See also: "playing a musical instrument".

I suspect "reading an actual paper book" would also qualify.

Are there any Youtube videos that will walk me through how to read an actual book? it's been so long... I don't know if I'll remember how to do it without some internet star to show me the way.

There you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Maybe, but you can certainly find someone on twitch streaming themselves reading a book. You can follow them and tip them accordingly.

While I think reading is great for attention, you shouldn't write off meditation. The controlled breathing involved has been shown to be particularly good for stress reduction and improved vegal tone!

You are right. After a 10 days course of Vipassana my focus and attention span greatly improved. But you need to keep practicing. I kept practicing for about a month then I stopped. After stopping, slowly I acquired again the old habit of getting easily distracted. I need to take that (free) course again.

What free course was that?

I don't known what else can be said in a Meditation course, all I known about it is you sit comfortably, you set a timer for at least 8 minutes or indefinitely, you concentrate in your breathing without controlling it, and any thought that arise in your mind you despise it just like a bad pop up ad.

Meditation should be our main activity every day, is the basic activity for well being, so its not surprise that it has been labeled by the media as something from a different religion or for weird people, it should be taught just like brushing our teeth.

>what else can be said in a Meditation course

A lot. Dharma talks can really accelerate progress and keep you from going down dead end paths.

Also, as simple as meditation is some basic instruction is helpful. Many times the instructions are needed just to explain how simple it is because it's easy to try and over complicate it.

Maybe they should show that clip from The Matrix where Neo keeps failing in martial arts and Morpheus simply says "Again."

There are a lot of free resources about meditation online. You can search on youtube for dharma talks or guided meditations.

A lot of monks publish free resources online as well:

A pdf on the basic method of meditation from Ajahn Brahm: http://www.dhammaloka.org.au/files/pdf/Ajahn%20Brahm%20-%20T... is a good place to start.

Also one thing that is taught in a meditation class is to not judge or despise the thoughts that arise, just notice them and let them pass.

For me, doing zazen (mindfulness-like meditation in the Zen tradition), simple written instructions and even the very best books were not enough. I needed a teacher to help me through some obstacles to meditation.

My guess is that it was one of courses taught by S.N. Goenka.

https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index

Please note that there are strong feelings about the way that his courses are taught (both positive and negative). I encourage you to investigate fully before committing. That said, many people have found his 10-day course to be very useful (I haven't participated in it).

One final side note, there are other groups that offer vipassana retreats, and they're usually in the $1500 range for a 10-day retreat.

This is the course I attended: https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/courses/search . It may be difficult at first but it's definitely worth it

Thanks!

I liked this article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9677305

OP: And where do you live?

What about mindfulness? it is by far the most well known form of meditation among the general population.

Your comment is like writing, "Why not code everything in C?" on a Haskell post.

That explains why it's the top voted post.

Meditation does not exercise the brain by deliberately pushing cognitive tasks on it.