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Comment by apexkid | Hacker News Reader

Use the following strategies: 1. Meditate daily for 15 minutes. Try vedic indian meditations. 2. Keep track of your mood using some app. 3. If your mood is bad for consistently 3 days, then open pastebin and write down about everything you are feeling and going in your head.

Most small problems with mental health can be dealt by bringing in consciousness. Simple example, whenever you are feeling nervous, force you brain to just observe whats going on in your body instead of being an active participant in the process. You will immediately realize you start feeling less nervous. Similarly, you can try for anxiety.

For more serious problems, it is best to seek medical help on periodic basis. A meetup with doctor every 3 months is reasonable.

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I love your comment. Especially this:

> Most small problems with mental health can be dealt by bringing in consciousness.

I think that what I do is, in the end, the same as you -- I just do it a little differently. Years ago, I developed a habit of questioning why I'm doing whatever I'm doing -- particularly if what I'm doing is unusual or emotional.

The key, for me, is that the question and answers are intended to bring light on things to make the unconscious conscious. The answer should be accepted as a point of information and without judgement (actually doing that is hard, though, and comes with practice).

Once you have an idea of what's happening with you, you are in a better position to notice and work on actual issues, if they exist.

Thank you for appreciating my idea and I am glad you are following something similar. However, let me give you a suggestion to improve it. The first step to bring consciousness should simply start by observing what is happening and not question why. Being in a state of observation is a neutral state. When you question something your mind goes into conflict mode. That can aggravate the situation. Hence, simply observe and understand what is going on without any judgement or trying to find solution. Once you find inner peace, then move to the next step of diving deep into the problem and finding solution.

15 minutes is a really long time to meditate. Anyone who's new to it, I suggest starting with 30 seconds and work your way up to 15 in increments of 30 seconds to a minute. It's like starting with an empty bar when weightlifting.

Meditating in the shower is pretty easy IMHO and you can easily go up to 15 min, even for beginners. Meditation is mostly about anchoring your mind to something, most people do it with their breathing because that's what we see in movies and stuff.

In the shower, you can use the sound of the water or the feeling of the water on your head to anchor your mind. Since it's something you don't control and there are multiple sensory reactions created from it, it's pretty easy to be present and observe your thoughts.

This doesn't necessarily work for everyone but I have tried many types of meditations and this one is the easiest for me.

15 minutes is a lot of water usage. Bathtubs seem ideal to meditate in.

Why don't you try any of these meditation with an open mind and let me know how many minutes were you able to meditate.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=meditation+sri+...

I've tried many of those exercises and I agree that you can easily do 15 minutes the first time. Consistency is the problem I found. When I started at 30 seconds and built up slowly, I found it much easier to build a habit and do it consistently. Again I use the weightlifting analogy - I can squat close to my body weight, without any warm up, when I'm out of shape. But I can only do it once and I need a week to recover and I'm likely to injure myself. If I start with the empty bar and increase weight gradually for a month, I can work out every other day and hit my target consistently.

I second the writing. Having it on page, whatever the worry/worries, makes it tangible in a way that can be "solved."

I think it's important to distinguish between "mental health issues" and a "healthy mental space". These are things you can do it maintain a healthy mental space, but people with mental health issues probably _can't_ start meditating daily for 15 min, or journaling, or exercising, or any number of other things that are helpful.

Which really just means "do these things if you're struggling" is skipping the hardest step, and not very useful.

Every single meditation expert I know has given a warning with it. For some people, even 5 minutes is harsh. I've been in groups where people just break down and cry at that point.

One meditation coach once told me a story of one of his clients who did a 20 minute guided session, and he went out of it with vomiting, diarrhea, and was really angry at the guy. But a few days later, he felt something clear up and asked for more sessions. He says it's normal, and with corporate counseling, he normally restricts them to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15, 20, 30 for a week each.

I'm curious why this always gets downvoted on HN with no comment. That's quite a bit of disconnect with other groups.

Is it because a difference in terminology? On HN, meditation seems to mean 'relax and do nothing'. Elsewhere, it seems to mean 'concentrate on only one thing', which usually makes people recall traumatic situations.

Or does it come across as too prescriptive with little evidence to back it?

People confuse the term meditation and mindfulness. Maybe like development vs programming.

Mindfulness is what has been spreading, but usually it is intoduced as meditation.

I didn't downvote but I can't imagine someone vomiting by simple guided mindfulness exercise. Telling someone to "focus on your breathing" or "if you find your distracted by thoughts, just be aware of those thoughts, and return to your breathing" doesn't strike me as very invasive.

Why would meditation lead to vomiting and/or diarrhea? I suppose I can understand where the sobbing might come from if you're in a tough space and dwelling on sad thoughts, but the other two?

Indeed. Its all about control, or the perception of it. And the simple fact that its just another thing to monitor and manage. Many never realise this and become slaves to their feelings. Feelings are not core truths, they are just data.

Of course its completely reasonable to feel exasperated and angry about things that are out off line with your value system. But knowing this is directly related to the distance between what is real in the world, and where your value is set, gives you enough information to work with.

What makes Vedic Indian meditation special?

One of the things about the mantras is that if you chant them , your breathing is improved. In fact someone I know who has been doing this for a long time says that a lot of breathing problems go away if you do this regularly.

If you don’t want to believe all this , Id go with the following : Just like music, your attention is drawn towards the chant and hopefully stay there :)

Well India is where Yoga originated from and Meditation is a sub-segment within the ambit of Yoga. It is an art developed and perfected over hundreds of year and somehow you will feel that difference if you give it a try. It is really for you to experience and find out if you find it better. Let me give you a good starting point.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=meditation+sri+...

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