By Richard Li '24
Remember when they made us meditate in middle school Health? I know, not fun. I was either fast asleep, pretending I was asleep, trying not to open my eyes, or with my eyes open trying not to laugh. I still can’t believe they made us do that every class. And I know pretty much no one wanted to come to class just to sit in the dark and listen to a guy with a soft British accent up close with the microphone. It was like waiting for a plane to land with neither Wi-Fi nor Spotify premium. Like when you can feel your heartbeat thumping through the back of your thigh pressing against the seat, “tik”-ing and “tok”-ing like a grandfather clock. Dreadful. A low point of the human experience. A waiting game with no end.
But why exactly was it such a horrible experience? I have a theory:
Generally, we tend to reject new things if they aren’t immediately gratifying. Sometimes we eventually learn to accept it, and sometimes we don’t.
Gratifying: ChatGPT Not immediately gratifying: taking out the trash
Not immediately gratifying: saving money Not immediately gratifying: working out
I think meditation is one of those things that we, as teenagers, instinctively reject. And when this rejection happens in a classroom with a bunch of us, our social brains imitate the crowd and our attitudes go from temporary to irreversible. Especially when it’s being forced upon us by a teacher or a condescending TedED video, we easily lose our interest in learning about the intrinsic benefits of meditation (“If you want to make me do something, just make me do it! Who cares about what your boring adult brains think anyways?).
Now, let’s take a few steps back. What if a student around your age, experiencing the same problems in life, not given any incentives from a supervisor, tried to convince you to meditate?
I tried it on my friends; they didn’t take it seriously and said that I’m weird. Let me try again, in this article.
I discovered meditation last year in distance learning with Dr. Laurie Santos’ Coursera MOOC, The Science of Well-Being. As part of the course, I committed to 10 minutes of meditation daily, using audio from Soundcloud, Spotify, and YouTube. The first few days were boring, I was easily distracted, and it felt like a burden. However, I eventually started getting the hang of it, and opening my eyes after each session became a soothing and refreshing experience. It worked so well that I treated it as an instant calm-happiness pill: whenever I had some free time between classes (or during class, since we had online school at the time), I would put on my headphones, pick a random meditation and press play.
Around a week into meditating, I discovered the great diversity of genres within meditation: aside from mindfulness (focusing on the present moment), there are also ones for loving-kindness, resting in general, sleeping, napping, walking around, and the list goes on. So you don’t have to get all spiritual with some cross-legged monk pose; my favorite ones probably all involve lying down.
Duration varies too: I opt for short ones between 6-10 minutes usually, but some nap meditations can go on for an hour or more.
I found noticeable results in how I felt more present, aware, and in-the-moment, leading me to generally appreciate small things around me that I tend to ignore (things like nature, food, and the smell of the living room). Of course, diminishing marginal utility applies (meaning that you can’t do ten meditations in a row and feel ten times as happy and calm), and just because it works for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. And don’t be dissuaded by one or two bad meditations: I know ones that say some horribly stupid things that can make you burst out laughing.
With my purely anecdotal evidence, I hope I’ve convinced you that meditation can be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. All that you need are headphones, a comfortable spot, and a meditation track (feel free to try this one on YouTube). Good luck, have fun!
Senior Editor: Hanjing Wang '24
Graphic: Lucy Chen '24
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