Tag: Rants

Ollie gets annoyed at things that are stupid and goes off on a rant.

Mindfulness, and the Difference Between Attention and Awareness

Until you understand this key distinction, you won’t be getting the full benefit of mindfulness, or understanding its very real limitations.

Not Just Attention

Mindfulness is usually defined in terms of paying attention (e.g. “paying attention to the present moment”) but this leads to confusion and inconsistencies.

For one thing, it is impossible to pay attention to “the present moment”, which consists of an impossibly vast amount of data from our senses, only a tiny percentage of which we are able to pay attention to at any one time.… Read the rest “Mindfulness, and the Difference Between Attention and Awareness”

I Wasted 8 Years of Meditation Because I Didn’t Understand These 4 Things

Most people meditate for a long time with little improvement because of these four myths.

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Striving for unusual or one-off experiences
  • Misunderstanding non-judgemental awareness
  • Thinking that trying to exert any kind of effort in meditation is a mistake
  • Extremely vague or unstructured meditation instructions
  • Conclusion

Introduction

“I’ve been practicing meditation for a few years, but I still can’t keep my attention on my breath for more than a few seconds at a time.… Read the rest “I Wasted 8 Years of Meditation Because I Didn’t Understand These 4 Things”