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Comment by papito | Hacker News Reader

Many times when I am marinating on a problem, I come up with the most simple and obvious solution in 90 seconds after I open my eyes in the morning. I attribute it to the monkey brain not drowning your thoughts in crap, but then the tsunami comes in and you lost your chance.

It's truly amazing what an uncluttered brain can do.

I began seeing value in "practical" meditation. That is, focusing on something mundane like doing dishes, to distract the brain from those other things. Sometimes it's all the busy us can afford. Not everyone has Jerry Seinfeld money to meditate in peace for one hour each day (he does).

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"Meditate for an hour every day unless you are too busy. In that case meditate for two hours."

- many Buddhist teachers, in many variations.

That is fine. Doing "practical" meditation and "real" meditation per se is not far-fetched.

All we need to be is with awareness. When you start feeling that - then that is what I would say meditation.

I walk, I do slow walking every night reflecting on things that had happened in the day or just walk in silence. That helps me to ease my pain and have more space to think what is important at the moment and make decisions.

In other words, this is also related to the original comment which says about "patience". It doesn't happen all at once, practicing with patience is the key for progress.

You don't need money to meditate for an hour a day, you need a conscious decision to do so.

Start small. Meditate for just a few minutes, as you currently do with the dishes, and slowly increase that, minute by minute. You'll might find that you have that hour in your day.

I don't know.... The apartment won't clean itself and the food won't cook autonomously ;)

meditation can help one to realize the various other unnecessary things we do on a daily basis.

…like cleaning one’s home and eating food?

Without context, your statement is true; as a response, it seems a bit of a stretch.

i recognize this qualifier was buried, but if you look closely, you'll see i wrote "other" things.

> meditation can help one to realize the various other unnecessary things we do on a daily basis.

surely, cooking and cleaning aren't the only ways the parent spends their time. for instance, they're writing comments on HN!

Is that then a sense of meditation? It seems to fit. It's a relaxing, distraction, with the benefit of often being educational, at the same time. Relieving stress, allowing return to other things which need attention.

sure, why not

Could always hire a cleaner and order delivery. Doesn't seem like that much of a stretch to me.

All of those things cost money. You are kind of making my original point that it's a privilege.

Don't really need "Seinfeld money" to do it though. I'm agreeing with the top sub-comment to yours. If you don't have time for 1 hour, should really find a way to do 2.

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