> no big deal, bring your focus back to your breath. What is the difference betw...

Jtsummers · on Jan 31, 2017

> Can't you just watch a movie( or something similar) to the same effect?

My experience with depression, no. Instead of movies, I played video games. To great effect, my mind was off the things that were bothering me. But it was merely delaying the inevitable, and the wasting of time only added to my stress as I tried to catch up on work (or school work) or lost sleep.

Meditation is (in many of these discussions) about mindfulness, not distracting yourself. You become aware of your feelings, thoughts, situation. Distracting yourself (by sex, alcohol, movies, games, etc.) is the opposite of this mindfulness and often works to set you back far more than the temporary reprieve you achieved from your primary condition.

meowpants · on Jan 31, 2017

1. Concentration is one edge of a two edged sword. The other edge is relaxation. You use a balance of concentration and relaxation (not too tense, not too relaxed) and rest your awareness on your object of meditation. The breath, in this case, can be your object. Simply rest your awareness on the breath. Use concentration to keep your mind from drifting, and use relaxation to keep your mind from getting too tense. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjelIPg3ys

2. If you're watching the movie whilst being aware that you're watching it (watching yourself watching the movie), that is meditation. Otherwise, you're simply distracted from your basic awareness.

sean2 · on Jan 31, 2017

I don't understand why these questions are being down-voted; I think they are pretty legit:

Is meditation just a shortcut to the flow state?

I'm also suspicious of guided meditations; I listen to audio books, how is a guided meditation different? Is a movie provably different?

I'm not dissing meditation; I do a breathe focused meditation nearly daily and I occasionally do guided meditations (I'll try these tonight), but there's a large number of practices that loosely fall into the category of meditation and also a large number of possibly worthwhile activities that are booted out. Most people (including me) never seem to question the why of this separation.