Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people: study (2014)

Re:Doing something is better than doing nothing for most peo... by brianjlogan on Sunday June 13, 2021 @10:46AM (#27493067)

Curious if the study would have the same results today with the prevalence of Mindfulness meditation. Perhaps it's my predisposition since I've googled for it. But I see advertisements for Calm and Headspace. I think even on TV. I see "Mindfulness" centers, physical places to take classes and meditate. A whole commercial market has taken hold of this new interest of fighting back the confusion of modern life.

My trouble with advertising these aids, is that perhaps people will be attached to them. For me the main thing that makes me enjoy meditation is that no matter what if I have the discipline I can do it. If I lose my limbs, if I have constant pain, if I'm unhappy, if I lose my family. All the awfulness of life can at the very least while I'm living not take away my inner peace. I can feel and observe the river of life without being swept away by it. I have a "comfortable" sense of security in my existence.

Coming back to the article. Having been through those experiences I would very much choose to be alone with my thoughts. I am literally trying to find time every day. Especially over electric shock haha.

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Re:Doing something is better than doing nothing for most peo... by ChrisLTD on Sunday June 13, 2021 @11:01AM (#27493190)

As someone that has regularly meditated for years now, I still wouldn’t say sitting alone with nothing to do is an enjoyable experience. You can turn it into an opportunity for meditation or other types of deep thinking, but that’s more like “work” than anything else.

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Re:Doing something is better than doing nothing for most peo... by Jeff_Brown on Sunday June 13, 2021 @12:34PM (#27493965)

Meditation can occupy a unique space between work and play. One of the goals of meditation can be an experience beyond, or at least parallel to, goal-awareness.

I say "can be" because there are multiple kinds of meditation. A famous meditation researcher whose name I've forgotten lists three: focused, wandering, and empathic. (I'm not sure those are the canonical terms for them.) Wandering is my favorite.

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Re:Doing something is better than doing nothing for most peo... by brianjlogan on Sunday June 13, 2021 @12:59PM (#27494156)

Yeah that "enjoyable" state is kind of difficult to describe. My experience may be different than yours but for me it's an emptiness of being in tranquility with the chaos of my own thoughts. Only with deliberate practice. To me "work" does not mean suffering but directed concentration and discipline. If I accept my mistakes and imperfectness of that "work" the process to me is "enjoyable". But the "joy" is difficult here because it's not really that exact emotion.

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Re:Doing something is better than doing nothing for most peo... by kahmeal on Sunday June 13, 2021 @02:05PM (#27494756)

Perhaps satisfaction and contentment are more accurate?

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Re:Doing something is better than doing nothing for most peo... by plutonorm on Sunday June 13, 2021 @02:48PM (#27495157)

Aim to get into a jhana, it’s a real state of being and quite wonderful.

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