NOTE: If you do not meditate, do not read this article. You are already on the right path by not meditating, continue doing what you are doing.
From the desk of Victor Pride
Subj: It's all about, like, the alternative to meditation, man
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Recently, a reader of B&D; asked me about meditation. He said this:
“Vic, what's your thoughts on mediation?”
I have 2 thoughts on meditation:
- The benefits of meditation sound great
- Meditation does not actually provide those benefits
Meditation promises one thing but it delivers another thing, it promises you A but leaves you with B.
I'm not here to convince you that you're doing meditation wrong, I'm here to show you that you're doing it right and that meditation just doesn't work.
What does meditation promise?
Meditation promises that if you sit real still you will clear your mind, relax, and learn the secrets of the world. A few of the promises that meditation never delivers include increased confidence, increased concentration, and decreased stress.
What does meditation deliver?
Decreased confidence, increased anxiety, and a decreased ego (not a good thing). Meditation = giving yourself anxiety.
Why doesn't meditation work?
When you re sitting still doing nothing, with nothing distracting you or entertaining you, there is only one possible thing you can do: over-think.
- Meditation Google definition: think deeply or carefully about something; or focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.
- Meditation Victor Pride definition: the nonsense art of sitting down, doing nothing, and being so bored you overthink everything.
Meditation does not relieve anxiety, meditation causes anxiety in the first place. You MUST be in motion for your brain to be calm.
Without a calm mind, you will be anxious. You cannot have a calm mind by sitting still. Sitting still and “clearing your mind” is not meditative. It's the opposite of meditative, it is weakening your body and your mind.
Meditation is overthinking. When you sit down to meditate you will start to think constantly about every little thing, you will have no choice but to over-analyze every decision you have ever made.
Meditation actually does kill the ego but ego death = soul death. You want and need a big ego to survive and thrive in the real world.
When you sit down and overthink it makes your brain feel so tired, even though you didn't actually do anything. You're left with physical energy but no mental energy. This is called ego death, commonly known as brain fog.
“But Victor, meditation produces mindfulness and that's a good thing, right?”
Wrong. Mindfulness is over-thinking to the extreme.
Chasing mindfulness is absolute nonsense, mindfulness is the worst state of mind to be in.
Mindfulness = extreme overthinking leading to extreme anxiety.
“So Vic, what's the real meditation?”
Sitting still is not meditative. The only thing that gives you the supposed benefits of meditation is by doing something physical.
To let your brain relax you need to make your hands busy enough and repetitive enough that the brain can go on auto-pilot.
Putting new guitar strings on your guitar is meditative, working in your garden is meditative, working out in your local gym is meditative, working on your car is meditative, slicing garlic in your kitchen is meditative.
People can do this work all day long and then have a smile on their face and say “I'm fine!” at the end of the day because, even though they worked all day, their brain was not overly focused on nonsense.
Your brain will think if it has time to think, your brain will not think if it does not have time to think. So make the body busy and let the brain rest.
Sleep and exercise actually provide the benefits that meditation promises.
They say you need to meditate to heal, turn off your brain and relax. I got news for you, that's called sleeping and we all do it naturally. No extreme over-thinking required.
“But Victor, you're just doing meditation wrong, man.”
When you tell the meditation guru that meditation doesn't work, they'll either say “you're doing it wrong” or they'll redefine the meaning of the word meditation (they'll do anything other than confront the fact that meditation does not work.)
Meditation is not complicated, there is nothing to it. Everyone is meditating correctly and producing no positive results. If you say sitting still and thinking about nothing is actually benefiting you then you are simply lying to yourself.
If the blueprint works, anyone can follow it. If the blueprint doesn't work, no one can follow it.
Exercise works, we know this because anyone can follow the blueprint: exercise = feel better. No matter who does it, exercise works. There is no trick to it because there is no trickery involved.
You have to be tricked into believing meditation actually works.
Sitting still with the goal of achieving enlightenment is how they con you into staying in the club. Enlightenment at the end of the meditation rainbow is a gift they promise but never deliver on.
If these meditation con men were busy sitting still, killing their ego, how come they're so busy telling you how to live your life? Don't you think it's a bit egotistical to tell other people how to live their lives?
I have a big ego, I do not pretend otherwise, this is why I show other people how to live well.
This is exactly how to get the benefits that mediation promises…
Use “meditation” as a code word for doing something physical that you actually enjoy.
If you love to play basketball, then always replace the word meditation with basketball and you will get every supposed benefit of meditation and it will help you build a good athletic physique.
If you love lifting weights, every time you see the word meditation, replace it with lifting weights and you will get the real benefits that meditation promises.
If you love to do garden work, then every time you hear meditation replace it with gardening.
So when the meditation morons say “just go meditate, man” it means “go lift weights and you will feel better” or “go play basketball and you will feel better.”
Meditation does not produce the chemical response your body needs, only physical exercise produces the feel-good chemicals. This is why sitting still and “meditating” can never work.
Your body yearns to move. Your mind yearns for a break from the constant over-analyzed thoughts.
Working Out and Lifting Weights is the Ultimate Meditation.
The only way to accomplish a calm mind is to do something physical, repeatedly, every-day. This is why I am a freak about lifting weights. I don't do it to build more biceps or lower lats, I do it to recharge, regenerate, and to heal the body/brain connection.
The body has to be busy enough that the brain is off and you're on auto-pilot, “in the zone.” So instead of being a dummy who sits down all day pretending to not think but actually over-thinking every little thing, you will be busy building a body.
Instead of letting your ego be killed by skinny-fat meditation gurus like Leo Blahblahblah from Zen Habits, you can be busy building your body and your brain at the same time by doing simple, every-day exercises like those found in Body of a Spartan.
This is how you actually increase confidence, increase concentration, and lower stress:
Work Hard, Lift Weights, Don't Over-think.
A Calm, Clear Mind is the Result of Training the Body, Not of Sitting Still.
Meditation is garbage that weakens your mind, your soul, and your body. Exercise is what strengthens your mind, your body, and your soul.
Next time you are feeling lazy and bored, instead of sitting down and doing nothing (making the problem worse), go do something physical and then tell me if you don't feel better immediately.
There is only one way forward and that way is with one foot in front of the other, doing something physical and doing it repeatedly.
Even if it's as simple and mindless as working in your garden or preparing food in your kitchen.
All you gotta do to free your mind is keep your hands busy.
That's the way of true peace and zen, man. ✌️
Until next time.
Your man,
-Victor Pride
PS - There will be a lot of meditation hucksters in the comments below, promising you the great rewards of meditation if only you just “meditate harder.” You will notice one common trait all of them possess: they are as physically soft as they are deceitful. Do not listen to them unless you want to become them.
I have a confession: meditation seriously stresses me out.
Many years ago,I was seriously practicing meditation but mediation was seriously stressing me out instead of helping me relax.
The shocking truth? After meditation,the next thing I do is watch porn.
So after a little time,I was like “Nah Man!I ain’t gonna do this meditation shit ever again” then I read
“Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi” and It helped me found my flow (lifting weights,hiking and cooking) and I was able to quit porn and found happiness. Meditations sucks!
Nice article Vic. and thanks for all you do.
Same here. Well except for the porn.
When I tried meditation I would keep getting more stressed at how long it was lasting and all the productive things I could be doing instead. I’m with you, it causes stress, not eliminates it.
100% agreed that movement meditation has amazing benefits. Agreed it’s a great way to clear the mind and get into the zone.
But seated meditation also has benefits. The way you describe it seems like you’re not doing the same thing I am (that does give me great results). There’s a lot of traditions and certainly some have different motivations (from genuine desire to help people to guru worship and cashflow).
The purpose of sitting to quiet the mind and feel into the body is to observe ‘monkey mind’ chatter and to feel what’s going on in your body as a way to recognize how these things can make a person react from an unconscious place.
Our minds have a lot of useless chatter that has an influence on us and can hold us back. Observing it and letting it go produces calm, concentration and focus. Similarly our bodies hold a lot of energy in unconscious ways. Becoming aware of it and feeling it allows it to let go so one can be more relaxed and open.
Wrong!
‘Becoming aware of it and feeling it allows it to let go’ Not smart to squander energy.
Use the energy to do something you enjoy and/or should do like taking care of your property or preparing food, etc. Some of my happiest days are when I’ve toiled with non-stop physical labor.
One shouldn’t do that all the time either, but that is always a better use of time and works incredible to clear your mind. No need to ‘focus’ on letting things go.
Doing things always trumps not doing things. Common sense man.
Doing things always trumps not doing things. Common sense man.
This! Thank you Peter.
Guy A sits down and meditates about being a great guitarist. Guy B sits down with a guitar and practices for hours every day.
After a few years, Guy B is a pretty good guitarist. Guy A still sucks. Weird how that works.
I’ve meditated once in my life. Most useless ten minutes I’ve ever spent.
Hi Victor,
I agree with you, meditation has always seemed like fru-fru nonsense. But I’m a bit curious about exactly where you stand on overthinking. Here, you say that you shouldn’t overthink things and that you should stay busy,
however:
In your article “21 things every 21 year old should do” when you’re talking about breaking phone addiction, you say to go to a coffee shop once per week alone, without your laptop and phone, and that you should
“Do this to be alone with and confront your thoughts like a man. Don’t hide from nothing, especially not your own thoughts. Be a man and confront yourself without a crutch.”
So I’d like to know how confronting your thoughts in a coffee shop is so different from meditating. I get that in this article you’re saying that you should be keeping yourself physically busy, but going to the coffee shop/sitting there isn’t quite a physical/repetitive task in the same way as basketball or gardening is.
Thanks and keep up the good work
That’s because the coffee shop exercise is one that even shrinks use on patients with anxiety disorders. It is a very valid and legitimate treatment. SOURCE: My sister went through that type of therapy for anxiety, including multiple venues.
Actively confronting thoughts, is much different than trying to remove or clear thoughts. The coffee shop exercise is almost the exact opposite of ‘meditating’.
I do go to Gymand lift weight, but I also do yoga and Meditate. It’s conplementary. If I do fast moving yoga then I’m not restless in meditation.
Hahahahha, excellent article! I have given meditation a try in the past, it is simply a useless exercise in wasting time. I feel better learning how to dance, at the gym, working on my car, hitting up women, cleaning my house, and other important shit I need to do. I notice with a lot of friends that meditate that it has made them more docile and less interesting over the years… it seems to be particularly attracted to stoners and other people who blame the world for their own failures instead of getting jobs or starting businesses or making something out of themselves. They seem to live in a perpetual state of false happiness in their own mind, and cover up their lack of success in life by trying to act all wise like they know the secret of life.
Movement is always better than meditation. In fact, I feel better after a productive ass day than I would sitting alone in my thoughts trying to convince myself that I don’t have shit to deal with for a while (because you will even if you’ve meditated all fucking day).
