I finished the 10-day Vipassana Silent meditation retreat yesterday. This was my second one and the insight I had was that for me at least, the mind seeks or invents a distraction when it is afraid of what it really needs to deal with.
You may not be able to do a 10-day program right now. But my pre-Vipassana attempts at meditation were largely fruitless since it takes a while for the benefits to kick-in and, yes, I got distracted before that could happen.
The intensity of the 10-day program really pushes you to a point where the benefits become much more tangible and even then it took me 2 to get to a point where I now see a clear reason for regular practice.
To answer your question, for me the problem is the demand and luckily that's the only one under my control. Unluckily it takes a lot of hard work with no clear payoff in sight to get it under control.
you cant cut it out. you have to find a source/time that you like better. In my case I largely replaced twitter through the day with select podcasts during the evening walk. It sates me enough to avoid twitter through the next day
It depends if the distraction was something I enjoyed or a crutch for avoiding something.
If I enjoy it, taking it way hurts makes more distracted. I've lowered my joy.
If it's a distraction, then I'll replace it with something because taking away the crutch doesn't solve the need for it.
In my case, I use reddit quite a bit. I enjoy using reddit as a social media platform because it fulfills my business and personal needs.
I tried stepping away from it for a while but I ended up coming back because I need it for my business and I couldn't replace the knowledge and social benefit it gave me. I enjoy engaging with and helping people there.
It's my go to distraction though when I'm avoiding something. So if I do look at reddit, I only look at my subscribed threads where I'm learning or doing something meaningful. I avoid the trap and crutch of looking at suggested threads and becoming distracted.
Instead of thinking about distraction vs focus, I think about it as, does this task benefit me or am I avoiding something else. If I avoiding something, what is it, and how do I address it.
And now that I think of it, my presence on twitter is a function of how much I enjoy it. I've found myself getting off it at a time when I see too much "outrage" on my timeline, which makes me enjoy it less. The distraction is secondary.
And looking only at subscribed threads on Reddit (rather than the general algorithmic feed) makes sense as wel
I finished the 10-day Vipassana Silent meditation retreat yesterday. This was my second one and the insight I had was that for me at least, the mind seeks or invents a distraction when it is afraid of what it really needs to deal with.
You may not be able to do a 10-day program right now. But my pre-Vipassana attempts at meditation were largely fruitless since it takes a while for the benefits to kick-in and, yes, I got distracted before that could happen.
The intensity of the 10-day program really pushes you to a point where the benefits become much more tangible and even then it took me 2 to get to a point where I now see a clear reason for regular practice.
To answer your question, for me the problem is the demand and luckily that's the only one under my control. Unluckily it takes a lot of hard work with no clear payoff in sight to get it under control.
you cant cut it out. you have to find a source/time that you like better. In my case I largely replaced twitter through the day with select podcasts during the evening walk. It sates me enough to avoid twitter through the next day
It depends if the distraction was something I enjoyed or a crutch for avoiding something.
If I enjoy it, taking it way hurts makes more distracted. I've lowered my joy.
If it's a distraction, then I'll replace it with something because taking away the crutch doesn't solve the need for it.
In my case, I use reddit quite a bit. I enjoy using reddit as a social media platform because it fulfills my business and personal needs.
I tried stepping away from it for a while but I ended up coming back because I need it for my business and I couldn't replace the knowledge and social benefit it gave me. I enjoy engaging with and helping people there.
It's my go to distraction though when I'm avoiding something. So if I do look at reddit, I only look at my subscribed threads where I'm learning or doing something meaningful. I avoid the trap and crutch of looking at suggested threads and becoming distracted.
Instead of thinking about distraction vs focus, I think about it as, does this task benefit me or am I avoiding something else. If I avoiding something, what is it, and how do I address it.
Thanks Rawi. This is a good framework to go by.
And now that I think of it, my presence on twitter is a function of how much I enjoy it. I've found myself getting off it at a time when I see too much "outrage" on my timeline, which makes me enjoy it less. The distraction is secondary.
And looking only at subscribed threads on Reddit (rather than the general algorithmic feed) makes sense as wel