[HN Gopher] What solitary confinement taught me about surviving ...
___________________________________________________________________
What solitary confinement taught me about surviving isolation
(2020)
Author : dsr12
Score : 86 points
Date : 2021-03-26 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (humanparts.medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (humanparts.medium.com)
| BeefySwain wrote:
| How is 4 CONSECUTIVE years of solitary isolation not "cruel and
| unusual"? I'm not asking rhetorically, or to start some kind of
| debate or discussion about the state of incarceration in the US.
| I am literally asking on what legal basis those who have fought
| such things (I assume that they have) have lost those cases.
| tyingq wrote:
| I agree, though it's not even near the upper end. Federal
| SuperMAX includes the possibility of lifetime solitary.
|
| Or individually shitty state prisons. 43 years of consecutive
| solitary in Louisiana: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/albert-
| woodfox-free-louisiana-usa...
| klyrs wrote:
| It's not "unusual" if they're doing it to huge numbers of
| inmates? Sorry, that's a bit cynical. But if somebody can take
| a serious look at pretty much any aspect of the american
| criminal justice system and not come away cynical and jaded, I
| want whatever drugs they're taking.
| kelnos wrote:
| A quick DDG search turned up a long list of SCOTUS decisions
| related to this, which might be interesting:
| https://solitarywatch.org/resources/u-s-supreme-court-cases/
| momento wrote:
| It's honestly unconscionable.
| kjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote:
| Nah there are definitely people who deserve it. If everyone
| really wants to get rid of the death penalty at least keep
| this. People like child rapists, mass shooters, etc all
| deserve lifetime solitary confinement.
| [deleted]
| freeone3000 wrote:
| No. Nobody deserves this.
| postalrat wrote:
| Should they be given the option of death? Or be provided
| a confined but comfortable place to live?
| the_snooze wrote:
| There are indeed people who should be kept safely away from
| the public. But what you're supporting is just pointless
| cruelty.
| simonh wrote:
| I understand the impulse, some crimes are so horrific it
| gets your blood up, but for me it's not about them, it's
| about us. I don't want to live in a vengeful, vindictive or
| cruel society and I don't want anyone doing those things on
| my behalf. I'm a pragmatist, some killings are essentially
| unavoidable, as in war. Violence needs to be an option, but
| I don't think it should be used unnecessarily or to satisfy
| base urges. Not in my name anyway. These people should
| serve the sentence they were given according to due
| process, and this does not seem to be consistent with the
| intended penalty.
|
| On a personal note an acquaintance of mine served several
| years for a sentence for which he was later fully
| exonerated. It was a thoroughly awful travesty of justice.
| He also underwent appalling abuses as the alleged crime for
| which he was convicted was sexual in nature. No system is
| perfect and there will probably always be mistakes made, so
| lets at least make sure the consequences of such mistakes
| don't burden our consciences any more than they need to.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| There is worse. Take a solitary cell meant for one. Then put
| two people in it. This is normal in many US facilities. Same
| 24/7 lockdown but at least it isn't "solitary". In truth, it is
| worse.
| [deleted]
| pje wrote:
| Solitary confinement for longer than fifteen days _is literally
| torture_ as defined by the U.N.
| mod wrote:
| I got a lot of torture during quarantine. And... by choice,
| pretty frequently.
|
| Using that definition muddies the definition a lot.
|
| 4 years is definitely cruel and unusual imo. 15 days is
| whatever.
|
| I just think they should have soft things and light etc in
| their cell if we're going to continue using that. A
| comfortable place.
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| The author, Shaka Senghor, is slightly famous and has been
| involved with e.g. the MIT Media Lab, so for some background on
| his original trial, imprisonment and release that the linked
| article doesn't provide, refer to his Wikipedia article [0].
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_Senghor
| Udik wrote:
| It's a great story of redemption.
|
| But I can't help noticing that a convicted murderer can redeem
| himself and be honoured with prestigious appointments; while
| vague allegations of remote and relatively minor misbehaviour
| are considered enough to demand someone's removal from any
| prominent position. Isn't that absurd?
| xenadu02 wrote:
| You don't see a difference between the state removing your
| literal freedom vs not being allowed to be on a committee or
| a board?
|
| It seems like any reasonable person should understand that,
| making such arguments deliberately disingenuous.
|
| I would also note that redemption requires real reflection,
| penance, and so forth. Paying some kind of price. Crying that
| you're being unfairly persecuted isn't the same thing.
