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A toolkit for self optimization

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01/01/1970
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  • chapter icon
    Introduction
    expand chapter
    • Life Is Complex
    • Grab Your Tools
    • Productivity
    • Relationships
    • Therapy
    • Body
    • Mind
    • Spirit
    • Why I Am Sharing These Tools
    • How to Use This Book
  • chapter icon
    Meta
  • chapter icon
    Productivity
    expand chapter
    • 1.1 What If I Had to Decide Now?
    • 1.2 Delay Decisions Until the Optimal ..
    • 1.3 Disconnect
    • 1.4 The Pomodoro Technique
    • 1.5 Mind Mapping
    • 1.6 Agenda Documents
    • 1.7 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Getting Things Done
    • 1.8 Brainstorming
    • 1.9 Log Your Life
    • 1.10 Default to Openness
    • 1.11 Celebrate Success
    • 1.12 Pause and Ask Why
    • 1.13 Accountability Partners
    • 1.14 If You See a Job, Itโ€™s Yours
    • 1.15 Declutter Your Space
    • 1.16 Allow Yourself to Rest
    • 1.17 Atomic Habits
  • chapter icon
    Relationships
    expand chapter
    • 2.1 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Nonviolent Communication
    • 2.2 Prefer Requests over Demands
    • 2.3 Use a Talking Stick
    • 2.4 Post Mortem after Arguments
    • 2.5 Mega Threads
    • 2.6 Active Listening
    • 2.7 Radical Honesty
    • 2.8 When Triggered, Pause
    • 2.9 Forgiveness
    • 2.10 Silence
    • 2.11 Respect Othersโ€™ Autonomy When Off..
    • 2.12 Wheel of Consent
    • 2.13 Make and Formalize Agreements
    • 2.14 Personal Operating Manual
    • 2.15 Acknowledge When Youโ€™re Triggered
    • 2.16 Talk About Whatโ€™s Happening Now
    • 2.17 Ethical Nonmonogamy
    • 2.18 Express Your Emotions Numerically
    • 2.19 Empathy
    • 2.20 The Way of the Superior Man
  • chapter icon
    Therapy
    expand chapter
    • 3.1 Go to Therapy
    • 3.2 Lead a Purposeful Life
    • 3.3 Gratitude
    • 3.4 Talk to Your Inner Selves
    • 3.5 Feel Your Emotions
    • 3.6 Talk about Therapy inTherapy
    • 3.7 Make the Most of Therapy
    • 3.8 Relationship Therapy
    • 3.9 Coaching
    • 3.10 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Twelve Rules for Life
    • 3.11 Explore Your Different Identities
  • chapter icon
    Body
    expand chapter
    • 4.1 High-Intensity Interval Training (..
    • 4.2 Find Physical Activities You Enjoy
    • 4.3 Hack Your Workout Routine
    • 4.4 Breathe Before Eating
    • 4.5 If You Diet, Do It Sustainably
    • 4.6 Remove Temptations
    • 4.7 Nutritional Supplements
    • 4.8 Monitor Your Body
    • 4.9 Agree to Be Hungry
    • 4.10 Stretching
    • 4.11 Exercise Multiple Times a Week
    • 4.12 Intermittent Fasting
  • chapter icon
    Mind
    expand chapter
    • 5.1 Write Book Reviews
    • 5.2 Own Your Echo Chamber
    • 5.3 Be Curious
    • 5.4 Asking โ€œWhyโ€
    • 5.5 Morning Pages
    • 5.6 Physical Memory Tricks
    • 5.7 Follow Up after Meeting New People
    • 5.8 Silent Date
    • 5.9 Find Your Purpose
    • 5.10 Sleep Hygiene
    • 5.11 Face Your Fear
    • 5.12 Short-Circuit Habits
    • 5.13 Allow Yourself to Be Bored
  • chapter icon
    Spirit
    expand chapter
    • 6.1 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Meditation
    • 6.2 Everyday Mindfulness
    • 6.3 Go On a Retreat
    • 6.4 Kลans and Mu
    • 6.5 Find Your Moral Compass
    • 6.6 Anattฤ(Non-Self)
    • 6.7 Enlightenment Is Always Now
    • 6.8 Beware of Spiritual Ego
    • 6.9 Watch Out for Cults/False Gurus
    • 6.10 Conversations with God
  • chapter icon
    other
Print: 6.1 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Meditation
Spirit
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6.1 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Meditation Podcast Icon

Practice paying attention to what is happening right now.

