I learned a life changing concept in my design course last week.
The human brain is not very good with working memory. Or, for whatever reason, it has lost this skill. So it is important for designs to minimize the cognitive demands on the user. In web design you make problems easier by making the learning environment support the learning of the problem.
In meditation this is what we are doing. Minimizing the cognitive demands for a certain period, so that insight is more possible.
I tried this in running yesterday, and it was miraculous. Because my mind was only focussed on the task of keeping to the correct technique, my run was easier. My body immediately solved whatever misalignment, or tension in my body that was sapping my energy.
Something happened over the last year that has burdened my mind with obsessions and anxieties. It's been hard to meditate. But I'm wondering if the challenge of meditation has been that I've never quite understood the need for meditation. I understand the benefits, but I've never really understood the essential problem it resolves.
But mindfulness is exactly that, creating an efficent uncluttered interface for the working memory to be well supported.
