[shabuta]

When I was reading about mind-wandering in the article, I couldn't help but think of my meditation practice. I do it for about an hour each day, mostly because it does bring about new solutions and ideas for work and personal life. Certainly, there are some specific things like posture, chanting, breathing, etc. that differ but for the most part it seems to just be a disciplined way to give my mind the time to wander...

Question for the meditators out there, is your practice just time for mind-wandering?

[manmal]

When I meditate, I just focus on the act of breathing, and actually try to keep my mind from wandering. This flexes the be-in-the-now (awareness) muscle such that I have improved attention afterwards. I like this because then I become so much more attentive to the many little triggers of emotions I don’t want to experience. I also might be more creative, but not sure yet.

[shabuta]

Nice! I should try to focus on my breath at least for some of my meditation. I forgot about that style. I've been meditating on my own for too long probably.

There's another thing that I do that I found supportive, but perhaps again this is deviating from meditation. I count my breaths to keep track of how many minutes for each meditation that I do and I associate each number that I count with a feeling, memory, or emotion that I want to affirm in my life. It's kind of the opposite of mind-wandering, more like planting or reminding yourself of good thoughts. For example, #9 I think about what it feels like to be grateful even for a seemingly difficult circumstance, it's never going to be quite like this again and what unique aspects of it are actually good.

thanks for sharing!

[manmal]

Great idea about the numbers and associating good memories with them, gotta try that :)

[gglitch]

I've had similar thoughts, and concluded that all of three different modes of mental operation have virtues and are worth spending time on: directed movement (concentration, focus), undirected movement (mind-wandering, daydreaming), and non-movement (meditation).