The data (currently unpublished) I spoke of regarding the 45min mark is part of a larger ongoing effort to characterize changes that occur to the “mind” as people shift to a different way of experiencing their reality.
In my own experience as well the 40-45 min phase change is often blurred to the point of being unnoticeable. I’m still not 100% convinced it isn’t a priming effect though I think it has decent theoretical support. My simplified explanation is the brain cannot switch modes too rapidly. For example it’s easy to get HR up to 180 bpm in the blink of an eye if you think a tiger is leaping at you but takes considerably longer for it to go back to normal when you realize it was just the shadow of a harmless bush).
Regarding the tally counter: what you consider mind-wandering can/should change over time. Initially only click for completely losing attention and as improvement occurs you can include more and more subtle attentional deviations. Like any other tool it has a limited range where its use is appropriate. I’m not sure it helps too much with learning meditation; its more of a very simple way to vaguely-objectively track your progress over time.
A key principle to keep in mind is that not every meditation style is right for everyone all the time. TMI is heavily focused on anapanasati but there are a multitude of other styles. You may find your mind is more “in tune” with body scanning (e.g. Goenka) or something a little more wacky like Headless Way:
The research I linked to above found that people progressed much more rapidly if they were practicing a technique that was right for them. This is not an excuse to flail around randomly. At least one week of bona fide dedicated practice should be attempted before trying something else but months/years of painstaking effort with little gain is almost always a needless waste of time. That being said there is a fine line between the right amount of dogged persevering and dogmatic perseveration.
Meditation acutely improves psychomotor vigilance, and may decrease sleep need:
https://behavioralandbrainfunctions.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-9081-6-47
The data (currently unpublished) I spoke of regarding the 45min mark is part of a larger ongoing effort to characterize changes that occur to the “mind” as people shift to a different way of experiencing their reality.
http://nonsymbolic.org/publications/
In my own experience as well the 40-45 min phase change is often blurred to the point of being unnoticeable. I’m still not 100% convinced it isn’t a priming effect though I think it has decent theoretical support. My simplified explanation is the brain cannot switch modes too rapidly. For example it’s easy to get HR up to 180 bpm in the blink of an eye if you think a tiger is leaping at you but takes considerably longer for it to go back to normal when you realize it was just the shadow of a harmless bush).
Regarding the tally counter: what you consider mind-wandering can/should change over time. Initially only click for completely losing attention and as improvement occurs you can include more and more subtle attentional deviations. Like any other tool it has a limited range where its use is appropriate. I’m not sure it helps too much with learning meditation; its more of a very simple way to vaguely-objectively track your progress over time.
A key principle to keep in mind is that not every meditation style is right for everyone all the time. TMI is heavily focused on anapanasati but there are a multitude of other styles. You may find your mind is more “in tune” with body scanning (e.g. Goenka) or something a little more wacky like Headless Way:
http://www.headless.org/experiments.htm
The research I linked to above found that people progressed much more rapidly if they were practicing a technique that was right for them. This is not an excuse to flail around randomly. At least one week of bona fide dedicated practice should be attempted before trying something else but months/years of painstaking effort with little gain is almost always a needless waste of time. That being said there is a fine line between the right amount of dogged persevering and dogmatic perseveration.
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