Why your meditation practice is not working l Kit Laughlin

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So many people want to start meditating, but agonise over what school of meditation, or what lineage, or even what type, with what goal. In this two-hour discussion between Kit Laughlin and Yusef Smith – from Propane Fitness – detailed instructions for how to start meditating are given, and the show notes below will help you find any section of interest.

00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Yusef mentions “Stretching ”
01:45 - we are here today to talk about meditation
03:00 - what kind of mediation is best?
04:00 - basic instructions on how to start meditating
05:30 - learning styles have changed
07:10 - learning from written word
08:15 - follow along stretching programs vs recipe programs
10:15 - I have been meditating for ~35 years
10:50 - the need for simple, follow-along meditation programs
11:00 - what exactly is meditation?
11:45 - the Four Postures of meditation
12:15 - Yusef talks about the Daniel Ingram podcast
13:00 - Yusef talking about Daniel's approach
13:45 - Yusef talk about shortening of attention span in modern era
14:15 - the “Six-second Abs” approach to meditation
14:45 - Kit asks Jusef, “What do you think the meditation project is?”
16:10 - Yusef talks about The Big Picture Medics podcast
17:00 - a surface take on different approaches
19:00 - “Undoing the illusion of self!” and the superficiality of modern takes on meditation
20:00 - “a McMindfulness approach is still better than no approach!”
21:00 - inhabiting the body to develop awareness
21:45 - Yusef talks about the unpredictability of psychedelics
22:10 - Kit: let us go into the detail
23:45 - get started in two minutes!
25:00 - “feel your body” does not connect, for many people
25:50 - Yusef describes his experience with Vipassana retreats
26:30 - most meditator’s primary experience on their first retreat is pain
26:30 - the basic instructions continue
27:45 - the “meditation object”
28:15 - “feel the movements in your body we call ‘breathing’”
29:00 - meditation is an *embodied* practise
30:45 - ‘one-pointed’ awareness as alternative; ‘open awareness’
31:05 - “what is happening now?”
31:45 - as you breathe in, what do you feel?
32:00 - a thought will come into your mind
32:45 - “a bad meditation session”
33:30 - “hold your awareness GENTLY on your meditation object
34:30 - “be nice to yourself!
36:30 - stickiness
37:25 - “unsatisfactoriness vs ’suffering’”
38:30 - experiencing sensations IS being present
39:45 - paying attention to what’s actually happening (not what you think is happening!)
41:10 - your body only has one language
41:50 - we are not trained to attend to sensations
42:15 - the most important things in this life are what the body experiences
43:30 - thought as a ‘time stamp’
44:20 - “I'm not a meditation person”
45:50 - “I’m speaking to an audience of typical Westerners”
46:45 - “There’s no such thing as a ‘bad training session’”
49:00 - “I’m a knowledge worker”
49:45 - Kit’s recommendations for Yusef’s practise
50:15 - lying relaxation/meditation
51:20 - why Kit recommends a lying practise
51:45 - learning meditation is about unlearning many habits
53:00 - Kit’s first insight
53:45 - relaxation is just another habit
55:20 - humans are more dog-like, than cat-like
56:45 - Yusef on how being relaxed can become the new norm
57:15 - the thought stream
58:45 - Kit’s experience on retreat in Berkeley
1:03:05 - why it’s so important to be able to relax
1:04:05 - “I don’t have to be, or do, anything"
1:07:00 - a few quick questions
1:08:00 - pay attention to *what’s actually happening now*
1:11:30 - importance of comfort in stretching
1:13:30 - life-changing skills
1:14:30 - not adding anything
1:17:30 - breath counting
1:24:15 - experiencing serenity in the body was life-changing
1:24:30 - mantra
1:28:00 - Yusef mentions “neural down-regulation”
1:29:30 - the difference between being relaxed and deeply relaxed
1:31:30 - sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
1:34:30 - the importance of being aware that one is relaxed
1:35:45 - engaging with reality directly
1:36:10 - difference between non-attachment and detachment
1:37:00 - anger
1:41:45 - the ‘dis-ease’ of being you
1:43:45 - Yusef’s final question: what should we *not* do?
1:48:00 - what do you want out of your life?
1:51:00 - Kit chastises Yusef’s reading style!
1:51:50 - the book "Essentialism”
1:52:30 - knowing what you don’t want
1:55:00 - being a beginner by choice
1:58:30 - Rousseau’s great quote

Kit was talking to Dr Yusef Smith, the co-owner of Propane Fitness, and himself a keen meditator. Find him here: