it, and to be more present in certain moments

I'll add that as someone on the autism spectrum, this has been one of the most valuable benefits of meditation. I'm pretty sure that I'll always have an unusual tendency to get fixated on things, whether particular topics, or particular problems in my life (often social ones). If it's something unclear, my mind just picks at it incessantly at the expense of everything else.

In some cases this can be beneficial. Leaning into an 'obsessive' interest in a new programming language or topic can be wonderful. But in other cases (often social problems), it becomes pointless rumination.

When I meditate, it becomes easier to 1) decide whether the fixation is useful or not, and 2) snap out of it when I should, rather than days or weeks later.

I've discovered other benefits to meditation that might be particular for people with ASD, such as being able to notice physical needs and emotional states. But being able to snap out of 'thought loops' has been the most beneficial by far.

Of course, actually doing the meditating is incredibly difficult when I get myself tangled up in thoughts, and it's an ongoing struggle to remind myself of its value time and again, and to make a habit of it, but it's probably in my top three priorities to make sure it becomes part of my daily routine, because it makes everything else easier.

Not OP, I personally find it makes me calmer and increases my ability to focus.

A good way to visualize is to think of thoughts as a bunch of waves. A thought wave can trigger another wave and usually, it ends up multiplying and the mind ends up with multiple thoughts. When you meditate and observe your thoughts, the waves start to die out. The state of a 'clear mind' where no thoughts appear in your mind is usually fleeting. The longer your meditate, the better you become at the ability to maintain a 'clear mind'. The longer you can maintain a clear mind, the better you are at focussing .

I'm not an expert on meditation but I have a few thoughts on it. There is meditation where you sit down, become aware of the breath, body scan, etc, and that's fine and dandy but I don't find that's necessary. Rather one should remain with the bare self-conscious sense of ‘I am’ and just be. That's it! It's something like what Wu Hsin once wrote: "Wear the world like you would a loose-fitting shirt and don’t let it bind you" but also knowing "effort takes one nowhere". I feel light thinking about it. I don't know.

A few years ago, I practiced meditation to help me accept some difficult times. At the same moment, I discovered Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, they describe something similar to what you said. Very helpful ! I strongly recommend "Who Am I ?".

Not OP but I had a panic attack one day (first ever) and that spiraled into 6 months of general and often debilitating anxiety.

Talk therapy and meditation (suggested by my therapist) helped reset me to my pre-attack normal.

I do it occasionally now and like others have said it helps break the rut of rumination.

I've had a similar trajectory (using Headspace & Calm, attending some in-person things) over the past few years, and actually made a YouTube video to share thoughts on how it has helped me and suggestions for how to get started - feel free to watch https://youtu.be/7QyObECIZAE

Meditation teaches key skills like mindfulness, self awareness, radical acceptance, emotion regulation, patience, discipline, and more.

Headspace is a great app to get started because they walk you through and teach you the skills slowly but surely. You can also skip around to what you need most after you learn the basics.

It's how you practice thinking about fewer things. For people who have a chaotic life (inner or outer), "thinking too much" is a common refrain, and it touches on "doing too much" restlessness as well.

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