It’s the ‘icing on the cake’ not the filling
MAN!! I’m glad I read this article and your comment (Phero Joe). I have tried meditation like 7 years and honestly I haven’t seen great changes. You are right, maybe I’m just getting less interesting over the years, because I feel more self-conscious when I meditate. I had a suspicious thought all this time all this meditation thing could be bullshit, just as any other religious practices that I have done CONGRUENTLY in the past (so I’m not listening any one who had never done it). I have Read sacred books for decades, fasting, being a nice weak guy for years, and in my experience it doesn’t work, it never will to become what we all want to be. We have an entire culture full of bullshit. All these books telling us directly and indirectly that once we are enlightened we can play the life game in GOD MODE. All these wise motherfuckers talking about the soul, the mind, the spirit, that for some certain reason, they CAN’T PUT IT IN WORDS, so they never get cleared about what is really each concept and make it work for “regular people”. Besides all these gurus / priest / whatever…. they are all living an incongruent life with what they preach. So, thank you both for your opinions. I don’t need any other opinion now. I will stop wasting my time forever and just taking action in my goals, because in my 34 year alive is the only way I’ve been making money, and getting close to achieveing my goals, success, hot girls and happines. Just taking action and keeping the right mindset, the right perspective.
No problem Gerardo. I say it like it is, meditation is a load of absolute bollocks. All these new age spiritual morons on facebook don’t help either. Yes, they sometimes make good points that make you think. But just because I don’t meditate, doesn’t mean I’m not “spiritual”… I understand and feel spirit just fine, but some people think they’ve unlocked the key to eternal happiness in their own minds, while everyone else perceives them as lazy bums and losers. Another thing I’ve noticed with people who meditate all the time is they have weak voices, no energy to pursue anything, and little charisma. It is particularly noticeable in gen Y’ers (my gen and most of my friends) who take it up, who think the world should be all peace and love and everything should be free. Just overly entitled and lazy behavior.
If you are going to “meditate”, I would do as Victor said in his article - get lost in something enjoyable. I can stare at myself in a mirror for hours trying to get a certain move down while dancing (competitive freestyle), or go and build a nice subwoofer box because I’m an enthusiast, or a dozen other things that interest me… and not only that, hang out with friends who are actually doing something cool instead of zenning themselves out all day.
“get lost in something enjoyable.”
This is it, the only true way.
If anyone is going to do something where they’re sitting still for a half-hour, make it self-hypnosis. I’ve really jumped leaps and bounds in life with various self-hypnosis, because rather than sitting there doing nothing, you’re putting very actionable and useful thoughts into a mind that is open and suggestive to them.
SKIP the meditation: The lack of any agenda or purposes = zero results.
Could you tell me a little more? How does one go about it in an effective way?
I’ve tried a few guided hypnosis tapes with mixed results. My first try was a 30 minute audio about quitting porn and masturbation. It worked for 12 days, which is the longest I’ve been able to go without porn or jacking off. But then it ‘wore off’ and I haven’t been able to go more than 2 or 3 days.
I’ve tried a few others for confidence/anxiety but the instructions didn’t really click for me and I don’t think I was able to go into trance.
A few tips on what worked for me, Marius.
Stop with the porn FIRST, and the need to jerk off will diminish by itself automatically. Don’t attempt to control the need to jerk off without cutting out the porn first.
In a way, it’s like ‘working out’ vs ‘eating right’. You first start by working out (but SERIOUSLY, not like a weakling) and then eating right will happen automatically as your body stops craving junk food. If you try it the other way, it won’t work.
—
One more thing. In my experience, jerking off too much kills my testosterone, but so does going on too long without sex (more than a month I’d say). What worked best for me is I’d aim for having sex once every 2 weeks. If sex wasn’t available, I’d aim to hold for 3 to 4 weeks before rubbing one out. And then repeat.
Always knew it. Tried it a lot but it only just calmed me down. It never gave me any amazing insights.
Can you imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump, or Vince Gironda practicing meditation? haha
I think the fact you can’t imagine Donald Trump practicing meditation is the best argument to start meditating you could ever put forward. The guy is an oversensitive racist snowflake, who spends half his life on social media.
Take your politics elsewhere, you whiny spineless gimp.
Or just keep them in California LMFAO
Whiny spineless gimp top comment im gonna use that one !
Is Trump paying rent to live in your head?
Trump is the oversensitive snowflake huh? don’t see him online posting pussy ass comments like yours that are so weak and limp it’s pathetic….so where’s your logic dough boy? go riot in the streets with all the other cuckolded social justice warriors.
No. Because he posts them on Twitter instead.
Steve, time to do a little more reading friend. Check out a few articles here that could really set you off down a better path.
Arnold did practice meditation. He currently maintains the peace of mind he gained from it without meditating.
I have met Arnold recently and let me simply say… He needs to stop meditating.
Maybe he’s just transcended this egoic bullshit paradigm and realised that chasing bigger muscles and material success doesn’t actually fulfil you in life?
Or he became a cuckhold pussy?
Well maybe one day we can all be up on your level and just leave ghei comments instead of pursuing actual standards.
It is good to focus all your energies upon the thoughts of something or someone that inspires you to learn and grow for the better.
But clearing your mind on something so lame as your breath or a simple chant is generally a waste of time. Uncle Vic is right: You can get the same benefits from engaging in far more productive means.
Victor you said
” Meditation is overthinking. When you sit down to meditate you will start to think constantly about every little thing, you will have no choice but to over-analyze every decision you have ever made.”
That is only what happens when you first start meditating. However meditation is a discipline of the mind like lifting weights is for the body. The purpose is to to not do anything physically and be still so you can fully observe your own mental state. There are many thoughts which dont come to the surface if you are doing some activity. The purpose is not to have more thoughts. It’s to have less and to do that you you have to develop like an exercise the ability to mentally step outside of your thoughts and observe them without judgement or trying to resolve them while you are meditating and giving your mind some space. Once you practice this you begin to be able let each thought pass more easily. So the end result is that you develop the ability to not obsess on on thoughts, the opposite of what you are saying.
You develop the ability to not over-think.
This process is sometimes relaxing and other times very difficult and uncomfortable but
just like physical exercise no pain no gain. For somebody like you it could be very hard. You probably don’t have the discipline to do it on a regular basis or do it for a long period of time yet. You have discipline way above average in some areas
but not in other areas. Many people get stressed and crazy in solitary confinement but others learn techniques to deal with it. Meditation is like that.
It’s better to mediate for 30 minutes to an hour a day (broken into morning and night segments) than to do marathon sessions of a few hours at at time.
You can’t judge it until you do it for an hour each day for a month.
But if you really think it’s BS, I challenge you to do a live event where you sit still in a chair with your eyes closed for 4 hours to prove that you are tough enough to do it.
I don’t think you could do it yet.
When you say ” Meditation is overthinking. When you sit down to meditate you will start to think constantly about every little thing, you will have no choice but to over-analyze every decision you have ever made.”
that means you have a tendency to over-analyze decisions.
- and you have conquered some of that by taking action and being bold and determined. You think mediation is opening the door for you to backward into your old self where you did more over-analyzing, so you are afraid to mediate.
But mediation is not brooding. Meditation is the opposite, developing the ability to empty your mind so you can more mental breathing space and not become too attached to thoughts and overthink. Can somebody sit down and be still for a half hour and get to the point where you have no thoughts? No because the brain doesn’t want to do that initially. It wants to loop on thoughts and worry over things. But meditation brings you closer to no thoughts by lettings you see each thought fully, one at at time so you can let them pass rather than constantly loop. As you exercise the brain muscle to do that you start to get more and more short segments where are nearly not thinking. They may only be for minutes or seconds but they are very liberating for your mind and will give you more power over your life.
I wasn’t aware Arnold ever meditated (I’ve read every book about him), Clint Eastwood is the most notable action hero I can think of who practices it.
Actually, Arnold meditated for an hour everyday for a whole year. That is all he meditated his whole life but he attributes it to much of his success.
Arnold did meditate sometime in the 70s, actually
Arnold practiced trancendental meditation and talked very positively about this.
Meditation is not overthinking but the contrarary. It helps you to keep focused and to not overthink!
Arnold Schwarzenegger meditated, it’s in his Autobiography.
As a matter of fact most millionaires practice spirituality, And I know a few people who are teaching meditation and mindfulness and got really really really rich. mindfulness is a huge trend, just like health and wellness. And I also gonna lift on the trend of wellness and health, and stack on trends and get wealthy with it,
Hehehe
Maybe people who meditate are more likely to be rich because rich people have time to sit around doing nothing for hours while poor people do all their work for them.
(Generalization, meant to be humorous)
Well said .
Why the fuck would some one sit and think bout nothing in their teens till age 39 .
I bet those who recommend meditation have low testosterone .
I am all for planning the day ahead in a quiet place and weighing the pros and cons of one’s actions .
There is a saying in Arabic _ Haraka Baraka . Movement is a Blessing …
So for those who wanna meditate let their art or sports be their meditation .
Leave the meditation for vegetarian Guru’s from India or western wannabe Bob Marleys.
Mind follows the body .
Sitting still and doing nothing is for retirees ..
Keep on writing Uncle Vic ..
“There is a saying in Arabic _ Haraka Baraka . Movement is a Blessing …”
Love this. Will use it.
Just looking at someone who meditates is proof of low-testosterone - they have no muscle and are “skinny fat.”
Never read more stupid comment. My coach in kyokushin is mediataing and he is one of the best fighters, and you talks about tests it`s funny.
Been meditating 2 months consistently and I can say that it has improved the quality of my life tremendously.
Having this article come into my inbox as well as some lady call the cops on me yesterday proves how much more calm and stable my emotions are.
I don’t get reactive and defensive as much anymore.
Whenever problems arrive or little instances that can upset you happen, I’m able to pause, think things through, and handle them effectively.
I don’t get reactive as much anymore and I have more emotional self control.
It’s unfortunate that you don’t see value in meditation because this has been studied scientifically and practiced throughout the ages.
There are scientific benefits to it and if you develop the practice you will have a tangibly different approach to life.
It will keep you more grounded, secure, and unreactive.
Don’t be so close minded and judgmental towards others because you poison the whole.
If there is any benefit to meditation it’s that it makes you happier and less ego driven.
That doesn’t mean you just sit around and do nothing, it just means that you feel good already so you can enjoy the process of getting to your destination.
I fucking love it man, but it’s all good haha.
Peace. -Roman
Ive meditated through rough times too, it helped me to avoid unnecessary discussions with my wife, but I became a believer when I was meditating and felt like my brain had “connected” I could feel a magnet pulling the top of my head and making me stay straight effortlessly, at the same time it was like it was being “fuelled”.That experience was great, too bad it only came once.
Vic
You’re so wrong; don’t get me ‘wrong’, I love some of what you write but remember you don’t know everything my friend. Started meditating six months ago as I was going through difficult personal times; it helps me find meaning and keep balance with loads of resilience to-boot. Made my money years ago, but realised its not all about the money.
All the best
Yes, this article is just wrong.
Pictured the way Trump says “wrong” when I saw this title.
Wrong. Fake news.
Another snowflake….why are you morons on a site like this? shouldn’t you and your sissy friends be parading around some place with your ignorant signs? social justice warrior pussy’s
Eat my butthole nice and slow kid
Your comments here are just as snowflakey as any social justice warrior out there.
Grown ups are trying to have a discussion and you are wetting your panties over people having different opinions.
Plenty of successful people meditate, including Victor. He fucking sits in a sensory deprivation tank. This was just a post to rile people up and get page views.