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Motivation
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These days, meditation is gaining mainstream popularity, from dozens of meditation apps to the Netflix show Headspace, as well as through tens of thousands of academic papers on meditation. Meditation can reduce stress, provide health benefits, and help you be more aware and in control.

Meditation lets you observe your thought patterns and emotions in real time, reduce reactive responses, and change your behavior. Finally, perhaps the ultimate benefit of meditation is that it can be a path to liberate you from Ego Delusionโ€”the idea that there exists a โ€œyouโ€ thatโ€™s separate from the world and is subjectively more important than everything else.

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Benefits
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  • Helps you feel calm and centered throughout the day.
  • Allows you to observe your thoughts and feelings and decide how to act on them.
  • Helps you gain insight into your thought patterns and the nature of consciousness.

 

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Challenges
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  • Many people feel that they do not have time to meditate.
  • People believe that they should succeed in meditation and may become frustrated when they feel that theyโ€™re failing.
  • It can be hard to sit still for longer than a few minutes.

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Application
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There are multiple ways to meditate, including mindfulness meditation, body scans, walking meditation, Oshoโ€™s dynamic meditations, nondual meditations, and more. You can meditate with your eyes open or closed, in silence or guided, and even while engaged in other activities, like doing the dishes or conversing with people. The ultimate benefits of meditation are realized when itโ€™s not done as a separate practice but rather integrated into your everyday life.

One of the most common forms of meditation is mindfulness. To practice mindfulness meditation, start by setting aside some time. Ten or twenty minutes is fine, but if youโ€™re low on time, even five minutes can be beneficial. Sit with your eyes closed and observe what is happening moment by moment. Your objective is simply to notice everything that happensโ€”thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and soundsโ€”without judgment and without holding on to anything that catches your attention.

Youโ€™re not trying notย to think but rather to just notice your thoughts and other phenomena such as feelings and sensations. If you catch yourself lost in thought, gently return to the practice of observation. And if you find that youโ€™re judging yourself as โ€œnot meditating well enough,โ€ simply observe that as another occurrence. It might be easiest, especially in the beginning, to meditate using a recorded guide or an app or even to attend live meditation sessions.

Attention is like a muscle, which meditation builds. The best way to build and maintain that muscle is with daily practice. Even a short meditation, repeated daily, is better than a long but sporadic one. As mentioned above, there are various ways to meditate, each with unique characteristics. While itโ€™s good to have a core practice you can rely on, itโ€™s also worthwhile to experiment and find what attracts you at any particular time. See Tools 6.2 and 6.3ย for a few suggestions. Whatever you choose, try not to restrict your practice to formal sessions; this tool is meant to be integrated via short yet meaningful mindfulness moments throughout your day.

Remember, meditation is a life-long practice: itโ€™s not something you achieve and forget about. There are always higher levels of awareness to be reached in the present moment.

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References
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  1. Taft, Michael, The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditations for Smart Skepticsย (Cephalopod Rex, 2015).
  2. Harris, Sam, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religionย (Simon & Schuster, 2015).
  3. Sam Harrisโ€™ app Waking Up, https://wakingup.com/
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Comments (1)
amiel peled
04/01/2025
06:46
addition to benefits

