Have you read "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’? Thought it would be up your alley, wondering if it’s worth the read.
Almost missed this thread (I normally on look at the top few). Yes, I’ve read it and am aware of the principles. It’s interesting stuff, but further research has called into question some of the findings. I actually had a professor in college that treated the book as her Bible and was disheartened when the reserach came out that way. It’s an interesting read, but like I said the science (if I recall correctly) isn’t the best. So I’d probably recommend reading something else, but I think you’d enjoy it.
please elaborate. what specifically has been refuted by the research?
I would like to know too. I’ve read the book and try to apply it throughout my life. I don’t have any deep scientific belief in the findings except that they “feel good and seem effective” so I’d be curious what the research says.
I’ll have to go pull up the academic search engines later, but the basic premise of the critiques of positive psychology as a whole (which flow falls under) is that they have poor experimental design and often aren’t isolating variables. There is a copy of the Positive Psychology Harvard lectures taught by Tal Ben-Shahar floating around on the internet if you want a broad introduction to this type of study.
yo rawraw,
I’m looking into heart rate variability training devices like the inner balance sensor from HeartMath. Ever look into these? Thoughts on their usefulness?
I have zero knowledge about this, but I am now interested and will research after House of Cards ha ha. I’ll share any thoughts. Still yoga/meditating?
So this stuff is supposed to have the same effect as meditation but you get there at a quicker pace, like a bio-hack. I’ve been doing meditation on and off, so damn cold it’s tough to get up before dawn. I’ll pick up the morning routine when the weather gets warmer.
On one hand I find it interesting, because it is a way to quantify progress. But on the other hand, it seems like it may not be achieving the exact same result. It is focused on heart rate, which is *correlated* with meditation. But I’d suspect your heart rate can slow from just taking deep breaths and day dreaming pleasant thoughts, where as meditation is about a focused attention on the present moment. I’d almost be scared it’d encourage bad habits. I looked for some studies on this stuff but didn’t find anything.
right, there’s more to meditation than controlling heart rate. i guess the point of this type of training is to be able to identify when your sympathetic nerve system (fight or flight response) is taking over and to eventually be able to stop it by controling your HRV. Being able to do that has clear performance advantages in stressful situations. But i guess there’s not much research supporting the use of these devices being able to do what they say they can.
…there’s a great book called ‘On Combat’ that I plan to read that addresses this topic.
Wait, so do you wear these things all the time? The couple I saw seemed to be used when your sitting down next to a computer. But honestly, meditation and learning to ‘watch’ your thoughts should have the same result in training. It allows you to be seperate from those emotions, meaning ultimately the duration they exist is reduced. Lately I haven’t been formally meditating, but just continuing to do mindfulness activities during every day activities (washing dishes, showering, walking through the city on the way to work, etc). I’m not sure if I’m progressing the same as concentrated meditation, but it seems I haven’t lost any benefits either. I need to start again soon now that my schedule is more normal