Afraid Of Meditation? You’re Not Alone!


If your afraid to be alone with your thoughts, and the idea of sitting down to meditate sounds scary – you’re definitely not alone!

A new study, lead by Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia, shows findings on how people prefer electric shocks to being alone with their thoughts.

Matthew Hutson of The Atlantic tells us all about it in his story:

They report on 11 experiments. In most, they asked participants to put away any distractions and entertain themselves with their own thoughts for 6 to 15 minutes. Over the first six studies, 58 percent of participants rated the difficulty at or above the midpoint on a scale (“somewhat”), and 42 percent rated their enjoyment below the midpoint. In the seventh study, participants completed the task at home, and 32 percent admitted to cheating by using their phones, listening to music, or doing anything but just sitting there. (In the lab studies, one participant’s data was tossed because an experimenter had accidentally left a pen behind and the subject used it to write a to-do list. Another’s was tossed because an instruction sheet had been left behind and he used it to practice origami.)

Participants rated the task of entertaining themselves with their own thoughts as far less enjoyable and more conducive to mind-wandering than other mellow activities such as reading magazines or doing crossword puzzles.

In the most, ahem, shocking study, subjects were wired up and given the chance to shock themselves during the thinking period if they desired. They’d all had a chance to try out the device to see how painful it was. And yet, even among those who said they would pay money not to feel the shock again, a quarter of the women and two thirds of the men gave themselves a zap when left with their own thoughts. (One outlier pressed the button 190 times in the 15 minutes.) Commenting on the sudden appeal of electricity coursing through one’s body, Wilson said, “I’m still just puzzled by that.”

These findings may sound very strange at first. But if you’ve ever tried to meditate – even for a minute – you might have noticed how many thoughts pop up in your head wanting to interrupt.

And I bet they are not all happy thoughts.

So how do we deal with this? Certainly electric shocks is not the answer?

Wilson favors the “scanner hypothesis”: Mammals have evolved to monitor their environments for dangers and opportunities, and so focusing completely internally for several minutes is unnatural. “It would be a little odd to see a chimpanzee posed like Rodin’s thinker for extended periods of time,” he said.

To test the idea, Wilson and his collaborators gave some subjects just a bit of external distraction—a rubber band to fidget with. In other experiments, they told some subjects to monitor a computer screen that would occasional display relevant messages. Compared to enjoyment in the regular thinking task, these alternatives had muddled results—sometimes they led to more enjoyment, sometimes less, sometimes the same amount. Discussing the scanner hypothesis, Wilson noted that the researchers don’t yet have strong evidence, but, he said, “I’m convinced it’s correct.” Anecdotally, reverie’s not so hard when you’re exercising or knitting or staring out the window.

In addition to chasing the scanner hypothesis, Wilson’s team hopes to see if practice makes the task easier. They did find a small correlation between meditation experience and ability to entertain oneself, and they suggest that control over one’s thoughts may be one appeal of meditation.

While the researcher’s hypothesis is yet to be explored, and I have my own hypothesis about how it’s more to do with our modern life detachment from nature and our inner self – the cure is simple.

As Wilson hinted at, meditation is the key.

Through ongoing meditation practice we can train ourselves to not be frightened and disturbed by our thoughts – but simply observe them from a place of relaxation and peace.

You can start today by exploring our article on “How To Meditate In 3 Simple Ways“.

Read the full article here for more on how people prefer electric shocks to being alone with their thoughts.

Are you afraid to be alone with your thoughts? Please comment below…

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