Nailed it. This
I find a good meditation on building Legos with my 7 y/o. Everyone is different. I rather to be moving than still, sitting, doing nothing.
I am 53, and giving kudos to Victor for this article. Actions, no words, no sitting. Move and you survive.
Just because you haven’t found benefits of it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
I do and and will continue meditating. Prevents me from getting monkey mind which is a disease created by Western culture.
Walking meditation is my chosen way, it allows me to breathe deeply, quiet my mind, and get the exercise benefits of walking.
People may get anxiety because culture has told you that you always need to be working or else your a no good lazy piece of shit.
Sitting meditation is what this article is referring to. Walking meditation is on the approved list.
In Zen Buddhism they note this as Zazen (seated) and Kinhin (moving) meditations. When they came up with Zazen they never imagined people would sit down most of the day.
Modern man has no use for Zazen meditation. Move and Live.
It really depends on who you are. Even famous gurus like Alan Watts defended walking over sitting meditation. But if you can’t do the first, the second works nice as training wheels. Or as a permanent practice. Again, depending on your goals and tastes.
I have been practicing sitting meditation for four years, and it has helped me in each of the four goals I initially set: to gain clarity of mind, better concentration, reduced stress and conquer insomnia. I also been using it as training for walking or action meditation, with great results.
That said, many pop-gurus and posers all over the Internet claim that meditating “calmly, without effort” can get you all the benefits. They’re just like those fitness wise guys that promise you a big and strong physique by lifting nothing but 10 lb dumbbells. In reality, even one-pointed concentration requires considerable effort, and constant discipline. I blame them for the bad rep that this practice has, not to mention the time I wasted in the first few months because of listening to them.
What resources do you suggest to get started with walking or sitting meditation? i.e. what do you wish you’d done differently?
Superb use of the header images. Very career “rearranging”
This article was right on the money. Beautiful flow from beginning to end with a problem solution approach. I stopped meditating when I took training in the gym seriously.
It was useless.
Learning how to play the guitar until my finger tips go numb has given me greater enlightenment than meditating for 20mins ever did.
Always a pleasure reading your work Vic
Thanks Abdoul.
Very useful. I think it would even give those with no interest in meditation (past, present, or future) some great insight. I’m not sure about your disclaimer. I encourage anyone to read this and apply it!
Laughing my ass off reading this! Absolutely God damn right!
O man, how wrong you are in this case. I really hope you’re article is sarcastic, otherwise it’s a little embarrassing and you’re missing out big time. Meditation creates the strongest, most focussed minds. After my morning meditation I am tuned in, clear as a cristal and ready to own.
That all you experience is overthinking says a lot about your mindset and your emotional scope.
After a few months of practice you could even harness your sexual energy making the rest of mankind mere mortals compared to you.
My workouts, my lovemaking and my business all thrive on this energy.
Start by reading for instance Mantak Chia.
Hope you will see the light someday and join us in Walhalla.
thank you Will
Wow this is SO spot on. Multiple people told me to try mediation for stress (because when you kick ass and start multiple businesses there will be stress) and I tried it and it’s absolute ridiculous nonsense.
Here’s MY meditative activity: Shaving with a straight razor. See, meditation isn’t about emptying the mind, it’s about FOCUSING the mind on one sole task to the exclusion of all others. Using a straight razor, aside from making you feel like a badass and literally feel your test levels exploding, requires INTENSE focus to get a close shave without injuring yourself. I think every man (well every real man) should try the straight razor.
“It’s about focusing on one thing”
Fuck yes.
You and Victor revive my spirits everyday that I don’t stand alone in the quest to be a real man.
You can`t feel like badass whole life only just cause you use a straight razor.
This article is so ignorant, meditation can be done anywhere and anytime. It is about breaking the uncontrolled chatter and actually being in control of your own thoughts again. You don’t need to be moving to achieve this. By being unable to sit for 10 minutes without anxiety shows you have other problems.
Recommend this article by Roosh V :
http://www.returnofkings.com/127570/when-the-shoe-fits-by-osho-is-a-deep-introduction-to-tao
Roosh is getting older bro .
He finds peace in meditation .Good luck to him .
No disrespect .
Jab
you are getting older too………………………………….etc
You can take it to the bank that “Tao” came from a country/culture where nothing much is done or has been done all day every day.
This is great. However, I would say, that meditation is great in very short bouts and great for BUSY people living in BUSY areas such as cities.
‘Meditation’ - just being quiet for a few minutes - is best after exercise and also immediately after high stress situations like work (a toilet break with 2 minutes of silence and stillness is great for the stress calm balance)
HOWEVER, for people that have no job or income, no prospects and are dissatisfied with life and existence in general, meditation is basically of no benefit at all.
Instead, run 6 miles and lift weights. That will really take you ‘out of your head’ and ground you, so to speak
The whole point of meditation is to be in the exact opposite state of overthinking. Victor Pride, you’re misinformed here.
+
So I’m forced to do something? I’m a slave? Cause when I do nothing thoughts appears out of nowhere and they are my enemy, cause me to worry.
Yes, Yes, Yes, Victor.
I have always been wary of meditation because to me it seems like a perfect way to make the masses passive. Is it any coincidence that the legalisation of skunk and this meditation garbage seem to have taken off in tandem?
I mean they wouldn’t want males waking up and being angry at the (((elites))) and their enablers who have made the Western world a crock of poo poo with mass emigration and feminism now would they?
No, relax Man, be mindful, accept your 9-5 soon to be outsourced Job to the Turd world and your horrible She-Man wife.
No thanks - Go F**K off with that guru kool aid someplace else.
I’ll f**k hot feminine EE babes, cash those cheques and be somebody with a body.
No charlatan “mindfulness” required.
How does sensory deprivation in a floating tank compare to sitting meditation?
I’ve had mixed feelings being inside the tank, but always extremely relaxed afterwards.
You know it’s perfectly natural to think about the future or past - that what Humans do and have always done.
Animals like your dog or cat are entirely focused on the present - Do you want to be a Dog?
The only time to relax is when the work is done and then you can do what ever you want.
Look at McGregor over the weekend, He was drinking his whiskey (And promoting his brand) - When the work was done.
Relax, when the work is done.
the whole point of meditation is help you take action.
obviously doing nothing won’t solve your problems.
Doesn’t work for you.
To say “you’re doing it incorrectly” is sometimes accurate, especially if it doesn’t seem to be getting you results. If you are trying to paint a house but dip your brush in glue, and someone points out how that is wrong, you don’t assume all painting must be faulty.
I’ve been meditating a while now. It’s given me much more clarity, emotional control, more efficiency and energy. I have also sharpened my critical thinking skills and can visualize better.
I used to need 8+ hours of sleep per day. Now I can go on 5 or 6.
Socializing with people is much easier now, more spontaneous. I don’t feel like I need to peg myself down to a schedule - although I do, up every day at 5AM to do mental exercises and learning a language, then gym.
I can focus on individual tasks for a much longer period of time.
I’m not a namby pamby prissy hissy sissy flimsy dimply hippie type. I have muscles, work out regularly and have some goals I am actively pursuing.
Meditation amplifies all of that.
I medidate best when I am walking or running. When I sit down and pretend to medidate I find my mind wandering.
You need to control it better.
I’ve meditated for 15 years, with huge benefits, and so many people are wrong about what it actually is. People think it’s about just “doing nothing” - it’s actually about intense focus!
Meditation is NOT about “controlling” the mind or intentionally clearing it. This is a huge *misconception* that ends with people giving up on the practice because they’re “bad at it” or having “no results”.
Meditation is about focusing your consciousness deeply and intentionally on one thing (for example, your breath; sensations in your body; or sounds you can hear) and noticing your thoughts, how they come and go.
Try just noticing your active mind’s activity without judging, ruminating on thoughts, or pushing them away. Let the thoughts come and go. Thoughts WILL come, and almost constantly if you’re just starting out - that’s normal. Your mind & body will hate the feeling of you not being “productive”. It will be hard to sit down and hard to focus. But the whole point is to learn to let thoughts come and go without overthinking them or pushing them away, not to “do nothing” or “clear you mind”.
Tbh, a clear mind is an awesome byproduct of meditating over time, but if you TRY to clear your mind (or “do / think nothing”) you’ll just get frustrated and quit.
What a crock of shite hahahaha! Not only has meditation been studied thousands of times with great results, it’s only the weak minded who don’t achieve results from it!
Your ego is obviously so fucking enormous and your insecurities so large you gave up before you began!
Here’s a great way to see instant benefits of real meditation!
Grab 6 dried grams of psilocybin cubensis! Eat said grams on an empty stomach!
Spend 5 hours in ego death, you really need it pal!
Long time reader, last time visitor!
See ya, Greg.
Bye wimp, take these other pussy’s with you….please
Wow, ad hominem retorts only make you look more insecure than you already are. You should try meditation to strengthen your fragile little brain.
Thank you for destroying the faint interest I had in Meditation, I could never bring myself to do it cuz it sounds so fucking boring and dull
Your definition of meditation is completely different from the definition used by numerous traditions. Meditation, as defined by numerous Indian and Chinese (and other) traditions is enormously beneficial. This has been shown in my own life and is backed by study after study.
Please do not use the western (outsiders) definition of meditation as that is an ignorant person imposing their (lack of) understanding on something enormously beneficial.
I would hate to see people lose out b/c of a single bad definition! That’s like when people avoid weightlifting b/c they’re afraid of ”becoming musclebound” or other nonsense like that!
“Meditation, as defined by numerous Indian and Chinese traditions”
We use a dictionary to define words. If you want to cry about the definition, cry to google.
My point being that you are misleading people in your post with your inaccurate definition. Meditation may be defined as you stated within the western traditions but the eastern traditions use a different definition. You are tarnishing completely different things b/c the same label is used for them. By doing so you are potentially depriving many of your readers of great benefit.
See your other reader comments for evidence of this.
Did you even read the article before jumping out with your ‘you are ignorant’ cuck bullshit?
Because if you had, you would realise that half of your initial comment has no relation with what Victor is talking about
“My point being that you are misleading people in your post with your inaccurate definition.”
It is you who are misleading people with incorrect definitions so do not get it twisted.
Another snowflake bitch, jeez, shouldn’t you wimps be on some other site? oh that’s right, you gotta infiltrate and spread your message right? fucking wimps, go promote black lives matter or some other dumb shit
I meditate on accident and it gives me severe anxiety and out of body experiences. I call it accidental meditation and a close friend of mine does it too. It’s basically arterial projection.
It’s like you’re sitting still for a long time and being completely mindless and staring into one spot, and being completely in the present.
Then, you lose yourself. You get “lost.” And you are outside of your body but you want to go back because it’s really scary.
There is a level you can reach where you are above the realm of thought. You transcend thought altogether.
I’ve never achieved this by meditating on purpose, it only happened (for me) on accident.
I zone out sometimes, sitting very still, and staring at one area, and empty my mind - which makes me meditate on accident, and I do not like the feeling at all.
I stumbled across your blog through Level Up Stud and Dream Big bloggers. I’m fascinated by your ego, your convictions and your attitude. When I read the post about finding a wife, I really wanted to comment on it, but I couldn’t find a place to do it. Bummer.
