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meditation does not have to involve sitting down, you do not have to be still, you do not have to be quiet, you do not have to be alone, you do not have to be in a group, you do not have to be inside, you do not have to control your thoughts, you do not have to control anything
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some people adopt a “no pain no gain” attitude towards meditation that makes it about forcing themselves to do uncomfortable things. when you do that you enshrine a worldview in which force is king, where the parts of you that can best dominate the others decide what to do
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it does not have to be like that. with a sufficiently broad conception of meditation you can aim to apply almost no force in your practice. meditation is not homework and it is not like training a muscle. as mark says, “meditation is concrete problem-solving”
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some people meditate out of self-hatred, because on some level it can become a socially acceptable form of suicide. it doesn’t have to be like that either. you can meditate your way towards becoming more alive than ever, not less
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yeah I agree breathing "counts as" meditation, if you are willing to pay attention to what breathing feels like don't enjoy meditating? fine, yeah, cool, cool but you might enjoy just breathing and paying attention to what that feels like, while you do so.
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