|
| I think the discussion you want to have might belong to
| different posts than this one.
| pc86 wrote:
| > _You don 't see a difference between the state removing
| your literal freedom vs not being allowed to be on a
| committee or a board?_
|
| This is an interesting question and comparison, but not at
| all the one to which you're replying.
| MikeTheGreat wrote:
| I think the key difference is the journey of redemption that
| the murderer went through. What we admire is the person's
| ability to change who they are, to literally reinvent
| themselves, not at a superficial / public level but at the
| deep level of them making substantially different decisions
| day to day.
|
| Going from "Yeah, I'll kill someone" to "I recognize why I
| did that wrong thing and have taken effective steps to never
| do that again" is pretty huge.
| dang wrote:
| " _Eschew flamebait. Don 't introduce flamewar topics unless
| you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated
| controversies and generic tangents._"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
|
| The generic tangent thing is particularly important [1]. The
| hottest few sensational topics are like black holes that suck
| in every passing spaceship [2]. This turns every discussion
| the same, when what we actually want are diffs [3]. Curiosity
| withers under repetition [4].
|
| [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&
| sor...
|
| [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&
| que...
|
| [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false
| &so...
|
| [4] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false
| &so...
| rubatuga wrote:
| Pretty ironic indeed
| mssundaram wrote:
| > _4. Journal The greatest gift I gave to myself while in
| solitary confinement was the gift of journaling. I poured my
| heart and soul into my notepads. I wrote about all the
| experiences, life choices, and traumas that led me to prison. I
| was lovingly honest with myself. I talked about all the things I
| had stuffed deep down inside, and it was the most liberating
| experience I had_
|
| There is a Hindu practice that is similar called Vasana Daha
| Tantra. "Vasana" meaning imprints, "Daha" to burn, and "Tantra"
| meaning method - i.e. "the method to burn away imprints". The
| method is the same as the author has outlined above, except that
| when you're done you "burn the papers in an inauspicious fire".
|
| I have personally found the act of burning the papers very
| liberating, because much of cathartic writing I would never want
| anyone else to see - somethings just need to be written without
| any discrimination or self censoring, and knowing that it will be
| burned really aids to release it all.
|
| There are more dimensions to this practice however I'm sure even
| from a secular perspective it would be helpful, as Shaka
| explains.
| narrator wrote:
| Once, I was on a long hike far away from the trailhead. My
| phone battery died, and there was no one around, so I needed
| something to occupy my mind for several hours. One thing I came
| up with was trying to remember as much as I could about the
| previous years of my life. It's really a great way to entertain
| oneself with no external input.
| tyingq wrote:
| His biography is titled "Writing my Wrongs". That's a really
| terrific title for his story.
| pier25 wrote:
| > _Read the rest of this story with a free account_
|
| Are people writing on Medium aware of this?
| tonystubblebine wrote:
| For anyone seeing this, I tried to help Medium solve this
| coming from the other direction, which is to make it an over
| the top good value for HN readers to not only log in but also
| pay for the $5 subscription.
|
| That's really what Medium aspires to be--a place worthy of a
| five dollar subscription.
|
| Many people here probably end up on Medium repeatedly via
| Google search and yeah, the results are mixed. But also, it's
| worth noting that a lot of those results wouldn't exist at all
| without Medium paying and encouraging writers and editors.
|
| What I hoped would start to take Medium over the top though was
| the addition of all of The Pragmatic Programmer books. That was
| paid for by other tech people who had already subscribed. (And
| I played a role in bringing them on board).
|
| There's more coming. But overall, this is 100% Medium's
| direction and belief that a soft paywall is a better business
| and a bigger win for all parties than free & ad supported. So
| this paywall isn't going away, and it's really on them to do
| more to justify it.
| airstrike wrote:
| Meanwhile I got "You have 1 free member-only story left this
| month. Sign up for Medium and get an extra one".
|
| Outside of that, private mode + reader view in Firefox usually
| does the trick
| mariuolo wrote:
| https://archive.ph/GODWY
| Etheryte wrote:
| Small tip regarding Medium, click the padlock in the URL bar,
| click cookies and remove all that contain medium.com in their
| name. No more article count limit.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| Thank you for that tip. I can't tell you how many times I've
| wanted to clear cookies for a site and done it the roundabout
| way: go into settings, search for "cookies", remember which
| of the four matches under "privacy and security" is the one
| that works (and not the seemingly obvious "clear browsing
| data"), type in the domain, and go from there.