But, I read this post and I agree with you. Meditation is freeing the mind which we can do that by keeping busy with weight lifting (for you) and walking for me. You make some really good points. I can’t meditate by sitting still either!
“and walking for me.”
Walking is the best activity any human can do.
I respect you Victor, and I have bought all your books. And based on what you thought me, I would say fuck you! I will decide for myself if meditation is useless or not. I haven’t followed any guru on meditation, I looked at the science. And based on the science, I tried it, and it is helping me with better focus in the gym, during work,…
You come in to my home and speak to me in this manner? Rude and childish behavior. Meditation is not working to control your emotional impulses.
No one’s forcing you to take VP’s advice anyway. Act like a man and make your own mind up about things without resorting to childish behaviour on his blog. I follow a simple rule: I try things out. If it works for me, I use it. If it doesn’t, I don’t. It’s pretty simple. I’m not gonna get in an impudent rage because a person doesn’t think the same way about every single subject… that’s a total waste of time.
I personally disagree that’s it’s useless, however, I do find walking, singing, weightlifting and playing guitar to be far superior ways of achieving the same ends. I credit guided meditation and hypnotherapy for curing me of panic attacks and high anxiety back in the day. But again that’s slightly different to just sitting still.
My FU, was not to be disrespectfull, more to honor you. It was more a general FU to just following blindly. An attitude I learned from you. So respect to you, but FU to sheepmentality and not trying out things for myself.
Thank you for the article, Vic.
I’m utterly surprised at Google’s definition of meditation. I learnt both from Buddhists and Hungarian shamans that basic meditation is when you DON’T think. Meditation is precisely the opposite of over-thinking or thinking.
The sitting down kind of meditation, I think, is much harder and is meant for people who feel a spiritual call (monks), not laymen. Doing nothing you obviously start to over-think everything which is not beneficial at all. But once you master being able to just do nothing AND not think of anything at the same time you become mentally unbreakable. But, I have to emphasize, it’s not meant for people living in civilised society as it’s very detrimental.
That is why I also think movement meditation is the best kind. You don’t think when you’re fighting, when you’re working out, when you’re in the garden and you get the benefit of both meditation and doing something physical. I learnt this while I was at a hermit in the forest. I had to scythe his whole upper garden (it was two hectares of jungle), not with a lawn mower and whatnot but with the old-fashioned scythe our grandparents used as tools. This hermit told me it’s the same as Tai Chi, the same kind of movement which, if done correctly, puts one in a meditative state (not Google’s meditative state).
It’s not my best but one scene popped into my mind from The Last Samurai where the Japanese guy is trying to teach the hero about using a sword and says to him, “don’t think”. You have to ‘become one’ with the thing you’re doing. It’s the same as being in the flow or the zone or being in the present moment. Where nothing exists only the weight you’re lifting, the scythe you’re holding, the pen you’re writing with or the strings on your guitar. No thoughts. That is meditation.
Warm regards,
Kevin
Good comment, Kevin.
“meditation is when you DON’T think. Meditation is precisely the opposite of over-thinking or thinking.”
I disagree with your definition. To sit and meditate on something is to sit and thing hardcore about that subject.
Example: when the bible says to meditate on the kingdom of heaven it’s not saying to not think, it’s saying TO think.
Muse means to think.
Amuse means to not think.
If you want to not think, go to an AMUSEment park.
to think is to meditate,
to not think is to be amused.
I see where you’re coming from. In my mother tongue we call it something different, not sure about the English word, when you sit down to ponder on something.
I’d call it a guided meditation, not in the sense that someone is guiding you, it’s rather a thought or feeling that’s guiding you.
In certain branches of Buddhism, though, you sit down and let thoughts arise and fade, not giving into any of them. Then the mind clears and no thoughts remain. I have a story precisely about this on my website called ‘A Pile of Memories: the Body’ if you’re interested.
About muse and amuse, I find it a great twist that the word muse stems from the Greek goddess of arts; when you’re creating art you’re not thinking at all, you’re just doing what comes to you, while muse as a verb really means ‘to be absorbed in thought’.
Thank you for your reply.
You got that exactly right, Kevin. It’s taken me many years to come to that same conclusion.
meditation lol…. useless……
Meditation could be classified as an art of right/great thinking. Thinking right is the most difficult thing ever. This is why it’s a double edge sword. Many people who practice meditation on the superficial level would be trapped into thinking about bs, e.g. trying “to make a sense” out of the recent break-up with some next stupid gf. A true meditation isn’t about this, it’s about accomplishing your mission. It’s the art of great thinking most people aren’t capable of bc they chose to think about bs.
AMEN! And it’s boring AF.
I so agree. In the past, I used to attempt mindful meditation and it left me stressed. I thought meditation would be the perfect compliment to my daily and heavy workout regime. I came away from it stressed from the arduous task of attempting to clear my mind of thought while sitting like a lotus flower or whatever in an unnatural position. I found that through performing slow, isolating heavy lifts, that the resulting adrenaline rush calms my mind. It also makes me happy as I work out in the mirror watching my muscles expand and contract, doing what they’re supposed to do. It provides me with confidence, knowing that I’m working on my great body and with each work out it becomes more functional. If that’s not good for the mind, I don’t know what is. I get the same feeling from running, swimming, or even climbing a tree. True meditation equals movement, movement equals ambrosia.
Mr. Pride,
This is not related to your post here, but its a question I’ve had for a while.
When I’m writing, I tend to get ideas for a different article from the words I’m writing for the current article. Should I switch off from each one as the ideas flow, or should I keep working on the one in front of me?
“When I’m writing, I tend to get ideas for a different article from the words I’m writing for the current article. Should I switch off from each one as the ideas flow, or should I keep working on the one in front of me?”
I keep two separate tabs open. One for what I’m actually working on and another for thoughts that come up for different topics. I use the second tab to quickly write down my thoughts so that they don’t get lost, and I’m free to continue working on the main piece without fear of “losing” the thought.
1) Work diligently on one
2) Take light notes on another
I feel more meditated when I do deadlift and squat outside while snowing at 5AM wearing nothing but shorts.
When you meditate, you only work your mind. The body is still.
Working out is when your body moves and you use your mind as well. Trying to get that one more rep of bench press as you are thinking about destroying your enemy with battleaxe helps that one more rep get pushed.
Hey Victor,
You may want to think of meditation as the art of not thinking.
The same is actually happens when you hoist weights or go for a run, it’s turning the mind off. Turning the monkey chatter off- That’s good for us.
Meditation is active, not passive. You don’t sit there and think of any old thing, rather you sit and breathe, and slowly give up the addiction to thought. Let the thoughts come, but let them go instead of going with them. This way overtime there will be less monkey chatter when you actually want to be present or focused.
Meditation is just a word. Call it purpose thoughtlessness, or whatever.
Just my two cents. Hope this buys a seed.
-Tie
Are you really so sure? Maybe it works maybe it doesn’t. I enjoy it however.
I think this is the best article you’ve written.
Thank you Sara.
Meditation practitioners and gurus are just like vegans. Vegans have their cult non-sense that all your diseases and physical ailments can be cured with their diet. Meditation gurus believe all your mental (and some physical) problems can be solved with meditation. Non-sense. I’ve always believed so and I’m glad that you agree. Just look at these people, just like vegans, almost always weak, annoying, feminine, skinny, and depressing to be around.
Movement is the key to clearing your mind and coming up with great ideas. I’ve known that for 10 years and counting.
“Movement is the key to clearing your mind and coming up with great ideas.”
100% correct.
you’ve lifted weights, so your mind has gone into your body. try putting your focus into your brain in the same way
Check out all the comments you got so quick with this one! You must be doing something right to drum up so much activity with this post.
I remember reading a story about a well-respected zen monk who was asked when does he meditate?
He replied, “I meditate when I’m sweeping the floor. I meditate when I am making the rice. I am always meditating.”
Your post reminded me of this.
All the best,
D
“Check out all the comments you got so quick with this one! You must be doing something right to drum up so much activity with this post.”
Have a strong opinion about a “hot topic” and the comments will come in an avalanche. Just wait ’til you see the upcoming marijuana post.
Lol, I can imagine Vic’s opinion on weed. It will be a hilarious post and hilarious comments although I’ll probably agree and disagree in a way just like with this post.
People need to look at both sides of a topic. Check out both perspectives and see the pros and cons.
Check out many resources but in the end, the most important thing, just try for yourself.
Experiment and see what results you will get. Form your own opinion.
Some people might have better results with active meditation, some with passive.
Some people will get all butthurt defending their weed addiction. Some people will find the truth in the bashing of weed and see it as a tool to enhance your creativity and relax maybe a couple of times a year but you don’t actually need it and it’s not necessary. IT’S JUST A TOOL.
Hahaha… Can’t wait!
I stay still I go nuts, I move I feel good. Its simple. I agree totally with this article. Those of you who are saying meditation has its benefits…all those people move. They just don’t sit around all day. They meditate after they move around, which should just be called (resting), not meditating.
I believe one can meditate anywhere, anytime. I just feel good, calmer, after a good workout session, or banging out a bunch of guitar riffs. I have never sat and meditated - bollocks, bullshit, whatever you want to call it.
Great post here. I like how you knew the meditation quote on quote gurus were gonna jump out of nowhere …ha!
Vic, this isn’t the first time I’ve commented on this site and when I do, it’s always quality from the heart, and I know you know that.
Usually your articles are pretty solid and I like a lot of your content. As for this one its obvious you haven’t had much success with meditation and your opinion shows that. So I understand why you feel that way about it.
I understand your frustrations with it cuz there is so much bullshit out there preached by false gurus on the topic it’s hard to differentiate what’s real or if it’s even real at all.
Personally I’ve had some pretty amazing results during meditation sessions including bouts of clairvoyance, and even full-blown out of body experiences, and more.
Although I respect your opinion, I would suggest that you should do some more detailed research on the subject. Lol I hate to say it, but Vic, your not doing right. It’s obvious by the results your getting (none). The #1 biggest give away is that your “overthinking”.
If your “overthinking”, its an indicator of a lack mental discipline. It means you need to practice maintaining control of your thoughts and you have to accomplish this first before you’ll see any real results meditating.
It’s like when you see people with their dog on a leash but the dog is running wild pulling the owner and the leash with it and that’s what your mind will do to you if you don’t keep it in check.
And if your mind is bogged with chatter, you won’t hear the promptings of conscious (aka your gut, aka your spirit) which essentially is the goal of meditation.
Proper meditation is essentially getting feedback from your soul.
With meditation, you will definitely see a huge increase in results when you have a clear understanding of the nature of divine consciousness (God) and spirit (us) and the interconnection between the two via the mind and body. Also, proper breathing among other things.
When done correctly, meditation is essentially putting yourself in a position to have a “1 on 1 conversation with God” so to speak. Clearing the chatter in your mind will allow you to “tune” into the right channel and receive the mental impressions and emotional feedback from your Creator. The Creator is the Source of all knowledge, the Soul is the way to Source, and the Mind is the way to the Soul.
This is the real actual way the Buddha achieved supreme enlightenment, by utilizing this holy trinity. All the answers exist within and meditation is one of many methods to access those answers.