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Chapters and Tools
Add new tool
Home
liat_admin
01/01/1970
00:00
Paragraph: INSERT TITLE
  • chapter icon
    Introduction
    expand chapter
    • Life Is Complex
    • Grab Your Tools
    • Productivity
    • Relationships
    • Therapy
    • Body
    • Mind
    • Spirit
    • Why I Am Sharing These Tools
    • How to Use This Book
  • chapter icon
    Meta
  • chapter icon
    Productivity
    expand chapter
    • 1.1 What If I Had to Decide Now?
    • 1.2 Delay Decisions Until the Optimal ..
    • 1.3 Disconnect
    • 1.4 The Pomodoro Technique
    • 1.5 Mind Mapping
    • 1.6 Agenda Documents
    • 1.7 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Getting Things Done
    • 1.8 Brainstorming
    • 1.9 Log Your Life
    • 1.10 Default to Openness
    • 1.11 Celebrate Success
    • 1.12 Pause and Ask Why
    • 1.13 Accountability Partners
    • 1.14 If You See a Job, Itโ€™s Yours
    • 1.15 Declutter Your Space
    • 1.16 Allow Yourself to Rest
    • 1.17 Atomic Habits
  • chapter icon
    Relationships
    expand chapter
    • 2.1 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Nonviolent Communication
    • 2.2 Prefer Requests over Demands
    • 2.3 Use a Talking Stick
    • 2.4 Post Mortem after Arguments
    • 2.5 Mega Threads
    • 2.6 Active Listening
    • 2.7 Radical Honesty
    • 2.8 When Triggered, Pause
    • 2.9 Forgiveness
    • 2.10 Silence
    • 2.11 Respect Othersโ€™ Autonomy When Off..
    • 2.12 Wheel of Consent
    • 2.13 Make and Formalize Agreements
    • 2.14 Personal Operating Manual
    • 2.15 Acknowledge When Youโ€™re Triggered
    • 2.16 Talk About Whatโ€™s Happening Now
    • 2.17 Ethical Nonmonogamy
    • 2.18 Express Your Emotions Numerically
    • 2.19 Empathy
    • 2.20 The Way of the Superior Man
  • chapter icon
    Therapy
    expand chapter
    • 3.1 Go to Therapy
    • 3.2 Lead a Purposeful Life
    • 3.3 Gratitude
    • 3.4 Talk to Your Inner Selves
    • 3.5 Feel Your Emotions
    • 3.6 Talk about Therapy inTherapy
    • 3.7 Make the Most of Therapy
    • 3.8 Relationship Therapy
    • 3.9 Coaching
    • 3.10 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Twelve Rules for Life
    • 3.11 Explore Your Different Identities
  • chapter icon
    Body
    expand chapter
    • 4.1 High-Intensity Interval Training (..
    • 4.2 Find Physical Activities You Enjoy
    • 4.3 Hack Your Workout Routine
    • 4.4 Breathe Before Eating
    • 4.5 If You Diet, Do It Sustainably
    • 4.6 Remove Temptations
    • 4.7 Nutritional Supplements
    • 4.8 Monitor Your Body
    • 4.9 Agree to Be Hungry
    • 4.10 Stretching
    • 4.11 Exercise Multiple Times a Week
    • 4.12 Intermittent Fasting
  • chapter icon
    Mind
    expand chapter
    • 5.1 Write Book Reviews
    • 5.2 Own Your Echo Chamber
    • 5.3 Be Curious
    • 5.4 Asking โ€œWhyโ€
    • 5.5 Morning Pages
    • 5.6 Physical Memory Tricks
    • 5.7 Follow Up after Meeting New People
    • 5.8 Silent Date
    • 5.9 Find Your Purpose
    • 5.10 Sleep Hygiene
    • 5.11 Face Your Fear
    • 5.12 Short-Circuit Habits
    • 5.13 Allow Yourself to Be Bored
  • chapter icon
    Spirit
    expand chapter
    • 6.1 ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Meditation
    • 6.2 Everyday Mindfulness
    • 6.3 Go On a Retreat
    • 6.4 Kลans and Mu
    • 6.5 Find Your Moral Compass
    • 6.6 Anattฤ(Non-Self)
    • 6.7 Enlightenment Is Always Now
    • 6.8 Beware of Spiritual Ego
    • 6.9 Watch Out for Cults/False Gurus
    • 6.10 Conversations with God
  • chapter icon
    other
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