The Dopamine Detox Challenge *(Science Based)*

Day 2/30

Today was a little more difficult than yesterday. I've been trying to figure out a way to approach YouTube usage, since
I don't want to lose it's beneficial and positive contents. Today, for instance, I only used it to listen to some music while working/studying. Maybe a good rule is to do as follows: YouTube is only allowed if you already know what you're gonna watch/search on its realms. This way I think one can escape from it's algorithm, which tries at all cost retain attention and user time. More on that topic on the next days.

 

@Innervision

YouTube is a tough one man! I've been trying not to watch anything longer than 10-15 min and just being mindful of what I click on. Sometimes I see something in my feed that I want to watch but then I realize it's nothing that's useful at that particular time and then I don't click on it or if I do, I just go back to something meaningful or leave YouTube altogether. We've definitely got the algorithm working against us. Good luck!

 

Dopamine Detox Day 3 - April 28 2020:

Rough day today, for reasons not related to this challenge. Still managed to stick to doing meaningful things only though. I didn't get as much work done as I wanted to, I spent too much time on YouTube watching workout videos but they were really inspiring and I was okay with giving myself a little treat after a really rough morning.

 

Day 6

 

Day 3/30

Today was a smooth one. I managed to keep focused on my work and other positive activities. One more win against the vortex of time thieving that is YouTube and social media in general.

 

This is my kind of challenge. I need to build up some stamina in my schedule to manage this. I will be back fellas. Love this.

 

Hello everyone, I want to join. I will try to abstain from
0. PM/P-Subs/edging.
1. Movies/ T.V. series.
2. YouTube.
3. All social media.
4. Carby/ sugary foods.
5. Video games.

Of course not counting NoFap as a social media. So this is Day 0.
Please @Bihari add me to the list! Thanks!

 

Add me @Bihari

 

Day 0
Reset

 

Dopamine Detox Day 4 - April 29 2020:

Rough day again today, dealing with some health issues. Still managed to stick to doing meaningful things only. Still didn't get as much work done as I wanted to, I spent too much time on YouTube again, watching training related videos but I learned a lot so it was definitely worth it.

Also didn't do as much meditation practice as I wanted to today, but I think that was okay, because I might've been doing a little bit too much lately and I feel more refreshed now that I had a lighter day. I might need to do shorter sessions more often and just do more sitting, see how that feels.

Generally, a bit of a lighter workload day it seems but I think I needed it. Didn't follow my schedule as much as I would like to. We'll see how much I can still get done tonight. Still just happy that I'm only doing meaningful things in my day and not wasting as much time.

 

Day 4/30

I'm loving this challenge! I feel having much more energy and time to do things that I value as important and significant. Instead of wasting time/energy on external stimulus, I can develop activities that enables growth, conscience, awareness and development. For months I've been feeling FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) from artificial external stimuli, but know I'm slowly moving towards JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). Keep focused, friends!

 

Out of curiosity, how long are your sessions of meditation, on average? I try to maintain it about 15-20 minutes everyday, focusing on quality over quantity.

 

My sessions are usually around 1 hour to 1.5 hours. I try to do a few of those every day. Usually about 3 sessions these days but I'm aiming for 4. 1 hour per session is my sweet spot but I'm trying to do a little bit more for the next few months.

15-20 minutes per session is perfect I think, if you're only doing sitting meditation. If you do multiple of those throughout the day, you can make some real progress.

 

Hello there. I am a meditation newby. I've mostly looked at mindfulness meditation. I saw that you mentioned "sitting meditation", what would be the other kind of meditation?

Wow man, so you do anything between 3 and 6 hours of meditation each day. That's a lot!!!
Do you have any tips, any good resources on meditation?

Sorry for all the questions, I am really curious about meditation, I want to implement it more in my life.

 

Well, there are many different kinds of meditation. When I say "sitting meditation" I personally mean "just sitting" as opposed to more elaborate forms of meditation or meditations where you're trying to cultivate a particular state of mind. There are also forms of movement meditation like walking meditation and bowing in the Zen tradition, Shaolin physical training, etc. so you can say those are different from sitting meditation but actually the technique is quite similar.

So when I say "just sitting" I'm referring to unelaborate practices, where you're just becoming familiar with the mind. Practices like mindfulness of the breath etc. Basically mindfulness-awareness practice. Mindfulness practice is the starting point for all forms of meditation, as far as I'm concerned. It's really the essence of all forms of meditation. So it's good that's how you started.

I practice meditation according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, so any advice I can give you will come from that angle, but I'll keep it secular in this post. Anyone can benefit from those meditation practices anyway, it doesn't matter what your religion is or if you have no religion. It's just about being fully human, really.

So, if you want to progress in your meditation practice, my advice would be to really focus on Shamatha or Calm-Abiding meditation at first. It's probably very similar to the mindfulness meditation you're already practicing. I recommend using the breath as the object of your mindfulness at first. I would recommend to do as many sessions of 15-20 minutes of that per day as you feel comfortable with.

I tend to recommend people to look to Mingyur Rinpoche for teachings on Shamatha, especially since I don't know where you're located. Mingyur Rinpoche has one of the best online meditation programs out there, in my humble opinion. And you can make it as secular or as Buddhist as you want. He also has lots of videos on YouTube.

When your Shamatha develops, the Vipashyana, or insight, aspect of your meditation will develop naturally and you will start to discover what the mind really is. That's where things really start to get interesting.

After a while, the Shamatha and Vipashyana aspects of your meditation will merge into a single experience, which is the essence or basis of experience itself actually. If you want to get to that level of insight, it's good to work with a teacher who can guide you there. Otherwise it's very difficult and you can make lots of mistakes. Some of those mistakes could be really detrimental to your wellbeing, so I highly recommend you work with a teacher if you want to go beyond Shamatha. That's the safest and smartest way to do it.

Beyond Shamatha-Vipashyana, there are other forms of meditation. If you want to keep it secular, those would mainly be meditations to develop loving-kindness and compassion. All of that will also help deepen your practice of Shamatha-Vipashyana. The deeper your unconditional love for all beings, the deeper your insight into the nature of your mind will be.

In the Buddhist tradition, there are also forms of meditation that are like guided meditations in text form. Those are very powerful, but they require a bit of experience and study of Buddhist philosophy to really get the most benefit from them.

If you're really serious about meditation, I highly recommend visiting some meditation centers of different traditions in your local area to see if you can find a good teacher. My own background is in Tibetan Buddhism, as I said, so if that's something that you think might appeal to you, I highly recommend you look into it. It's extremely valuable and has been the best thing that happened to me. But, I don't want to push you in any particular direction so it's best you go and discover for yourself what's out there and really analyze all the different traditions and see who you think is correct and/or a good fit.

Hope that was a good introduction. Meditation is a huge topic so I'm definitely happy to discus it more if you'd like to. It's my main focus in life so I'd be happy to help.

 

Thank you for the very elaborate response, I appreciate it. I will definitely try to understand more about the many kinds of meditation you described, and try to slowly grow my meditation experience.