With all the phonies out there it’s hard to distinguish the difference between new age fufu bullshit and the actual truth. I can assure you this is the latter.
I don’t have some $500 meditation course to sell, just a decade of experience and honesty. Meditation DOES work if you understand what your doing.
Vic, if your looking for a good resource for true meditation that produces results, check out a 100 year old book titled “The Amazing Secrets of The Yogi” by the author Charles F. Haanal, it’s the real deal.
Anyways take care Vic, peace
Another truth bomb Vic !
I love that your words brought out all the meditation fags out of their closet.
They wouldn’t possibly let anyone disagree with their IDEOLOGIES.
It’s called fascism my friends:
Far-left liberals, vegans, meditations gurus,etc…
They’re all from the same cloth…
Keep them coming Vic ! I love your work.
Best,
Marko
haha! Thanks Marko.
Don’t forget all the white knight social justice warrior cucks out there as well
I disagree with the fag analogy - and yes, before you say it, because I’m a fag. (As in a man who is strictly sexually attracted to other men.)
But, still, I do like your point about comparing gurus to fascists. Food for thought for sure.
I tried for years meditating and honestly…
Did it help my injuries? No.
My solution was:
Physical Mobility Training +
Good Food + quality sleep.
Did it help my Depression? No.
Solution:
Choosing a purpose & physical work for it.
Did it help my overweigth average body to lose weigth? No.
Solution: Commit to the daily early morning gym and grow my freaking self discipline.
Only simlle physical action helped!
Thanks for this amazing reminder.
You’re hilarious, you’re like a long form Maddox sometimes with you’re writing. Loved the “just say NO” pics :)
Thanks David.
I had a similar experience with Bulletproof Coffee. I had been doing it with Kerrygold and coconut oil and somewhat decent coffee that I get from the grocery store, and didn’t feel any different. Then I went whole hog with the $$$$ Brain Octane Oil and branded coffee.
I guess I wasn’t “Bulletproofing” hard enough…
I did find Theanine to be helpful in my morning cup though. I get the energy from the caffeine and the Theanine takes the jittery edge off.
Love this. I would say everyone should give it a shot for a fair amount of time before making judgement. It has its pros and cons and it can calm you down. Something a lot of angry guys could use. It can teach you to channel that energy.
Gotta disagree with you on this one Vic, seated meditation has done wonders for me.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned from you, it is to trust my own judgement and not care what anyone else thinks (including you).
Glad to see you putting out regular content again.
Either Victor is completely illiterate on the research findings, or this is a pun.
Had problems with negative mental self-talk and overthinking since I was a child.
Started to meditate and it improved a bit after 3-4 years of daily meditation.
Read about TRT and how important it is to fix low t and high e levels here on B&D.
Fixed my t and e levels…and made more progress in 1 day than within 3-4 years of meditation.
Stopped that meditation non sense and never looked back.
“Read about TRT and how important it is to fix low t and high e levels here on B&D.
Fixed my t and e levels…and made more progress in 1 day than within 3-4 years of meditation.”
This is it right here.
Victor, meditation does not exclude exercising!
They are both great.
Stop being a crying baby, since you cannot meditate properly.
I dunno Vic, Been doing the Wim Hof Method for a year and my pain tolerance has gone through the roof and that’s meditation too.
I’ll agree that most people don’t know how to meditate correctly but they weren’t warriors either.
Victor excels as an instruction on how to play the game of life and win. From that perspective, he’s correct that meditation is not beneficial to an ego who wants to to live life like Victor Pride. There might be something to all the studies that say that the ego does receive some benefits like reducing stress and increasing mental clarity, etc. But if those benefits are there they are outpaced by the nuclear destruction to the ego that prolonged meditation has the capacity to unleash. Ultimately, serious meditation is literally waging war against your ego. It’s an exercise in purposely trying to destroy yourself in order to see what happens after you don’t exist anymore while still drawing breath on Earth. It’s an attempt to kill the “you” that thinks it will die when the body dies before the body actually dies. It’s asking to confront death today, rather than an unknown day to come. If most people understood that, I doubt meditation would be very popular.
What happens if you go all the way and successfully obliterate your entire ego? The gurus offer many descriptions, often with the same central themes, and usually along the lines of what is described as enlightenment. But ultimately there’s no way to know for sure without actually attempting it. Some people drop out and kind of go insane, at least temporarily. Some people describe various forms of bliss and a universal connection to all things. But there’s no guarantees, and once you kill your ego for good there’s no getting it back. It’s a gamble like anything else in life, and may not turn out the way you imagined.
My point is that I think Victor makes a fair point that meditation is sold to the masses as something that’s going to make the egoic existence better, when in actuality it’s designed to erode away life as you know it piece by piece. If you’re trying to live a Victor Pride life this is not a good strategy.
This is the best comment on this article. Kudos Radeus.
Woooooow my mind just blew
Meditation and mindfulness can be beneficial for developing a better relationship with your mind. In fact, I believe that should be the actually definition of those two activities - to help build a better relationship with your mind/thoughts/emotions.
I agree that it’s not the ultimate solution and a combination of things is a good idea I think. But what it can teach you is very beneficial. And once you understand your mind better, it’s a lot easier to relax and be “at peace” in your daily life without doing anything to achieve it, and that includes meditation as well.
Trying to silence your mind is more or less impossible. After all, it’s your mind’s job to think and even over-think at times. It is a problem solving machine! And trying to stop it is not only a loosing battle, it’s the equivalent of trying to stop other body parts from doing it’s natural job. Like your heart pumping away, lungs breathing, etc…
Engaging with life and activities is absolutely sound advice and is a great powerful way to distract yourself from the chatter in your head, and it works wonders, especially when doing things you love to do or when you are in the zone with something. But when you get stuck with nothing to do, trying to sleep with an overactive mind, or if it just won’t shut the hell up in general, I would add this to the mix: don’t take your thoughts too seriously!
What has worked well for me is to no longer care too much about what your mind is doing. When your mind chimes in with some negative crap or is just won’t stop talking, treat it as no big deal and just carry on with your day. Monkey mind, no problem. Can’t stop thinking - so what, whatever, no big deal. If you don’t take your thoughts too seriously or personally then you are free and there is no longer any need to try and silence it or even distract yourself from it. You can then naturally go about your day, enjoy it, focusing on what is important to you, engaging in activity, without needing to use anything as a distraction.
Anyway, hope that helps someone out there!
“Meditation and mindfulness can be beneficial for developing a better relationship with your mind.”
You are eventually going to make yourself insane with this kind of talk. A relationship with your mind? Good God man quit the meditation for your own benefit.
Haha I can see how it might read that way, but it certainly doesn’t mean what you think. If you’ve ever had the experience of thinking about something or revisiting the past or worrying what might happen in the future and suddenly decided to say fuck it, whatever, and not let it bother you anymore - that is your relationship with your mind. In those instances you chose not to listen or let it bother you. And so meditation and mindfulness can help make this stronger so you get sucked in less when that happens and you can catch it much earlier.
If you can sit down for 10 or 20 min and just chill out somewhere and not have any thought about what you might do later, or something from the past floods in or some sort of judgement about your current experience then that’s really great! But what I was explaining is to be able to notice if that is happening for you and not let it bother you instead of either spending your whole relaxing time stuck in your head about something or getting up to find some distraction from it.
When people first start to meditate they feel like they can’t do it as their mind goes 100 miles an hour. But that’s normal, and you can’t stop that from from happening. The point is to learn to be ok with that happening, you can then take that understanding into your daily life allowing you to relax much easier without doing anything to relax.
And I think understanding this, plus your advice of engaging with life, and activity is a great combination.
But I understand you are totally against this stuff and that’s cool, to each their own, and whatever works in making us happy more often than not is all that matters. Just sharing my experience and what works for me in that area just in case it might help someone else who reads it.
Meditation works fine for me. After a hard late sparring session, it usually takes me 3+ hours to fall asleep because I’m so pumped with adrenaline and thoughts about fighting. With meditation, I can calm my mind and body to cut that time in half. I have been practicing it for 6 years though (learned it back when I did Kyokushin).
That “pumped” stage that occurs for hours after intense exercise is an important part of the learning and rewiring process going on in the brain. The more intense emotions and feelings that are attached to an activity, the more the memory gets “groved” in our neural pathway. How do we create stronger emotions and feelings that lead to stronger and deeper learning connections? Vic nailed this one…movement!
Hey Vic!
You are ABSOLUTELY right about it!
Last time i used meditation, i became more anxious (by overthinking) and that caused me DEPRESSION!
ahaha I love his take on it. I think JOURNAL your thoughts (journal your day or a journal of 90 day goals is great brain exercise), and working out. Your body wants to move and be active. Every time I see a restless leg syndrome commercial on tv I could scream GET UP AND WALK, until your legs are not restless.
A poorly written article that completely misunderstands what meditation is. I actually really like this site for many reasons, but click-bait nonsense like this isn’t one of them. A well-balanced life includes time for peaceful contemplation and time for movement, both of which have their own benefits. Mediation is scientifically proven to be beneficial, so I think I’ll take the word of science over someone looking for traffic to their website.
Why Science Doesn’t Work
There is no “word of science.” Scientific journals are written in vague uncertainties, the same way zodiac predictions are written. It is impossible to tell what “science” is pro or anti for two reasons:
1) Science isn’t a real thing, it’s a bunch of people who are afraid of stating true facts in black & white - so they hide their hypothesis in confusing, “smart sounding” language that says nothing
2) For every piece of scientific literature that is “pro”, you can find in nearly equal amount scientific literature that is “anti”
Again, science does not ever draw a conclusion. They cleverly say “it may do this, it may do that” and they leave it to dimwitted minds to interpret in any way they choose. Because the language is so vague, “science” always appears to be correct to you because you can make the science say anything you want.
Science is the lazy man’s search for truth, but just like meditation, it will never give you what it promises. Forrest Gump’s mama knows the true science, “you gonna have to figure it out for yourself.”
If you don’t ever figure it out for yourself and come to a black & white conclusion, you’re gonna be running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Flowing with the wind, this way and that way each time “science” changes it’s mind, which it always does.
They say you can only count on two things but that’s not true, you can count on three:
1) Death
2) Taxes
3) The science will change
Until you realize this, you are nothing but a tumbleweed.
Belief in science leaves you with a complete inability to think for yourself, or “figure it out for yourself.” This is evidenced in this comment section, most of the people who agree with this article agree based on actual experience. Most people who disagree are regurgitating nonsense they have heard from “science minded” con artists and meditation gurus.
Belief in science does the exact opposite of what it promises. Instead of making you smart, it makes you stupid. A science mind = a mind completely unable to think.
A low IQ person like Forrest Gump who has lived life and had life experience will always be smarter than a science zombie. In complete objective reality, idiots who know nothing of science are smarter than people who profess to love and live by science.
In a nutshell, science keeps you as dim and docile as meditation does, while convincing you that it’s good for you. If science were in any way honest they would adopt the ouroboros as their symbol.
Have a nice day.
Interesting. From what I’ve observed, most of the people who agree with the article are people who can’t even use English correctly and will go out of their way to insult anyone with the temerity to disagree with something peddled by the great “Victor Pride”.
