My Favorite Meditation Tools — and Why “Positive Thinking” is Overrated
The New Year is here — and so is all of the usual advice about ‘thinking positively.’
But what does that really mean?
It’s an overstated trope that lends itself to being a nullifying narcotic. “Just think positive” is a piece of advice that isn’t actionable and slightly repugnant. It doesn’t take into account the difficulties that people face that are outside of their control and is an arguably privileged stance that brushes aside the real difficulties that many people have due to cultural, socioeconomic, etc. situations that one can do little or nothing to change. Thinking positively won’t magically just make things better and it’s advice we need to stop blindly giving if we want to create a more resilient population. Sometimes, too much positive thinking is actually a bad thing as it mentally shields you from the realities and difficulties that are present and therefore lessening your chance of success. You can end up thinking more positively and have a better outlook but simply prescribing “positive thinking” won’t get that done as it is more of an effect and not a cause.
What can you do instead?
Shift your mental stance to one of positive and pragmatic outcome based objectivism, that isn’t so quick to label things as “good” or “bad” but instead events that simply just “are” while creating a mental model that will help you make the most out of an eventual result.
We try to change the way we see the world without first understanding our relationship with ourselves and understanding how that impacts everything we do.
Meditation is one of my favorite ways to improve this relationship. I’ve experimented with meditation every since childhood but as I’ve gotten a bit older and taken full autonomy over my personal practice, I’ve truly noticed the benefit that deep introspection has on improving my outlook. Not because I’m now thinking immensely positive but because the likelihood of having such a stark emotive response which will skew my actions towards being non constructive has lessened.
See below for a quick rundown of tools and tips that I’ve seen success with and also can benefit you.
Favorite meditation tools (other than headspace)
UCLA Mindfulness
UCLA is renowned for its research into mindfulness and after I found these free meditations in college I haven’t stopped using them. Meditation was a major part of healing from football injuries and dealing with stress of school in general, and the more I learn about the brain as being the “master organ” for stress response and modulation needed for healing, the more I’m convinced that meditation was one of the main reasons I was able to come back and play in 4 weeks after suffering a broken leg.
Further Reading:
To Treat Back Pain Look To The Brain
“Stop, Breathe, Think”
I have an Alexa ( say what you want, but her ability to transcribe and email notes that I yell at her is a god send ) and you can enable meditations on it. Browsing the meditations library, I found the “Lion Mind” practice in addition to others offered by “Stop, Breathe, Think”. Simple and varying in duration these are easy to pull up on your iPhone via browser or app and just get done.
Yogic Breathing
Not really an app but more a breathing practice, yogic breathing has been seen to improve markers of stress in the body. Try just finding time, 10–20 minutes, where you focus on your breath using a tempo of a 2–3 second inhale, 6–8 second hold, and a 4 second exhale. If your mind floats, that’s fine, just return to your breath.
Oxygen really is the first nutrient and if you’re not into the “esoteric” stuff, breathing has a strong impact on your nervous system so getting closer in tune with your breathing can go a long way in augmenting stress.
Ways of Thinking
Mental Contrasting
A practice that many athletes use and I make many runners do, especially as they gear up for a marathon, is mental contrasting. Basically you envision the positive aspects of completing a goal but after you do that, write down the negative obstacles in your way that could stop you from achieving them. Visualize them and then also your response to them when they will occur.
Sounds super simple, and to be honest it is, but it has been linked to increased goal attainment in a variety of settings.
Self Distancing
For whatever reason we give better advice to our friends than ourselves. When you’re facing a problem, “self-distance” and treat yourself like a stranger. It allows you to often work through difficult events and conundrums without the stress response and instead causing “adaptive self reflection”
So next time you face an issue, especially one that may require closure, try out self distancing
Trichotomy of Control
Taken from modern stoicism, there’s something called “trichotomy of control”, so coined by William Irvine as it’s an update to the “dichotomy of control” present within ancient stoicism. In short there are things you have complete control, limited control over, and no control over. Too often we beat ourselves up over things that we have no control or limited limited control over (<50%), leading to a “deenergization” and we don’t capitalize on the things we have complete or majority control over.
Applying this trichotomy over issues I have to deal with, I’ve noticed a much more strategic rumination and therefore action response. Some things you just have to take the L on. Let it go, move on, and capitalize on the next wave.
Biocentrism x My Friend’s Advice
“Biocentrism” is a concept (and a book) put forth by renowned biomedical researcher Robert Lanza. Long story short, it places biology as the ultimate science and he argues agnostically, based upon quantum mechanics and other disciplines, that the observer plays a massive role in how reality is observed.
Got it? good.
In addition, I was having a conversation with my friend and she explained, after I had been complaining, that the issue was not what had actually happened but my reaction to it and I need to shift my frame of my mind in response.
Basically, how was my biological consciousness causing me to observe reality?
Don’t discount how our outlook paints the way in which we see a situation.
Lets make the new year hot. Comment below on any other tips you’ve used in the past to improve your results.
