Meditation and Therapy

[Philip J. Fry]

I was watching this Lex Clip. Lex Friman is a computer science professor at MIT and hosts a podcast. One of his guest was an Indian-American venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley area. The guy said that he goes to a therapist every Monday to work out stuff from his near past and distant past so that he can focus 100% on work during the week. He also goes to a couple's therapist with his wife on Friday to close out the week so they can have their weekends be 100% family and together time. He also meditates an hour a day so that he can focus more during his work day.

I go to therapy and find it helpful to work out stuff from my ultra-distant past that still haunts me today. But it is much better now than before.

Today, I tried meditating for an hour at the start of the day and was surprised at how right the advice is. Basically, if you meditate for 5 minute or 10 minutes you will see improvements but it is after 1 hour of meditation that you will notice how much *shit* is in your head and it takes one hour at least to flush those thoughts out.

I usually suffer thorough the morning with two double espressos. I then take a nap after lunch, and then might get 2-3 good hours of work before bed, where I watch 2 hours or so of YouTube before falling asleep to the stories of YouTube.

Today, I had no coffee in the morning and meditate first thing in the morning. I found my walk to the train easy and not groggy. I was having a hard time getting up due to some mental block and it had nothing to do with caffeine withdrawal at all or me being tired from the day before.

I went to class and felt much more connected to people. I realise there was inner pain that I was holding on to that kept me distant and away from people. Once I embraced the pain and felt whole, I was able to connect and experience what it is like to not be blocked by pain anymore. Resisting that emotion, pain, kept me feeling the pain of isolation. Embracing it set me free.

I did not need a nap after lunch today and made a lunch from groceries after I did a 1 hour workout. I had much more energy through my day before without a caffeine rush and it was due to me being free of heavy, burdensome emotions that I never faced. By facing it, I set myself free.

I meditated again for 30 minutes this afternoon when I was feeling tired again. I was't tired. I just had more emotions come up.

The guy's other advice was to have time for reading and writing. You take in new ideas and spit out new ideas. This keeps your mind active and engaged in society. He has Wednesday specifically for this.

I can't find the clip but if someone asks I can try again.

 

[freshpeppermint]

What type of meditation do you do? I heard people say meditation is sorta the only way to dive deep into your subconscious and fix things.

I also heard 10 minute of meditation is equal to 40 minutes of sleep in some research paper.

I remember way back when I used to be in high school they had a teacher in one of the classes come and do a guided meditation. I think it was 15-30min but after doing it, I felt super refreshed that I only had like 1-3 times. (I call it legendary sleep cus it feels soo refreshed after walking up.) It was just like feel head to toe relax like feel the gravity/move the body part but don't actually move it. Toe to head I believe and then she said to imagine a place you'd like to be in or relax and after opening eyes I felt pretty refreshed.

But, I have tried body scan meditation going from head to toe where you just become aware of the sensations (itch, heat, air, feeling) and move all the way through head to toe. I slept for way less.
So, I was wondering if this is something that could be used to reduce sleep to 3-4 hours and you meditate for 2, meaning you spend only 5 hours inactive and still being healthy.
It's of course pain in the ass though I'd rather do other things than meditate cus it's boring.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

What type of meditation do you do? I heard people say meditation is sorta the only way to dive deep into your subconscious and fix things.

I also heard 10 minute of meditation is equal to 40 minutes of sleep in some research paper.

I remember way back when I used to be in high school they had a teacher in one of the classes come and do a guided meditation. I think it was 15-30min but after doing it, I felt super refreshed that I only had like 1-3 times. (I call it legendary sleep cus it feels soo refreshed after walking up.) It was just like feel head to toe relax like feel the gravity/move the body part but don't actually move it. Toe to head I believe and then she said to imagine a place you'd like to be in or relax and after opening eyes I felt pretty refreshed.

But, I have tried body scan meditation going from head to toe where you just become aware of the sensations (itch, heat, air, feeling) and move all the way through head to toe. I slept for way less.
So, I was wondering if this is something that could be used to reduce sleep to 3-4 hours and you meditate for 2, meaning you spend only 5 hours inactive and still being healthy.
It's of course pain in the ass though I'd rather do other things than meditate cus it's boring.

WOW.

You want to learn meditation so that you can sleep less. You also judge that meditation is boring.