Not that I dislike you, but you have built up a bit of a cult mentality here and from the outside, it’s embarrassing for these people that they resort to such crap to defend someone they’ve never met. Can people not just enjoy a website without investing their identity in it these days? Seemingly not.
“Science tells you nothing about experiencing the real world” seems to be the point you’re making. I actually agree with that. There needs to be room for figuring shit out for yourself in life in order to live it fully.
What science does well is that it points you towards the things that are beneficial to do in your life and warns you away from the things that will kill you. Science tells you that exercise is good for you. But you can’t know how nice exercise is until you experience its benefits for yourself. Science tells you meditation is helpful. But you don’t know that until you try it. It happens to have worked for me.
Without science, most people on the planet wouldn’t make it past 30 years of age.
You seem to enjoy making strawman arguments in your posts and in your comments. And so we come to your meditation gurus comment. Nobody who disagrees with the article is citing “meditation gurus or science minded con artists”. You are using a strawman to defeat an argument that doesn’t exist.
Having read through the comments, most people espousing the virtues of meditation seem to be doing so from a perspective of having tried it themselves and noting how calm it made them feel. I cited science because I will take the opinions of science combined with my own experience over someone looking for traffic on his website.
Have a nice day.
“From what I’ve observed, most of the people who agree with the article are people who can’t even use English correctly and will go out of their way to insult anyone with the temerity to disagree with something peddled by the great “Victor Pride”.”
The first sentence of your first comment was an insult. In fact both of your comments start with an insult. Is it possible that:
a) you see only what you want to see and become angered when something breaks that paradigm?
b) is it possible that you are actually just describing yourself and no one else?
Meditate on it, I don’t need an answer.
Calling something poorly written and misrepresentative isn’t an insult, it’s an observation.
Although I can see how someone with an inflated ego would construe it as an insult.
Challenging the linguistic capabilities of people who defend your articles so vociferously? Yeah, that might be an insult. But it’s one borne out of necessity considering the amount of keyboard warriors who like to think they are hardmen because they spout terms like “pussy” and “alpha” on a blog.
What I find most interesting is that your thoughts on meditation come from a perspective of having spent time in places with a lot of Buddhist traditions.
Although considering you recently described writing an article from a McDonalds in Chiang Mai, despite the slew of infinitely nicer restaurants and coffee shops you could’ve been at in the city, it’s hardly surprising that you have no real grasp of Thai culture. Or meditation for that matter.
Cry more.
I can`t write english correctly! And I disagree with this article! And what you want to say that your english makes your better or smater then I am?!)) You disagree too but your head is full of shit. A lot of who cant`t write or speak english at all knows about life and done in this life much more then you. Vic makes a lot of good articles but not all of them, he do the good thing but he isn`t saint and this article was mistaken, but every man has the right to mistake but much more intersting how he can do with this.
Hahaha take a chill pill there mate. And try not to be so quick to judge what people have or haven’t done in their lives. You know fuck all about me and I know fuck all about you. So keep the ignorant bollocks to yourself. Good lad.
I would have to agree that meditating for long periods of time will make you docile and unmotivated. But 10 minutes of meditation after waking up and 10 minutes of meditation before bed helps me stay focused on my tasks during the day, handle stress, control emotions, make stronger decisions and remain calm. That small amount of meditation helps me with days daily tasks, including hitting up the gym. Just my personal experience though. Best regards Vic.
The funny thing is that my morning routine is cold shower , coffee , 15 min Kundalini Yoga , 10 min breathing meditation and 10 min reading motivational material (Just started the new B+D hardcover) then reviewing my overall objectives and planning my day. Then I crank Slayer.
What’s more is that I am a “certified” meditation teacher
And what is really funny is that I actually agree with Mr. Pride 110%
All of the benefits of what I get from my morning KY and meditation practice you can get from the things listed here. The walking , the cold showers , the music loop while training , the IM diet , the focus on PROPER breathing , avoiding porn at all costs , the stoic practice of 30 days of discipline. All of it. PLUS you won’t have to do what I did and deal with almost 10 years of “learning” from some of the most sniveling , deceptive and worthless people you meet in the “spiritual community”. I don’t think it is a mistake that this article comes on the heels of advice to 21 year olds. Anything to keep “the secret” from rotting another young mans brains. I keep my practice as it is “anchor habit” that I’ve used over the years to keep my morning routine together and at the end of the day it’s really just some stretching and diaphragm breathing divorced from any “Spiritual” pretentions but you best believe I DO NOT teach anymore and I usually refer the young guys to the right books and sites like this.
“Putting new guitar strings on your guitar is meditative, working in your garden is meditative, working out in your local gym is meditative, working on your car is meditative, slicing garlic in your kitchen is meditative.”
Yes all of these things are meditative, you don’t have to sit down to meditate. Sitting meditation is only one form of zazen. Zen is just mindfullness without judgement or attachment. So doing something trivial like restringing a guitar is a great form of meditation. You can do anything in a zen way. So its not so much about sitting down and meditating as much as it is doing anything and focusing on it. The problem is that many people have a hard time actually being mindful doing everyday stuff because they feel it isn’t important or whatever and their mind gets carried away. So if they have a habit of sitting down and focusing on being mindful, they will be more mindful for the rest of the day and better able to get into a meditative state while doing anything.
“People can do this work all day long and then have a smile on their face and say “I’m fine!” at the end of the day because, even though they worked all day, their brain was not overly focused on nonsense. ”
Yes, but some people do those same jobs and come home and complain about how awful their day was because they are stuck in their head. So again its not about what they’re doing (anything can make you happy), but HOW they are doing it.
“Decreased confidence, increased anxiety, and a decreased ego (not a good thing). Meditation = giving yourself anxiety. ”
Vic you can’t possibly think no one benefits from meditation. Also being mindful isn’t “doing nothing”. When you know whats going on you are mindful. Basically you’re someone who “knows whats up”. Sitting down and watching your mind try to distract you from !what you are doing! (could be writing, working out, investing, or meditating) is a great thing.
I know I’ve heard you talk about excuses. Well when you sit down and meditate you hear all of the excuses your mind has about why you shouldn’t be meditating or why you should be doing something else. The idea of meditating isn’t to get rid of the ego, but see it for what it is (a distractive bitch that wants to take away your focus and have you ruminating over some bullshit).
Meditating gives you a clear head and helps you realize when you are being a bitch. It is uncomfortable for some people because it makes them realize that they are a bigger bitch than they thought, and instead of realizing they’re being a pussy and growing, they just stop meditating and pretend that the meditation made them sensitive or less tough or something when in reality it just made them more aware of their own vulnerability. You can shroud your ego in shit that you think makes you tough, but unless you can look at yourself honestly and see your weaknesses for what they are and accept them, you are being a bitch and running from the truth.
It is good to spend some time focusing all your energies upon the thoughts of something or someone that inspires you to learn and grow for the better.
But clearing your mind on something so lame as your breath or a simple chant is generally a waste of time. Uncle Vic is right: You can get the same benefits from engaging in far more productive means.
I noticed this too, when I’m running I focus on my breathing and that clears my mind quickly than when I’m sitting down.
The truth always hurt. This is 100% true, and it will still be relevant 4000 years from now like it would 4000 years back.
B&D for me is the “red pill” of success, it’s hard to swallow, some will take it and hope they don’t choke because the truth is risky and scary, that’s why people prefer to be lied to all the time.
Great Job!
“B&D for me is the “red pill” of success, it’s hard to swallow, some will take it and hope they don’t choke because the truth is risky and scary, that’s why people prefer to be lied to all the time.”
Thank you Emmanuel.
Meditation Is Evil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwGjkuFW0cY
Meditation has become very muddled. What I consider meditating is doing visualization techniques and some focused, controlled breathing for about a half hour or so with nothing on except maybe a fan or something.
To me, THAT is meditation, but I’ve discovered that its more a general relaxation ritual. Not bad if you want to do something before passing out, but it isn’t legit meditation at all. Still, it has its place.
Vic’s definitions of meditation are legit too, and even more so I would argue. So I agree with him. I’ve relaxed just by doing chores. Hell for me even driving is “meditation” if I don’t have to deal with a ton of traffic. And even if there is tons of traffic, I have enough emotional control to not let stuff on the road get to me. I have yet to encounter ONE PERSON in my life who can do that.
My opinion:
- spiritual meditation = bullshit
- meditation only (and being a lazy bumb otherwise) = bullshit
- Daily short meditation (10 to 15 minutes) just focusing on your breath = usefull as a bonus on top of other healthy live style. I feel it helps me with focus (also during workouts) and i’m less impulsive. The medial studies also show reduction in the volume of gray mather in de amygdala, and increase in size of the cortex. So that is why just saying meditation is bad is a bit to much in my opinion. BUT I can understand why it doesn’t do anything for Victor. Due to his way of life, attitude, and exercise regim, the relative improvment by meditation would be so small. But for somebody who has just started to live a better life, I can help allot.
What about binuaral beats vic do you still use them?
My opinion:
– spiritual meditation = bullshit
– meditation only (and being a lazy bumb otherwise) = bullshit
– Daily short meditation (10 to 15 minutes) just focusing on your breath
—-> 100% True.
I don’t think any of you who claim to have tried meditation did it, or maybe you have less cortisol to other people due to your lifestyle/biology/etc…
It has helped me tremendously. Ive ran a net 7 figure biz for the last 3 years, and without meditation I would not have had the focus, patience, or discipline to get there. I have several mentors who are drastically different people and one of the things they both do is meditate. These are guys who run 9 figure businesses.
I workout 6x a week, go to yoga sometimes, but nothing compares to meditation for me. I’m under 25 and manage a company though with tons of stress. If I were to go back to my 18 year old self who was doing nothing but working out for a couple hours, writing a blog, and doing a side hustle for 20 hours a week and going to school it would be retarded, because I wasn’t doing anything and I had no stress.
Meditation does come in many forms though. It is essentially “flow”, but for me meditation feels a lot like having a 3 hour deep tissue massage done in about 15 minutes. I didn’t get that feeling until I spent 3-months trying to do it though. And yes, it does take work. Just like anything else. If you go to the gym for 1 hour and just lift random stupid things then you’ll get very insignificant results compared to the guy who is disciplined and has a plan.
Meditation is like fapping on porn.. lifting weights / working out is the real deal like sex. Lifting weights is the only true meditation ever..apart from playing music or learning an instrument
I dont really meditate on purpose or deeply with a fixed time or goal although I came across a certain exercise in Way of the Seal of achieving 10 breath cycles with nothing but focus on your breath. Havent made it there yet as I have been too busy taking action haha but maybe sometime soon.
Mindfulness especially around nature, the skies,trees and the flowing ocean/rivers induce a calming and tranquil effect on me, so I do this as I’ve tested what works for me personally.
I never knew there was such a thing as walking meditation (thanks to someone who commented here) although I did meet someone who mentioned this but he did seem a bit off kilter.
If you think meditation is “over thinking”, you don’t get meditation. It’s just the opposite. It’s true, as soon as you sit quietly and concentrate on your breath or a mantra, your mind will wander. At first, you probably can’t keep your mind on your breath for more than a few seconds before your mind starts thinking about things Then you notice it, kind of smile, and bring your mind back to your breath.
