Ryan Rodenbaugh's personal site

Meditation for Skeptics

During 2020, I’ve been able to make meditation a regular practice.

This was kickstarted in April of 2020 when I attended a “virtual mediation retreat” with teachers from India. I meditated for two hours per day (one hour in the morning, one hour at night) for one week and spoke daily with the teachers and other meditators.

Previously, I had tried a bunch of the popular mediation apps, but failed to get the habit to stick. These days, I use Oak and do a daily unguided 40-minute mediation with ‘cave water’ sound on low volume in the background.

A lot of people get a lot of different things from meditation. I have been surprised at the number of people I’ve met that have spiritual/religious-like experiences with meditation. I’m slightly jealous of those people because their connection to the practice is visibly powerful, but meditation doesn’t give me that spiritual feeling.

Benefits I get from meditation (and that I broadly think ‘Type A’ people will enjoy):

P.S., There is a little bit of science dabbled throughout my above points, but mostly those are my anecdotal benefits from the practice.

DM on X or Faracster if you would like to discuss any of these ideas (@ryanrodenbaugh)

First published on August 17, 2020