|
| Your trick of clicking the padlock (which I assume also works
| on the warning icon for non-HTTPS sites) is so much easier!
| pier25 wrote:
| Awesome tip, thanks!
| ralphc wrote:
| This bothered me so much I made a bookmark to the cookies
| setting. This is much better, thanks from me.
| okareaman wrote:
| Unless they've changed this, Medium is one of those sites that
| asks you to sign in with Facebook or Google, and then after you
| give them your email and profile picture (why?) they come back
| and say you still can't read it. I hate that. I don't have a
| good feeling about Medium because of this. It's trickery.
| airstrike wrote:
| (2020)
| dang wrote:
| Added above. Thanks!
| jgwil2 wrote:
| Why do numbers always get removed from titles here? I think _four
| years_ in solitary gives a significantly different vibe than this
| editorialized version.
| gus_massa wrote:
| It's to remove some linkbaitness of listicles. If you see a
| case (like this article) where the number is important, you can
| write to the mods and them sometimes add the number back.
| airstrike wrote:
| You can also edit the title for a couple hours (?) after
| submitting and type the numbers back in, effectively
| reverting the auto-removal
| robdachshund wrote:
| While I disagree with solitary confinement I also disagree with a
| murderer reinventing himself as some sort of guru and getting a
| diversity department job at MIT
|
| This man talks about the stigma of being a felon as being unfair
| when he took someone's life
|
| I would equate his confinement with torture. However I don't
| think we should reward him for suffering through a punishment he
| granted himself.
|
| When a person like this gets ted talks and photoshoots I think
| we've gone too far. The man has used his crime to turn himself
| into a brand
| Trasmatta wrote:
| Does anyone happen to know the context and background on the
| murder? It doesn't seem to have much info on the Wikipedia
| page. I'd imagine that's pretty important for making a
| judgement call.
| klibertp wrote:
| A bit more background in the article referenced on the Wiki:
| https://www.npr.org/2016/03/16/470567568/once-seduced-by-
| dru...
|
| Nothing specific about the murder yet, though.
| klibertp wrote:
| The guy ran from an abusive home when he was 14. He couldn't
| find shelter and landed on the streets. He turned to drug trade
| as a way to feed himself. Then, at some point, he was shot 4
| times. Someone called 911, but the ambulance never arrived. His
| acquaintance drove him to hospital, where he was treated for
| two days, then shoved back on the streets. With one bullet
| still in his body. Then, he decided to get a gun for himself.
| Then he actually used that gun on someone like him, and the
| other guy unfortunately died. This could have been
| manslaughter, but there were drugs involved, and you gotta be
| tough on drug crimes, so he got 19 years, even though people in
| your country, in similar cases, routinely leave prison after
| 5-6 years.
|
| Your society failed him on so many levels, and so many times,
| that it would be a miracle if he didn't land in prison sooner
| or later.
|
| Fast forward to today, he served his sentence in full and when
| he got out, he couldn't rent an apartament or find a job. The
| punishment was supposed to have ended, but it didn't: he has
| "criminal record", which makes him - in your society - somehow
| less than a human being.
|
| He somehow lived through this, got a job, wrote a book, started
| advocating for better prison conditions, started helping
| inmates in prisons around him.
|
| And now, there's a robdachshund who wants to deny all the good
| the guy did, want to have him carry a stigma for the rest of
| his life, and want to take his livelihood from him.
|
| America - I won't ever understand you. I wouldn't want to be a
| part of a society of such robdachshunds ever, there's not
| enough money on the whole planet to convince me otherwise.
| alea_iacta_est wrote:
| > Your society failed him on so many levels
|
| Society doesn't owe people anything besides freedom, which
| that guy had, and used it to commit a crime, and paid for it.
|
| > America - I won't ever understand you. I wouldn't want to
| be a part of a society of such robdachshunds ever, there's
| not enough money on the whole planet to convince me
| otherwise.
|
| Guess what, I wouldn't want to be part of a society of self
| righteous people like you either.
| klibertp wrote:
| > Society doesn't owe people anything besides freedom
|
| That's one opinion, and it's far from universal even in
| your country, though it seems to be popular. From the
| outside perspective, the fact that it seems to be shared by
| a portion of population this large is deeply mistifying.