Gradually, with practice, your mind will wander less and less.
Vic, may the gods bless you, absolute truth real deal no nonsense right here. Meditation is a fucking waste of time lol. To hell with that its about being practical not being antipractical, life is real, its here and now wether you sit and close your eyelids or not hahaha, salute.
“When you tell the meditation guru that meditation doesn’t work, they’ll either say “you’re doing it wrong” or they’ll redefine the meaning of the word meditation”
Isn’t that what you’re doing?
“Meditation Google definition: think deeply or carefully about something; or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.
Meditation Victor Pride definition: the nonsense art of sitting down, doing nothing, and being so bored you overthink everything.”
I think you need a new editor, Vic.
Nobody knew as much about meditation as Osho, the late spiritual master.
He always advocated that people must do dynamic meditation, meaning you must do something physical!
I used to do hard manual labor, when I was broke. Then I got rich. But even when I was already rich, for some time I continued to work there because the hard physical work was so fulfilling, I would not give it up. I didn’t stop until I found something equally demanding physically.
Meditation may only surface an anxiety. But the condition is already there.
In a society with so many distractions and attention spans of a gnat, not many people are even capable of sitting still for an hour.
What are the benefits of sitting still for an hour and doing nothing? Sounds like time wasted to me
Vic’ I have nothing to say beside your work has been a blessing to me.
When will the next book be released?
thoughts on this video then? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYUhJ9N699c
What about the theta waves and sunglasses isolation tank post you made last year? is that still ok to do uncle vic?
No, it’s a bunch of nonsense. The post has been removed.
ive found meditation a great way to experience myself and my physical body.
there are 2 things that the victor guy didnt mention:
meditation is not supposed to be over-thinking. in fact you aim to do the opposite. its trying to separate your thoughts from your feeling of the present moment, since your thoughts wind in and out of the future and past and all sorts of other dimensions. so watch your thoughts and watch as they slow down and observe them slowly and in clarity.
the second thing is meditation doesnt need to be doing nothing. the other main aspect of meditation is to focus on your breathing. breathing is life. send your concentration to your lungs, your diaphragm, your belly, your throat, your nostrils, the tip of your nose where the air rushes over.
anyway, good luck.
lift metal into the air and put it down again if that makes you think youre happy.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23251943
Meditation was shown to reduce stress and increase IQ in this study.
You dont even know M of Meditation!!! In meditation you dont think anything, mind has to be zero and than you will realise benefits which are unlimited
Cry more and meditate with letter M. Kaha kaha se aajate hai gaand marane Mr.Deepak babu 😂
This was definitely my experience with meditation as well. Maybe it works for someone, but I always get more irritated after trying to meditate. I tried some 10 times I think.
I hear you when you say you can’t meditate because your mind overthinks everything.
But I’ve been lifting for 4 years now. And I passed through a 1 month meditation period, doing it everyday, 5 to 10 minutes in the morning. It was the most focused experience I’ve ever had, nothing else matter, just me, my lifts, dieting, and working on my company.
It sure makes you more “passive” as you say. But for me that means I can stop overthinking everything and start putting the real work to accomplish my goals.
Love the blog man, congrats on the work you put into it.
I’ve done meditation before and have received the benefits of it. I got away from it but tried it again recently and was having trouble doing it again. Hence how I found this article as I was seeing if there was anyone who struggled with meditating. There definitely are results from doing it but it’s difficult to get into a deep enough meditation to get the deep level benefits of it. Months ago when I was doing it with results I had moments in my life where I felt like a totally different person. I could think in ways that I haven’t before. But I got out of the habit. And since then have not seen those same changes in my life. Despite the fact I’m still eating healthy and exercising like I was doing then.
I agree you now onwards I shut that meditation and go to my regular workout. I literally meditated for two months and still showed nothing. I am grateful for hearing truth from you man. Cheers Victor.
“For mediating is nothing but self−identity working itself out through an active self−directed process.”
In the above quote, the author is not referring to meditation as sitting and reflecting, but as the continual process of peering into your beliefs and solidifying them to a satisfying point where you no longer question them.
Real meditation is reflection and continual self-improvement based upon self-questioning.
In my opinion, Buddhist, and Daoist meditation have their own merits, but I would venture to say that the ideals of getting off your ass and doing some actual shit, and failing until you get it right, to improve yourself are amply more important to the Western developing man than Eastern meditation — especially in this age where we want results without actually taking action, which can put the idea of achieving a better self through simply sitting and doing meditative practices into a particularly tempting light for all the wrong reasons.
Only through improving oneself does one realize their potential, but it’s the process that’s as important as the destination. And while one belief may seem correct, the other may be equally so, but at the same time there must be an empirical truth, or we fall into the trap of every answer being right which is not always the case.
For the most part, I’d agree with you. Meditation is not going to help a lot of people, as they’re going to try to use it as a shortcut. It has its benefits, but only within its own sphere of influence. There is no single answer to every problem or hurdle of self-development; although, there are definite answers to certain questions.
True success is often within contradictions I’d think.
While meditation may be useless as shit, it may also be helpful as hell. Many will read that sentence that I just wrote and simplify it as a disagreement with Victor, though, which is a damn shame. And if they’re reading it as that, or instantly rethinking their initial reading in an effort to be correct based upon my rebuttal, then they should definitely veer away from Eastern meditation for now and focus on getting to a point to where what I said is actually read in an informed way.
Good article, Vic.
Ae bhosdike kabhi tere baap ne hasna sikhaya benchod 😆😆😆
Very difficult to notice the positive effects on a daily basis during your busy goal driven city life but go on retreat and you’ll be blown away by the bliss joy and peace that is uncovered.
Mantra Chanting. I do understand that you do not belive in meditation, but I do, not like an concept but as an experience. I do like much of your points in Bold and Determinate, and I do love the book 30 days of Challenge.
But i must say I wonder why so dislike of meditation? I AM A MAN (and doing my Gym work) Time has change, we know more about meditation and mantra than ever before. It’s stupid to critisise it in this age.
What is the importance of chanting mantras?
When someone abuses you verbally, how do you feel?
If someone says that you are a donkey, how do you feel? What does it do to you? What does it create? Anger! It shakes you. It creates some negative vibrations; you feel angry. You feel some sensations in the stomach, in the head. If a bad word can create so much physiological reactions in you, do you think a very sweet name, a chant, which includes a lot of energy of the cosmos does not do anything to your body?
It is unscientific and stupid to think that a mantra does not do anything to your body. That is not the case! It does.
Mantras bring out all the positive energy within you
That is why it is called mantra kavach(armor); a mantra creates the sense of an armor around your body.
Sometimes you meet some people and you feel like talking to them. You get good vibes from them. Sometimes you meet people and you want to avoid them. Do you know why? The negative vibes around a person make them repulsive. Mantras turn around these negative, repulsive vibrations, into more positive and attractive vibrations. This is the advantage of mantra chanting.
Today, if you go to New York, you will find hundreds of places where they learn chanting. People go for one hour in the evenings to chanting classes. They chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’,’ Om Namo Narayana’, ‘Sri Rama Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram’. Of course, they have a different pronunciation.
In China, they say, ‘Ladhe Ladhe’ instead of ‘Radhe Radhe’.
In Taiwan, 7,000 people to 8,000 people sing ‘Ladhe Govind’ instead of ‘Radhe Govind’.
People have seen that there is an effect. And there really is!
Now when should you do it? If you do chanting after pranayama and meditation, then it has a better result. If you do it at a superficial level, then it is not so effective.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Another one from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
“The source of your mind is love and whatever you do to go to that source is a spiritual practice”
After a year of trying (and paying) to make Headspace work for me I gave up. It wasn’t meant to be. I knew it didn’t work but didn’t realise until reading this article
This is pure gold.
I began to practice meditation looking for of all the benefits they offer, but the truth is that the more i practiced, more my fire went out. I started to develop apathy, but instead of opening the eyes to reality, i thought I was meditating wrong and i was looking for the ”perfect meditation”, which only made things worse.
Looking deeper I found that this is the true goal of meditation. Transform you into a pussy, without desire, without fire to pursue your goals. Obviously I quit.
More: the more I meditated to help me stop pornography, more porn i watched. But if you ask them, they’ll say I was ”meditating wrongly”.
Sorry for my english, it’s not my native language.
I have question for you Victor. How long you meditate before make this conclusion and write this article?
Meditation has helped me to change my life after 10+years of struggling with depression and anxiety. I disagree with this article because everything it says basically is that meditation is bullshit without giving us a resource besides of this guys opinion. Sad that some people need to hate on something just to sell their product or promote their business. Be open minded, what works for some people, doesn’t work for others but I agree that if you can’t sit still and stop your monkey mind for 10 minutes a day…there is something deeper to look at and pay attention, I don’t think it’s healthy to feel the need to be moving and working out and just go go go all day. Just my opinion
As a guy who meditates and lifts almost every day, I fully disagree with this post.
Exercising has its benefits and helps strengthen the mind but strengthening the mind also helps to be able to strengthen the body.
Almost any day I meditate is better than a day I don’t and the same can be said for exercise.
It seems like more of a plug for your book, to be honest.
(and I question whether or not you’re on PEDs for your pics but that’s neither-here-nor- there)
I agree with the action oriented mindset here.
However, for me meditation has been a very powerful tool to develop sensitivity and higher awareness.
The more I meditate, the more I am able to catch myself when I’m being overwhelmed or impulsive.
Meditation helped me develop a powerful awareness that makes me able to dis-identify from the monkey-mind for a second and be more proactive instead of reactive.
Meditation, done right, is mental training. Sustaining focus on an object is like sustaining muscle tension for long periods of time. You hold something in mind like a gymnast holding an iron cross. Try and hold longer and longer each time.
Personally I find my morning workouts tend to be better (more focus on perfect form, doing each rep perfect and not rushing them, which means more time under tension and therefore more gains) when I do a 20min mediation session to warm up my brain beforehand.
Hey Vic,
I met you at the B&D BBQ. You, Cernovich and Will Freeman were the firsts to kick my ass and many others into shape. Even my own father, a ruthlessly disciplined Air Force and Corrections officer who hasn’t skipped a workout in 40 years, could not instill the addiction to iron like you did. 30 DoD changed my life and I’m doing it again right now.
That said, I’ve been addicted to just about everything else under the Sun too, all the bad stuff. Kicked all those habits too. Worst of all, was video games. I thought Esports/fighting games would make me rich someday, I was good, and won money. You even let me down easy and said it’s no big deal, it’s just like hustling at poker.
WRONG!
Sitting and staring at a screen with bad posture, destroying one’s hands, and losing sleep/valuable working hours is 1000x worse than sitting still focusing on breathing.
In fact, again this is just my experience, I doubt I will change your mind on meditation here, when I did a 10 day silent meditation Vippassana retreat in North Fork, CA, it helped me:
quit video games,
Quit porn
quit Adderall/cure my “ADHD” aka
Snap out of my perpetual state of self induced distraction
Find God
Regain intellectual curiousity and forget about blindly trusting “science”
Commune with nature/disconnect from cell phone/social media/etc
and to top it all off, I learned how to breathe with my diaphragm. Maybe not Win Hof status, but a huge improvement over my lifetime of shitty shallow breathing.
