Meditation sucks at first. It sucks badly for a long long time. It is SO bad, SO sucky. The harder you try the more you suck at it. But it is hubris to assume that you would naturally be an expert at it. I have been trying it on and off unsuccessfully for many years. Only now, thanks to the lockdown, I have finally been able to do it consistently and have started liking it.

This post is not about the over-the-counter version of meditation, by which I mean the practice of sitting with you eyes closed and thinking things. I will write about that some other time (maybe). The OTC meditation is just one piece of the puzzle, a necessary but not sufficient practice. At the risk of sounding corny, meditation really is a way of living your life.

Yoga

One reason I have finally been able to meditate without giving up is that I have gotten quite good at yoga. I do not think it is possible to meditate properly without first being good at some dynamic physical activity. The skill set you use to get good at any sport, construed broadly, carries over and, in many ways is a prerequisite, to meditation.

Externalized Brain

Meditation isn’t enough. Meditation lets your conscious brain connect with the deeper layers but just connecting is half the battle. You have to externalize your thoughts afterward to successfully vacuum your brain trash. I use Ticktick Google Keep for noting thoughts that pop-up anytime during the day. For this to be successful, you have to “convince” your brain, over time, that these externalized brains are reliable and then it can let go and chill out. This is a slow and steady trust exercise.

Journal

You are wasting your life if you are not journaling. I never journaled as a kid, and now all those memories are lost forever. Firstly, your brain sucks at forming memories. Secondly, that’s it’s least important task. The non-organic world is much better at remembering, use it. When you don’t write everyday, this onus lands squarely on your brain. This ties in with the previous point of externalizing your brain but in a more verbose manner.

If you don’t already, get your shit together and write everyday, it’s not that hard. I use Goodnotes (math), Nebo (handwriting), and OneNote Joplin (archiving) for journaling.

Pomodoro

I do math for a living. It is very easy to for me to forget the concept of time. It wasn’t that long ago that I did not even believe in a 24 hour day. Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, the brain isn’t an infinite resource and needs frequent resetting or it gets worn out. I have become a big fan of the Pomodoro technique for working. It is very hard to do at first, you have to start by forcibly wrenching yourself off of that chair every time the timer goes off. But it does get easier as you get used to it. The five minute breaks I take act like mini-meditations when I try to do physical tasks like, organizing, going for walk, or stretching, that do not require any thinking. This is like a HIIT for my brain. I even use a cute little cube to time my work reps.

To be continued…