Meditation for focus & happiness

How meditation affects the brain & body, strategies for getting started with meditation, finding the techniques that work best for you, apps & tools to help with your meditation practice and strategies for building a daily meditation habit.

Episode 5 of the The Better Show podcast, hosted by Ian Mikutel, March Rogers, Darren Austin, titled "Meditation for focus & happiness" was published on October 30, 2017 and runs 86 minutes.

October 30, 2017 ·86m · The Better Show

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Summary

Episode Description

In this episode Ian, Darren & March talk about meditation. We reflect on how meditation can help deal with all sorts of life challenges, our own personal experiences with meditation, tips & tricks you can use, and experiments we're going to try and report back on.

Show Notes

1:02— What meditation is and how it begets mindfulness
2:21 —The science behind meditation and how it can positively affect your mind and body
6:13— Darren’s journey — you too might be mediating already and not know it
13:58 —Why not all attempts at meditation might stick
16:11 —Ways meditation can help make your life more balanced like it did for Ian
19:27 —Finding yourself not able to be “in the now” or having trouble letting go? March recommends meditation
- “Letting go of extrinsic motivators, and embracing intrinsic ones”
24:35 —It’s not called a meditation practice for nothing
26:25 —Shamanic drumming, binaural beats, and brain entrainment: how rhythm and other external factors can elevate your consciousness
33:05 — “Meditation is the exercise to get strong mental muscles and mindfulness is the use of those muscles to help me” — March
33:30 —Methods to practice focusing your attention, as tested by March
36:03 —PSA: meditation is not a religious activity
37:39 —App suggestions to help you get started on your meditation practice
44:19 —What three personal meditation routines actually look and feel like
1:05:20 —Transcendental meditation can teach you how to access your inner calm
1:13:34 —Our next experiments:
- Ian will continue his mindfulness meditation streak, try TM, start a daily gratitude journal
- Darren will read Man’s Search for Meaning and meditate outside in unpleasant weather
- March will continue daily meditation, experimenting with mantra-based meditation, and start a gratitude journal