10,000 Minutes of Meditation -- Here's What I Learned

I started meditating in October of 2019 and just passed the 10,000 minute mark on my meditation app. This comes out to about 167 hours or 7 days of constant meditation. While I am not an expert on meditation and certainly not a health guru, but here are a few things I learned.

Use a feedback device

When I was getting started, I didn't know how to meditate and meditation isn't something that comes naturally. "Focus on your breathing" isn't explicit enough for me, so a feedback device was very valuable. I use the Muse2 device and the app gives me invaluable feedback when I am mediating "correctly". There are many ways to meditate including mindfulness, spiritual, loving-kindness and many more. I generally follow the app feedback, which seems to be a blend of focused and mindfulness meditation.

Meditation takes time, and effort.

It really takes about an hour to start making significant progress in any meditation session. The first 20 minutes of any session is spent ruminating over cringe-worthy moments that happened years ago, but after that, you start making progress calming your mind and finding something we can call "clarity". 5-10 minute sessions are scientifically proven to provide health and mental benefits but, the more effort you put in, the more benefit you get out.

Aside -- The cringeworthy moments I was referring to seemed to come back to me in reverse chronological order- adulthood, my college years, high-school and even blunders from my childhood. Now that I have gone back through my entire life, my brain seems to skip around to whatever it is hung-up on for the day.

Split the hemispheres of your brain in half, just like you are splitting an orange. (?!)

This is a bizarre thing to write. I am able to get into my deepest level of meditation by thinking of my brain as a regular muscle, and then flexing that muscle (the two hemispheres of my brain) apart, similar to the action of splitting a peeled orange into two pieces. I am not sure if "flexing" is something your brain is capable of, or I just think I am flexing, but that's what it feels like. Thankfully, the two sides of my brain have never come apart. I know there is substantial research about how the two sides of your brain communicate with each other and I am curious if this method of meditation has any impact on those communication pathway.

The benefits are awesome but also unexpected.

My results are not what I had expected when starting. In regards of short term results, yes, there are immediate results and this is generally a feeling of increased calm or wellbeing. However, on rare occasions, I am able to create a profound mental states for myself which can be quite euphoric. These states generally follow a very long session of 45 minutes or more, when I am meditating on a daily basis. These take a considerable amount more work but, as stated above, the more effort you put in, the more benefit you get out.

I have developed an awareness of the world as I perceive it within my mind, and this internal perspective diverges significantly from external reality. This distinction isn't good or bad, but it does serve as a tool to identify cognitive barriers. Additionally, I have seen an increase in focus and productivity, and this is particularly helpful.

With any luck, this journey has enriched my understanding of both my life and my role within the broader world. Sometimes all of these calm mental states even translate to a calmer version of myself, but no promises.

#muse #supermuser #meditation #wellbeing #productivity #neuroscience