Despite all the studies that show that meditation helps to be more mindful and less stressed, I can't help thinking that perhaps the most important part of regular meditation is having time to actively relax, alone and without distraction.
On the other hand, it doesn't really matter. Much of meditation is conscious relaxation.
Mastering meditation takes years, so this 4 week experiment really isn't very meaningful.
@koos nothing is meaningful if you think that way! Our lives aren't meaningful in the overall scheme of things, but they seem pretty damn meaningful, right?
@s02303947 yes! I just meant that a 4 week study may be too short to show significant results.
I'm meditating irregularly for almost a year and regularly for about 2 months now. I find it hard to notice the effects. I don't have the feeling I'm getting better at meditation, whereas the people promoting meditation do claim that practice does change you.
@s02303947 I do experience differences with before I meditated, but I'm just not sure if that is the meditation or the relaxing part of my meditation.
@koos I don't think it matters, as long as the differences are good :)
@koos I think it's not so much about being good at meditation as it is making you realize the present moment for all it is, and getting rid of unnecessary stressors.
Meditation helps me destress, even if I only do it for 5 minutes. It hasn't "changed me" though.
@koos It's also amazing to me that no one ever seems to have any negative experience meditating in all these articles and studies. My experiences meditating were horror shows at first. None of these people have any darkness in them?
@SuzanEraslan mmh. I started looking for adverse effects of meditation and found this: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill
TL;DR it's not uncommon to mainly get negative effects and if you have a mental condition it can be dangerous.
@koos To add to my other reply, meditation isn't one specific technique! The way I meditate is probably different than how you meditate. It's more about (like you mentioned) time to be alone, distraction free, and able to relax. That is definitely important.
But don't think because you aren't conventionally meditating, that it isn't meditation! You don't have to follow an apps guidance, or do it exactly how your Buddhist friends does it!
Meditation is for yourself, not others 🤙
@s02303947 sure I also think that it is in many ways a very subjective activity and of course there at many techniques. That said, I think it is helpful to recognize a difference in relaxing and meditation. I find that meditation requires more effort, so I hope it has benefits over *just* relaxing.
@koos yes meditation is more focusing of ridding yourself of stressors and clearing your mind. Relaxing definitely isn't the same thing, agreed.
This tiny (n=83) study suggests that meditation can have a small benefit over other relaxation techniques:
"mindfulness meditation may be specific in its ability to reduce distractive and ruminative thoughts and behaviors, and this ability may provide a unique mechanism by which mindfulness meditation reduces distress."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17291166/