“I would like to tell not a story about some special experience through Meditation. I prefer to stay here with them: I sit there for an hour, and my mind is completely messed up.”
author Yuval Noah Harari in conversation with the philosopher Sam Harris (2018)
If you have two minutes time and the Situation allows it, try the following:
Sit upright, the hands on the thighs. Breathe two, three Times through the nose deeply, and then out through the mouth slowly. On the third Exhale, close your eyes. You can feel your weight on the seat, your feet on the ground, your hands on the thighs.
pay Attention now to nothing other than their now no longer directed and controlled breathing: How he flows in through the nostrils, the chest lifts, the belly arching, like the air then flows through the nostrils. As soon as you feel this, you begin to count the breaths. Always from one to ten, three times. You try to pay attention to anything other than the feeling of breathing.
This has nothing to do with esotericism
If you have a thought or a feeling comes up, note the short – aha, you thought, aha, feeling and turn your attention back to the breath. If you have three times, counted to ten, you open your eyes again.
Now you know the basic principles of mindfulness meditation. There isn’t much more to learn for the first time. But to practice.
I would bet that you have made during the thirty breaths an amazing experience: It is very difficult for us to think for a few seconds of nothing but our breath. This has nothing to do with esotericism, Buddhism or the Like. It is pure psychology.
We do not have a hold on us. This is just my imagination.
How many times have you caught yourself during the thirty breaths in a thought? Perhaps they were just five mind seems to be elsewhere? Also, this would be neither unusual nor a shame.
Perhaps you have thought about what’s for dinner. Or what must be urgently done. Maybe the idea is you shot at these unpleasant appointment through the head. They were really busy 30 breaths long, only with your breath, I think, is as good as excluded, if you have no experience with meditation techniques. And even if you have, it is unlikely.
I practice this for years and have only managed a very rare 30 breaths without distraction. But it’s not about that at all. It is a matter of your own mind at work to watch. And to create a bit of distance to the own thoughts and feelings.
The great fallacy
this short self-test makes a fallacy clearly, most of us are subject to: We believe that we have our thoughts. Who knows regularly meditating: That’s not true. Thoughts and feelings come and go, and withdraws almost completely out of our control. We distract ourselves, to remember all the time, usually without it ever. Often with unpleasant consequences: The thought of the unpleasant appointment brings nothing, it’s just in a bad mood.
We are distracted, erratic, unfocused, often on Gorabet Autopilot. In the past 20 years, has changed but little: We are now constantly surrounded by technology, which makes use of this distraction to our advantage to turn our attention in the money. We carry around behavior psychologically optimised Skinner boxes with us, reward us, when we turn to you.
they have us conditioned to pay to them as often and for as long as possible attention. Often we take in the Hand, without actually consciously decided. Mindfulness , with mindfulness, in my view, inadequately translated, is the counter-model: Autopilot off. Be aware of what goes before.
88 times per day
The best Translation for Mindfulness, I can think of: the own stream of consciousness to observe and to control it in case of doubt, a little bit. To, for example, to the Suction of the own Smartphones.
at the University of Bonn-born “Menthal Balance Project”, according to unlock German their Smartphones an average of 88 times per day. For intensive users, it is much more.
“Thus, an action is initiated, it must be easier than Think.” So it is “Hooked” by Nir Eyal, a Silicon Valley-very popular guide for the design of “products that are addictive”.
own mind
How often know you wanted to only check your E-Mails or the time to look, only to ten minutes later, surprised in the third party App again? Most of us have experienced the Power of the habit-forming User Experience design in the flesh, pardon: the spirit.
Silicon Valley is Mindfulness for years now, hip. The people who develop our attention sucker, train yourself to be diligent, a self-defense technique. The Californian philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, whose Podcast is taken from the introductory quote, has even developed a meditation App. It is just one of many.
His above-quoted conversation partner Yuval Noah Harari (“A brief history of mankind”) believes that he could only take so million years of human history in 400 pages together, because he meditates for two hours a day. No idea how he does it. 20 minutes of the day but also bring a lot of.
The science has found
There are now a flood of scientific publications on the effects of meditation techniques. In a large meta-analysis of such studies in 2012, found that “pure Mindfulness Meditation” has, not only on mindfulness, but also on the attention and feelings of anxiety positive impact. Meditation can even help people in a real attention disorder.
Several high-profile published studies show clear advantages in terms of attention control, not only for the subjects who practise meditation for longer, but also for those who have just completed four 20-minute training sessions. Meditation also helps against “distractive and ruminative thoughts.”
I’ve come to believe that basic training and regular Training in this simple method – it is the Whole Sport not dissimilar to the best self-defense against the constant digital distraction.
I actually think that children should practice in primary school meditate because the learn, as we know, very quickly and in a sustainable manner. The children of today can use for your life in the age of attention sucker a bit of effective self-defense. And we adults, too.