| Edit: I mean, if that's all, then that's a pretty bad deal
| - a society can tell you to go die in a war, hang you,
| starve you, make you work to pay for an ever-growing army
| of officials, and you get out of it just "freedom"?
|
| > and paid for it.
|
| Yes. That's what I said. The OP, though, wants to make him
| keep paying for it forever. Which is another seemingly
| popular, yet incredibly disturbing opinion that I can't
| identify with.
|
| > self righteous people
|
| Thank you, I'll take it as a compliment.
| tptacek wrote:
| I don't have to believe he's a guru or think about his job at
| MIT to recognize that he's had an experience, and a series of
| reactions to that experience, that are valuable when related
| through writing.
| laluser wrote:
| This is such an unfair comment. You're basically saying that
| once people are out of prison, they should commit to a life of
| poverty and continued suffering. The whole point of prison is
| to rehabilitate and make a net-positive contributor to society,
| which clearly this person has. The man did his time, what else
| can they do? Also, saying, "getting a diversity department job
| at MIT" is such a racist thing to say overall.
| wussboy wrote:
| I hear what you're saying. I'm not super fond of anyone
| "turning themselves in to a brand", but maybe that's just
| because I've never been able to do it. But I would like to
| imagine there's room in this world for people to make mistakes
| and to redeem themselves.
|
| If this man can never make himself in to more than a criminal,
| maybe it would be better to just end their life immediately
| after the crime? A life for a life? If they can bring good out
| of their evil, should there be a limit to how much good they
| can bring?
|
| I'm not asking these questions with a specific point in mind,
| other than to present some additional context.
| tda wrote:
| Th nytimes had an article about a 13 year old that shot (but not
| killed) someone, and subsequently spent 18 years in solitary
| confinement. The article made me so mad I ha to stop reading,
| truly horrifying this happened.
|
| Edit: sorry for the flame bait. Let me rephrase: this is what you
| get when people vote tough on crime. Be careful what you vote for
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| > And to all republicans, this is what you voted for.
|
| The flame bait is unnecessary and the anti-crime push that this
| guy was on the receiving end of was very much a bipartisan
| effort.
| tda wrote:
| Yes you are right. I put it anyways because votes matter,
| being angry on the Internet does not. And the tough on crime
| mentality that lead to this is pushed harder by Republicans
| than Democrats.
| ralph84 wrote:
| His stay in solitary began in Florida in 1992. The governor of
| Florida at the time was a democrat. Maybe you weren't around
| then, but the democrats of the 90s (Clinton, Biden, etc.) were
| "tough on crime" types.
| tda wrote:
| Yes everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves, and
| certainly many Democrats are also to blame. But the hawks are
| always Republicans, and I'm sure they set the stage for this
| dang wrote:
| Please do not take HN threads into partisan flamewar. That way
| is hell. We're trying to go a different way.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| crb002 wrote:
| Solitary was better than getting the shit beat out of me when my
| ex-wife's law partner dropped by the Polk County Iowa jail on 10
| March 2020 - dropped my name to a drug dealer - and was viciously
| attacked hours later.
|
| Read lots of great Sci-Fi, both Niven and Game of Thrones. Lots
| of category theory - for "security" reasons they banned software
| engineering books.
|
| Iowa is corrupt AF. https://chadbrewbaker.substack.com/p/good-
| trouble-in-little-...
| superasn wrote:
| > What I learned in the two years to follow was that I was trying
| to control something I had no control over, and I suffered as a
| result. In my third year, I began to journal. I discovered that
| my thoughts and my actions were the only two things I could
| control. It was a pivotal moment in my life. I went from being a
| victim of my circumstances to being a master of my destiny.
|
| Almost every book and teaching mostly comes down to this. Whether
| is Viktor Frankl or good old CBT. I actually read a very good
| passage about this in a book called Hapiness Trap
|
| - Choose anything you are aware of: a sight, sound, smell, taste,
| sensation, thought, feeling, movement, body part, material object
| --literally anything.
|
| - Focus on that thing and observe it as if you were a curious
| scientist.
|
| - As you're observing it, notice who's doing the observing.
|
| - That's all there is to it.
|
| - In that moment, when you observe the observing, you are the
| observing self.
|
| - So the moment you realise what is happening--that you're fusing
| with stories or believing that you are the documentary--you can
| instantly step back and observe.
|
| - Then all you need to do is notice that you're observing and in
| that moment, there is the real you.