You had your shit together and were crushing life
You already knew how to breathe properly and the value of good clean air.
For the Ronin at the beginning of their journeys, meditation can be a mirror. That “monkey mind” chatter made me realize what a pathetic addict I was and finally kick all those bad habits.
Different strokes for different folks Nick.
Shitting on something that has helped people, makes people trust you less and take what you say with a grain of salt instead of as gospel.
Still love you and your Full Color work.
As a fan, I am asking you to stay positive and open minded, or at least admit bashing shit is sometimes fun and funny, not necessarily 100% accurate.
I meditate when I go to sleep. I’ve always had an incredibly active mind, and was terrible at falling asleep. I would consistently lie awake at night, my mind turning over and over just over thinking everything. It was automatic. Kind of how you describe meditation. But when I started actually meditating (breath focus, mindful awareness, identifying thoughts and emotions and letting them pass) a few years ago, it was a complete game changer. I’m able to consistently fall asleep within 30 minutes of lying down. Used to take 3 hours. Just my two cents.
If it doesn’t work for you, I get it, but to say it has never worked for anyone, that’s just being an “anti-guru” telling people how to live. The “it doesn’t work for me so it must not work for anyone” logic is a dangerous way to think.
I have to disagree. Meditation helped me so much in my life…. Meditation is better than sleeping… It takes years and years of practice to understand it.. Some can see it before all that… Even in a few months… I am glad that no everyone can meditate and see the power of it though..
There will always be people that prefer to robotic world. I guess it depends what character your are.
I meditate all the time, And some of my friends love it and some don’t… It all depends on what person you are and where you want to go with your life.
I don’t completely agree.
When I am super productive in a day I have trouble going to sleep at night at 10 pm. I usually stop doing work around 8-9 pm and also I am not on any electronic device at that time and have eaten my last meal at 7 pm.
If I have trouble getting into sleep I meditate with the Headspace iPhone meditation application for 10 minutes and afterwards I really am able to sleep much faster and better.
My quality of sleep has increased since doing this as well. I vividly remember dreams and I dream almost constantly in my entire sleep. Also I don’t wake up in the night anymore and I seem to wake up just minutes before I set my alarm.
So no, meditation DOES have benefits for me personally.
I think you should try Headspace for 10 days (or include it in 30 days of discipline) and see what it does for you. It’s a great app.
Take care!
You answered the wrong question. The guy asks:
What is mediation?
Your going to need that when the guru’s come after you!
But shoalin guys they meditate for peak performance and for self control meditation is to bring balance even bruce lee does meditation to calm the mind you do not overthink in meditation and without self control nothing works😕 what about them?
I’m so glad you wrote this. Meditation never worked for me and I actually told my friends the only thing that has ever felt like meditation to me was training my mind to escape the physical pain of lifting weights. That’s how you truly learn to meditate. And then afterwards you are in a state of bliss. You’re spot on with your assessment
A frickin men!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for finally putting into words what I’ve been thinking my whole life!!!!!
Meditation is not something you do. It is not a practice. Meditation is what happens to you when you stop trying to control things.
Man you nailed it !
I did both, meditation and work out and from my personal experience with both I can only agree with you that meditation is nonsense and only stresses the mind more than relaxing it!
Physical activity is the very best anyone can do for him/herself!
Keep on moving.
Brain exercise is also better than meditation, pick up an instrument and learn a new skill or language ! That’s meditation !
Watching TV can be described as meditation too as you disengage the mind.
Man I’m so happy to read this article that validate my experience :))
https://youtu.be/1GXs_p-kzU0?t=2515
Here’s another anti-meditation argument:
Dan Pena, the 50 billion dollar man, claims to never had meditated.
Certainly doesn’t seem like the kinda guy that meditates.
Yay! I think being fully engaged is true meditation … being fully engaged and doing the work of my Higher Power. I read about monks staying up on the mountain all day and praying and others going down the mountain to be amongst the people. I think that’s the answer: being fully engaged in the world. Love.
Sorry Victor, but I’d have to disagree with you on this one. I have been meditating for a year now and I am less reactive, less stressed, and those times I do get mad is past anger I’ve held in, it helps me realise when I’m about to act upon my emotions. It usually doesn’t cause anxiety, because we’re listening to our thoughts and not trying to change anything within them. I just personally think meditation might not be for everybody, for some people it made things worse, while with other people it treated their depression.
I’ve been on and off about meditating however, but it does stop overthinking. It really depends on the type of meditation, but yeah. I’m not saying to start meditating again, it isn’t for you, and you’re doing a good job getting the natural highs from exercise.
Have a wonderful day.
This is the most misinformed article I have ever read on meditation.
1. Meditation is not about sitting cross legged and doing nothing. Yes there is a formal practice of sitting but this is only the beginning. Meditation becomes every moment of your life not just 20 minutes in the morning.
2. Meditation is not about trying to “clear the mind”. It’s about noticing what is going on for you in this moment, acknowledging and accepting what is instead of distracting and pushing it away as we are so conditioned to do. Our society has so many easy options to help us stay distracted but very few options to help us stop and look at what is in this moment. Thinking is what the mind does. You cannot control it or make it stop. You can just keep on recognising then gently refocusing on your object ie the breath. We focus on our breath then we notice some thinking, we focus on breath then we notice some itching, breath, pain, breath, sadness, breath, joy etc etc. Notice how we want less of some things and more of others. We hate some feelings and want it to end. If we have many of those unpleasant feelings we will say I meditation it doesn’t work. If we have lots of pleasant feelings we will say I love this meditation, it really works. Neither is true. It just is what it is and you cannot control it or force it. After a while the mind quiets down of it’s own accord
3. If you think meditation doesn’t work it’s because you have a preconceived idea or expectations that you are meant to feel a certain way. The media paints a picture of meditation as happy smiling cross legged people. Not true. If you have been carrying stress and distracting yourself from difficult feelings and emotions your whole life well guess what, when you sit still all that stuff you’ve avoided is going to reveal itself by bubbling up to the surface. Yes that can make you feel anxious. But anxiety is just one more difficult feeling to acknowledge.
4. Its true that the ego is important for our survival. As children we need to develop a healthy ego and a separate sense of self. However I believe humanity has lost touch with some very important information. There is a next level of evolution where we can let go of this need for ego. It has its use but it’s not who we are and as we all know is the major cause of a lot of problems in this world. Think Donald Trump. Massive out of control ego. It’s just a tool. Clinging onto it and being afraid to lose it is like a being a teenager afraid to go to high school. You can stay stuck there if you want. It’s up to you.
When you go on meditation retreats and sit for extended periods it can be extremely emotionally painful for some people because they get to face stuff they have ran away from for so long. However, after a while joy and happiness and bliss also bubble up. I’ve had some amazing blissful experiences on retreat like nothing I have ever felt before. Like no drug could ever give me. I have practiced daily for 8 years now and always will.
It’s really important to not go into meditation clinging onto an idea about getting something. It’s about letting go, not achieving, not accomplishing, not attaining, not becoming. Let go of your expectations and see what happens. There’s no panacea or magic bullet for life. Only techniques that help us understand a little more about who and what we actually are. About how to live better. Meditation is not for everyone. If you find exercise works better for you all good. Some people however get to a point where they have suffered so much that they need something else. They need to seek for answers. Meditation helps.
How much research, and what kind of scientific research did Victor do on the topic of meditation in order to conclude meditation doesn’t work? What evidence can Victor provide to counter numerous research papers, and centuries of people meditation?
You don’t get meditation at all. It’s about being grateful for anything that happens to you/ around you…Just being thankful for paticipating in the great show of life…Like when you go to a theatre, you watch the actors on the stage (the thoughts in your head are also like the actors taking their turns on the “stage” inside your head) and “feel” their performance, without doing anything and when it’s over you applaud their efforts, stand up and go on with your life…Of course all the things you mention like sports and other activities are also forms of meditation (being parts of life), but the hardest (when you get it actually seems quite easy) form to master is to enjoy even just being here, hearing a sound of a car, people chattering, plane flying over…or complete silence…
Sucks meditation had that effect on you. I would suggest trying different techniques. 😉😇😊
At the risk of an off topic comment, I’d like to explore a statement in this article: “You want and need a big ego to survive and thrive in the real world.”
I find it difficult to put my finger on exactly what would constitute a “big ego”. A “big ego” is a term I’ve seen used to describe people other than ourselves: people who seem confident, extroverted, possibly arrogant, maybe ambitious, perhaps aggressively so. But these are all descriptions of behaviour, not of internal states. So how do we acquire a big ego for ourselves, internally, in order to “thrive in the real world”? What would be involved in that?
Is it to acquire certain thought patterns? Maybe to think things like “I am great”, “I am a champion”? Just thinking these things doesn’t really persuade me that they’re true. Or is it to adopt self-punitive, self-disciplining thought patterns? Maybe to tell myself things like “you must be a champion”, or “if you don’t win you’ll be a failure”? I sense underlying anxiety in thinking like this. Or is it to develop these thought patterns through my actions? So I train hard at the gym, win at a weightlifting competition, and get a bigger ego that way?
I also notice fragility in the behaviour of people I’d tend to call big egos. A certain nervous stiltedness, a kind of frenetic fear of criticism. For instance, young men who attend tanning salons and are committed weightlifters don’t always seem like the most centred people at my gym - they seem quite anxious actually, continuously checking the mirrors, unsure if new flaws have appeared in their bodies. Their movements are usually a little too brisk, suggesting underlying tension or insecurity.
In the professional world, I have rarely seen people like this go very far. At least until they’ve brought things down a few levels. If you are over-concerned with yourself - your appearance, your success, your status - you are likely to experience more psychological pressure than someone more at ease with things. Your relationships will be poorer and your work will probably be inferior to that of a more relaxed colleague. In my experience, people like this tend to be broken quite quickly - then maybe once they’ve relaxed a little, some success can be built.
In any case, I wonder what is involved in the creation and maintenance of a big ego that raises the probability of thriving in the real world.
Nice i have been meditating for last fifteen years. It’s gave me nothing. Moreover it made me lethargic, thanks for your nice post.
I meditate when I go to sleep. I’ve always had an incredibly active mind, and was terrible at falling asleep. I would consistently lie awake at night, my mind turning over and over just over thinking everything. It was automatic. Kind of how you describe meditation. But when I started actually meditating (breath focus, mindful awareness, identifying thoughts and emotions and letting them pass) a few years ago, it was a complete game changer. I’m able to consistently fall asleep within 30 minutes of lying down. Used to take 3 hours. Just my two cents.
If it doesn’t work for you, I get it, but to say it has never worked for anyone, that’s just being an “anti-guru” telling people how to live. The “it doesn’t work for me so it must not work for anyone” logic is a dangerous way to think.
As per sufism, using hands in work is also a kind of meditation, and reduces the thought process and calms the mind.
It just appears that Victor found his meditation in lifting weights with his hands.
BKS Iyengar had also taught of the therapeutic effects of exercise of arms on the mind…
” If you open the armpits, the brain becomes light. You cannot brood or become depressed.” - B.K.S.Iyengar
There are all kinds of meditative techniques and each should use that aligns with his or her temperament.