Jerry Seinfeld, Social Anxiety, and Meditation (opens in new tab)

Recently, I've been able to meditate for 2 hours per day for a month. Before that I maybe meditated for 10 minutes per month for years on end. What I did have going for me is that I had about 600 hours of meditation experience already. So I knew what to do when I hear the words "just meditate".

I knew something had to change, and I knew that I wanted to do 2 hours as I know I need a lot of it. I made a challenge with a friend of mine who felt simirlarly: for each hour that we don't meditate, we pay the other person $100 or we lie and have to face ourselves in the mirror over that. Other than the penultimate day, where I was struggling with severe sleep issues (meditation doesn't solve that right out of the gate), I didn't miss a single session.

Through this challenge I learned what motivates me. I've seen similar things in videos and blog posts but now I found it out through my own experience. So learning that more deeply is an amazing bonus. Also, having a good streak going now, it's easier to keep on going than before (still not easy though!).

What meditation does for me:

- I understand my autonomous nervous system better (it does help indirectly with sleep)

- I crave things less (with mindfulness)

- I feel more joyful inside my body (with mindfulness)

- I can focus better (if I do enough breathing meditation)

- I love people more unconditionally (with loving-kindness meditation)

There are many more things, but that's what I'm seeing for now.

Meditation, for me, is getting into a flow state doing just about anything I want to do. Sometimes I spend hours sim-racing, woodworking, or coding and after being in flow for those several hours, I feel exhausted from the mental and physical exertion, but I am also calm the rest of the day into the evening. It only works if I get into the flow state, but if I just sit there and fuck things up badly and never flow, then it's not useful. Other examples of activities I get into a flow state for, and work similarly to my hobbies, are cleaning, cooking, playing video games, reading, and rarely TV or movies. The more manual the better, I find. Woodworking is the best, especially working with dangerous machines, because I find you absolutely HAVE to focus and flow in order to use something like a table saw properly.

I got into meditation after reading Thomas Metzingers "Ego Tunnel" and it was a real blessing since.

His newest book is on the experience of pure consciousness and is based upon 500 experimental reports by people who meditate. It's an interesting read. He even made it available for free here: https://mpe-project.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Metzinge...

The homepage of the project: https://mpe-project.info/the-mpe-project/

On Metzinger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Metzinger

> For him, sitting down for twenty minutes is a much more consistent tool for maximizing energy - even compared to sleep or coffee.

Firstly, I'm glad JS (and OP) see very positive effects of meditation but I'm highly skeptical meditation is more powerful than coffee (assuming sleep has diminishing returns). I doubt this is generalisable to most of us.

> Even within my new sessions, I can already feel a difference: after ten minutes, I reach a flow state that just feels great.

> Whereas before I’d be prone to fall into vicious spirals of self-consciousness and unease, a streak of meditation would allow me to calmly, warmly, and directly engage with people. If an awkward moment arose, I wouldn’t feed my internal fire with negative self-talk, but rather look outwards with an internal smile, wait for the moment to pass, and find a clever prosocial solution. But again, that explanation understates the magic.

Secondly, again, I'm happy OP found the answer to the greatest wall for new meditation practitioners: "how do I know if meditation is working???". I haven't found it. Brain states stuffs are more art than science, I believe.

For those looking for a completely secular approach to the kind of meditation that JS practices (non-directive meditation) have a look at Acem meditation.

> I see Jerry as a no-nonsense personality, one who’s reached the pinnacle of success in a competitive field

That’s… generous

@1penny42cents, I think you may not be benefitting fully from your two session. From what I've read and from Jerry's own admission, his afternoon session was meant to re-energize the remainder of his awake hours. Perhaps you should split your wake hours and do an early am one to shed sleepiness and one in the middle to recharge mental battery. Wish you guys would share the mechanics of TM instead of just "referring" people to join TM, that's some borderline cultish practices.

"I see Jerry as a no-nonsense personality, one who’s reached the pinnacle of success in a competitive field. So hearing him emphatically praise meditation perked my ears."

"He focuses on how meditation creates sustained energy throughout the day, which is crucial for his productivity and his daily enjoyment of what you’d otherwise call “a grind”. "

First, on Seinfeld. Are we really taking meditation advice and believe the benefits from billionaire's now? You mean if a poor black woman in the Bronx with two kids and four jobs just say and mediated all their anxieties would go away and they would be more productive?

Now, on Cam. Am I really supposed to believe a vacuum cleaner salesman when he tells he how good his vacuum is? The guy is setting of on a new career as a "personal coach". And this is what they all do, they suddenly realize that "mediation is the answer." They made money off of tech and now they need a new easier way to make money.

https://x.com/camhashemi/status/1834569286028845125

When I was a Theravada Buddhist I meditated for up to two hours a day. The people telling you meditation will make you "calmer and more productive" are selling you snake oil to tempt your ego mind, they are not helping you realize what it is.