| imiric wrote:
| Observing sensations, thoughts and even the observer is a
| common practice in mindfulness meditation. I've only started
| doing short daily meditations and find it very difficult to do
| this successfully, and get easily distracted. I found that I'm
| only able to focus on a single thought at a time, and if that's
| a distracting one, then I lose the observation part of it.
|
| Any tips from experienced meditators?
| Elof wrote:
| My only tip is to not be hard on yourself and stick with it.
| Doing meditation 'right' isn't an end.
| justinpombrio wrote:
| Two pieces of advice:
|
| - Getting easily distracted is normal. Don't set a goal of
| never getting distracted: it's unrealistic and
| counterproductive. I've spent hundreds of hours meditating,
| and still get distracted (albeit more briefly). Instead, feel
| good when you notice you're distracted. The goal is to train
| yourself to notice and return to the sensation sooner, with
| positive feedback.
|
| - Don't try to block out everything except what you're
| meditating on. That should be your _main_ focus, but you
| should let yourself be aware of other things in the
| background.
|
| The Mind Illuminated has some good practical advice in the
| early chapters. I can't vouch for the later chapters.
| https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-
| Integrati...
| airstrike wrote:
| I've found that focusing on one's breathing tends to help
| ericmcer wrote:
| It is interesting how deep introspection and observation
| usually leads to Buddhist like ideals.
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| The only issue is that:
|
| "- As you're observing it, notice who's doing the observing.
|
| - That's all there is to it.
|
| - In that moment, when you observe the observing, you are the
| observing self."
|
| means nothing. What does this mean? Look in the mirror? Focus
| on your breath? Repeat the thought you just had? None of this
| leads to any sort of depth that is often claimed.
| jakeva wrote:
| It seems you have failed to consider that the meaning of
| something is subjective and that for you it means nothing
| and lacks depth, while for others it is profound in its
| depth. In situations like this, I often find it more
| productive to examine why it seems like others are getting
| something out of it while I am not. Perhaps this is an
| opportunity to grow!
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| > It seems you have failed to consider that the meaning
| of something is subjective and that for you it means
| nothing and lacks depth, while for others it is profound
| in its depth.
|
| That statement is self-refuting because it is objective.
| Subjectivism can't get off the ground because its
| fundamental premise is objective.
| loveistheanswer wrote:
| Consciousness is inherently subjective
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| Is that an objective statement? In other words, is it
| true whether someone believes it or not?
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| There is exactly one truth in the universe, that there
| are no other truths.
|
| qed.
|
| Epistemological monism easily resolves the "socratic
| paradox" and it looks like that's how Socrates himself
| resolves it.
|
| "although I do not suppose that either of us knows
| anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than
| he is - for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I
| neither know nor think that I know" - Socrates, in Platos
| Apology
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| > There is exactly one truth in the universe, that there
| are no other truths.
|
| > qed.
|
| This is a contradiction. QED means you just proved
| something to be true. If there is a single truth (that
| there is only one truth) then there can be no deductive
| reasoning, science, etc.
|
| You must have objective truth and reasoning in order to
| say anything other than "I feel..."
| npsimons wrote:
| > Perhaps this is an opportunity to grow!
|
| Empathy is a _vastly_ underrated (and underdeveloped)
| skill.
| throwanem wrote:
| > What does this mean?
|
| This is one of those questions that can't be usefully
| answered without reference to the experience it's asking
| about. I can say from my own experience that what's being
| described isn't nonsense, but I can't put words around it
| that make sense as an explanation of how I know. Nor can
| anyone else, as far as I can tell, and I've seen many try.
|
| The method described here seems fine as far as it goes, but
| it's kind of like learning to ride a bike, or maybe how to
| juggle. There are clear steps you can follow, but they only
| take you up to the point where a moment of novel insight is
| required to grasp the skill, and only that moment of novel
| insight will take you any further. Once you've had it, you
| never forget it, but there's a step in there that no one
| else can take you through - you have to find it for
| yourself or not at all.
|
| It's not fair, but that's just how it is as far as I can
| tell. I wish I could do better, and I'm sorry that I can't.
| loveistheanswer wrote:
| It's meditation; detachment from being completely possesed
| by your train of thoughts. There is plenty of scientific
| evidence that shows meditation can have psychological and
| physiological benefits for many people
| omginternets wrote:
| Surely you understand how you can observe your own
| behavior, including observation ... right?
