Meditate for a set time each day
Sit for a fixed, short period, notice when attention wanders, and bring it back to the breath each time.
Perché funziona
The Starter Kit lists meditation and centering prayer in its Spirit module. The best-covered meditation evidence on this page is a 2014 systematic review of randomized trials of meditation programs, which found moderate evidence of improved anxiety, depression and pain. The review did not establish why meditation helps, and its trials were meditation programs rather than the Starter Kit’s own list.
Come farlo
- Choose a fixed time of day and a fixed length, starting at five minutes.
- Sit with your attention on the breath or on one steady sound.
- When you notice your attention has wandered, note it briefly and return to the breath.
- For the first month, count days completed rather than how calm each session felt.
Prove scientifiche
Related but different evidence: Goyal et al. (2014) included 47 randomized trials with 3,515 participants. Mindfulness meditation programs showed moderate evidence of improved anxiety (effect size 0.38 at 8 weeks) and depression (0.30 at 8 weeks), and low evidence of improved stress and distress. They found no evidence that meditation programs were better than active comparison treatments. (mechanistic)
The reviewed trials were of meditation programs, with effects reported at 8 weeks and 3–6 months, in diverse adult clinical populations, not a five-minute daily sit, so they do not test the practice described here. The effects were modest, and the stress evidence was low-grade. The trials did not test the Starter Kit’s Spirit module specifically.
Fonti
- Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M. S., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., Berger, Z., Sleicher, D., Maron, D. D., Shihab, H. M., Ranasinghe, P. D., Linn, S., Saha, S., Bass, E. B., & Haythornthwaite, J. A. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368.
- Integral Life Practice Team (2005). The ILP Starter Kit: Your Guide to Integral Life Practice (Version 1.0), © 2005 Integral Institute (PDF copy hosted by mindfulnessexercises.com).
Errore comune
Judging a session by how calm it felt. Noticing that attention has wandered and coming back is the practice itself, not a failure of it.
Metti in pratica questo con IX Coach
Altre pratiche per Integral Life Practice: The Four Core Modules, Explained
- Pick one practice from each of the four core modules
Choose one practice each for body, mind, spirit and shadow, instead of trying to work on every area of life at once.
- Do a Body module practice: aerobic or strength work
Pick one physical practice, such as aerobics or weightlifting, and do it on a fixed schedule you can keep.
- Take multiple perspectives on one disagreement
Write the strongest version of a view you disagree with, in its own terms, before you answer it.
- Use a one-minute module on a crowded day
Do a condensed version of a practice you already know, in about a minute, at a fixed moment of the day.
- Add an auxiliary module for the area you neglect most
Once the four core modules feel steady, add one auxiliary module, such as Work, Relationships or Ethics.
- Audit which core area you keep skipping each week
Once a week, check which of the four core modules you did and which you skipped, and write down the first reason for each skip.
Concetti correlati
- Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (AQAL), Made Practical
Five elements for catching what your view of a situation leaves out, held as a map rather than a truth
- Using Wilber’s Four Quadrants on a Real Problem
Eight ways to put the I, It, We, Its map to work on a problem you actually have
- Waking Up, Growing Up, Cleaning Up, Showing Up: Four Kinds of Growth That Do Not Move Together
Why awakening, maturity, shadow work and everyday embodiment can each grow without the others — and how to notice which one you have left behind
- States vs Stages of Consciousness: Wilber, Combs and O’Fallon
Why a powerful experience and a lasting change are different things, and how each one grows
- First, Second, Third and Fourth Person Perspectives
How the number of viewpoints you can hold grows, what the research does and does not show, and how to practice it in a real disagreement