So, thought would be thoughts and you are already on the surface layer. The "enlightenment" of meditation is to be able to free yourself of that.

So, for the first one, you might want to work more out of a need for approval from others. You might only realise that after you've noticed the first though and released it. Then you might notice that you're neither needing or wanting approval from others.

For the second one, meditation can be boring but boring is also an emotion. Noticing the emotion and letting it pass results in more emotions, ones that are not boredom.

This lady explains the thoughts well for intrusive thoughts

as for where, I went to the Shambahla centre, a Tibetan buddhist temple.

 

[Jesse]

One of his guest was an Indian-American venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley area.

For the sake of clarity for anyone who goes looking for this, from your description, it's likely you're talking about Chamath Palihapitiya, who is Sri Lankan. If I'm mistaken, then my apologies.

 

[JOoa0ky]

For the sake of clarity for anyone who goes looking for this, from your description, it's likely you're talking about Chamath Palihapitiya, who is Sri Lankan. If I'm mistaken, then my apologies.

Chamath's character is a little questionable...

All of his SPACs enriches himself but leaves everyone else that went with him holding the bag.

In lieu of Chamath, I'd read Ray Dalio's Principles instead. He does endorse meditation as well.

 

[Jesse]

All of his SPACs enriches himself but leaves everyone else that went with him holding the bag.

Sounds like a pretty focused guy to me.

Jokes aside, the interview OP referenced is largely about Chamath's progression away from what I would call traditional narcissism and a focus on winning at all costs that was the result of his upbringing.

 

[JOoa0ky]

Sounds like a pretty focused guy to me.

Jokes aside, the interview OP referenced is largely about Chamath's progression away from what I would call traditional narcissism and a focus on winning at all costs that was the result of his upbringing.

Yeah... I mean I still wouldn't really role model after him... I admit I did read a couple of interesting view points from him but still...

I like Dalio's approach much more. Not so much about winning at all costs but rather designing a system to find out the truth.

It's not about proving yourself right but rather what is true?

---

He has this crazy idea where you split yourself into you #1 and you #2.
You #1 = CEO
You #2 = employee

#1 makes all higher order level thinking and then #2 is sent out to execute the plan. However if there is a task where one of your employees or someone else outperforms #2 at a specific task.

You fire #2 and replace them with said person.

I've been abiding by that rule for the past 8 years.

 

[Jesse]

Not so much about winning at all costs but rather designing a system to find out the truth.

After reading back what I wrote, I should be more clear: It was about getting away from what I would call traditional narcissism AND about getting away from a winning at all costs mentality.

Best wishes.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

He has this crazy idea where you split yourself into you #1 and you #2.
You #1 = CEO
You #2 = employee

#1 makes all higher order level thinking and then #2 is sent out to execute the plan. However if there is a task where one of your employees or someone else outperforms #2 at a specific task.

You fire #2 and replace them with said person.

I've been abiding by that rule for the past 8 years.

This is so good. I am coming to the same conclusion that he has, that you should do stuff yourself and hire out people for that role, once you've found someone who can do it better than you. However, I just want to add that, IMO, with a little guidance, discourse, and help, you can find someone who shows an interest in that role, train and nurture them, and get them to become a super star in that role for much cheaper than finding a pre-existing superstar.

For example, my site will be consisting of thousands of pages and I'll need someone to be managing all written articles to ensure they're up-to-date and accurate. I can find an editor or head of content and that person can do it but I'm also sure that, if I ask around my network of Filipino VAs and find someone who would be interested in writing, editing, and learning about the topic, I can just give them a few sources that I think are good for content management, talk to them about it, and after some time, that person would be great for that role.

A content marketing manager is like $80,000 a year. A Filipino VA is $6,000 a year. If I can turn my VAs into all stars who are trained, disciplined, knowledgable, and knows their professions well, my team and I will have a HUGE advantage over competitors.

That's how most people learn a skill. They have someone guide them and then they practice it for awhile and receive feedback. That's also how Wikipedia wrote their articles. They just allowed people who were interested in the topic to write about it with a little guidance. That's also how Academia works. People choose their interests and receive guidance from mentors. Most PhD programs are about how to learn an interest and how to teach it to others so that the PhD student can become a professor themselves with the help of a PhD mentor.