| jcims wrote:
| I don't know if I do what is being described here, but if I
| were to try to create a computing analogy it would be
| spinning up a low priority thread that is just sampling
| what is going on in my mind and how I'm processing the
| observations that I make and the sensory inputs that I'm
| experiencing. These samples are just stored away somewhere
| that I'm able to somewhat recall later.
|
| It's kind of similar to that state of mind you have when
| you're boiling water, you get involved with some other
| activity but there's somehow an increased sensitivity to
| the rather subtle sound of a bubbling pot.
|
| If you try to think too much about the observations real-
| time, you interrupt the primary thought process that you
| were trying to observe. So it's kind of a passive process
| that you can then reason about later.
|
| I think it's just something you have to try to do until you
| start to get results, it's so subtle and personal that I
| think it's going to be difficult for anyone to truly give
| prescriptive instruction that results in success.
| lhorie wrote:
| Generally it means being aware of your physicality in a
| larger context. For example, maybe you're getting outraged
| by something you just read online, and it can help put
| things into perspective when you realize that you're a
| person sitting in front of a computer tapping on a
| keyboard.
| saltcured wrote:
| I can appreciate this perspective but, like others have
| said, it is probably useful to add a "for me" and "for
| others" qualifier to these observations and see that there
| is no universally true statement for all people.
|
| I have considered "meditative" to be a part of my character
| for nearly my whole life, while it is self-taught/self-
| discovered and idiosyncratic. I would read some popular
| accounts of meditation and hear parts which resonated and
| parts that just didn't seem to translate.
|
| I already am aware of my breathing. I discovered "square
| breathing" for myself as a child for pain and stress
| management and got lots of breath-awareness through
| swimming. I find it odd to imagine being unaware of
| breathing, but I realize it must be possible from the
| accounts of others.
|
| I am self-reflective and aware of my thoughts and emotional
| responses. I had difficult aspects to my childhood and had
| to learn to modulate my responses and predict the
| unpredictable to deal with volatile personalities in my
| surroundings. I find it odd to imagine being unaware of my
| thoughts or emotions.
|
| In recent years, I've struggled with stress management and
| found myself stating things very similar to your final
| line. I hear people telling me to do these beginner-level
| meditation steps and I simultaneously feel, "I am already
| doing this," "it is not working," and sometimes "your
| advice is not actionable!" while feeling very frustrated. I
| might blurt out any of those statements if I get past
| feeling it is pointless to continue the interaction. On
| reflection, I think it may be impossible to know which is
| more true of the apparent contradictions. Am I not doing it
| even though I think I am? Is it working even though I don't
| think so? Is it really meaningless advice or I am just
| being petulant?
|
| These guides and advice are written for a target audience.
| They are not really wrong if they do not work for some of
| us, as we may not be the audience. What is frustrating is
| that it can feel impossible to find alternative guidance if
| you have an atypical starting state. What is alternative
| advice about "being present" for someone who is stuck in
| hyper-vigilance due to stress/trauma? What is alternative
| advice about "recognizing your thoughts" for someone who is
| stuck ruminating and meta-ruminating? Etc.
| msrenee wrote:
| Have you tried guided meditations? Those were essential
| for me to get started. I think it's Tara Brach that has
| some on her website. Maybe 5-10 minutes and having the
| voice cues helps keep me on track.
|
| Don't beat yourself up if your mind starts wandering.
| When you realize you're off track, just refocus on your
| breathing, seeing the things around you. What do you
| hear, what do you smell, can you feel the pressure where
| your body meets the floor, the bed, or chair? Your mind
| will wander off every couple seconds at first, just don't
| even worry about it and bring your focus back onto the
| sensations your body is feeling.
|
| If you start to feel restless, think about what
| sensations you are feeling. Don't try to calm down. Focus
| on regular breathing, feel that your heart rate is
| elevated, feel out where the tension is located in your
| body. Is it in your neck, your chest? See if you can
| gentle relax those muscles.
|
| Theres no right way to meditate and there's no wrong way.
| If you're worried that you're not doing it right, bring
| your attention back to the physical sensations and your 5
| senses.
|
| Sorry if it's not helpful. I think you were the one
| looking for a more concrete guide and this is what works
| for me.
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| When I do deep introspection, I feel much more connected to
| the kinds of ideas espoused by Jainists (complete non
| violence, aestheticism, recognition of inherent subjectivity
| and indeterminacy of the universe) rather than the Buddhist
| analogs (e.g. 4 novel truths or 8 fold path)
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