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Comment by claudiawerner | Hacker News Reader

>People seem to forget there is a huge percentage of the population that will never meditate or can't meditate due to extenuating circumstances.

This is just a restatement of what you said in your first line, but again it's just an assertion: "they won't do it" - well okay, why won't they? Is it because they feel they don't have enough time? Then we must give them more time. Is it because they have little regard for their mental health? Then tell them the dangers of letting mental health go unchecked. Is it because they are averse to it because they see it as a satanic ritual? Then we must educate them.

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Only a small amount of the population engages in any behavior that requires active lifestyle modification. Exercise and diet are hardly adhered to despite being relatively simple. Meditation has the added difficulty of being solitary, and, for most, boring and difficult (compared to the instant-feedback world surrounding them).

I think that fits into the wider goal of educating people to care for their health for their own good; clearly the methods we're using don't work, and haven't adapted to the world in which you could be doing a million other things. Besides, it doesn't have to be all or nothing, you can easily escalate how much time you spend and plan accordingly. The answer isn't to give up on them.

Most people won't live their lives intentionally no matter what you do. It's a noble goal to increase the number from, say, 10% to 20%. But getting even a majority of people are going to 'care for their health for their own good' is demonstrably impossible. At best you can turn self-care into a game or entertainment, but extrinsic motivation is kind of the exact opposite of the practice of meditation.

And yet the overwhelming majority of the population brushes their teeth daily.

Make something culturally routine and it will happen.

It's not just culturally routine, but culturally shamed for not adhering. Additionally, it does not take much time at all. Meditation requires more investment in time by a factor of 10 at least, and if you shame someone for not meditating, they'll probably laugh at you or give you a bewildered look.

Boring, difficult, or terrifying.

One of the groups that wash out of meditation immediately are those who it turns out are afraid of being alone with their own thoughts. These could be dark thoughts, or they could just be the sort of person who always fills the silence in a conversation (for that reason or a myriad of others).

I went on a long trip with someone who thought I wouldn't make it 3 days without the internet. Turned out they were the one who needed the fix on day 3. You can't really see what's going on in someone else's head so you don't know how they will react to having to entertain themselves without props, until they do it.

> well okay, why won't they?

Have you worked with clinically depressed people?

I have friends who are, but when GP said "a large percentage of the population", I assumed they weren't specifically talking about clinically depressed people, who don't make up a large percentage of the population. Meditation isn't a cure and it's not equivalent to therapy, so people who are depressed should consider doing things as prescribed by a psychiatrist. Their issues with motivation (such as avolition) aren't issues for most people who don't meditate. Time and addiction to instant gratification probably are.

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