Meditation

I’ve been practicing meditation for a while now. I don’t meditate for as long as Yuval Noah Harari, who practices it for about two hours a day and does extended retreats each year. My sessions are typically 5–15 minutes, which I can do whenever I have a short break, often before starting work for the day. Even brief practice can help: controlled studies show that a single 10-minute mindfulness session can sharpen executive attention and reduce mind-wandering.

Some people might wonder what the point of meditation is. To me, the biggest benefit is learning to limit “automatic reactions”—reactions without properly thinking about things.

Let me explain further. When we meditate, we’re asked to focus on our breathing. It’s not easy, as various thoughts about the past and future instantly arise—this is a natural brain function. The key to the practice is not to make our brain stop generating such thoughts (that’s impossible), but to observe these thoughts without engaging with them. Clinically, this capacity is called “decentering”: noticing thoughts and feelings as transient events in the mind.

For example, when I meditate, a thought about what I should do today often comes up. If I engage with it, I start thinking about that task and forget about my breathing. If I manage to simply observe, I can think “ah, my brain generated an idea about this task, but let’s leave it there,” and go back to concentrating on my breathing.

If we keep practicing this, we can reduce automatic reactions. For example, when I come across an attractive person on the street, I can observe myself thinking “ah, this person has triggered an emotional reaction in me.” When I encounter abrasive behavior from others, I can think “oh, this person’s behavior is about to trigger my irritation.” These observations help me avoid being hijacked by my senses and external events. Once I manage to observe my emotions and feelings, I can deal with them quite objectively.

This helps me in two ways. First, it keeps my mind peaceful and stable regardless of the external environment. Second, it helps me focus on subjects without being influenced by my emotions. These are precisely the domains where evidence is strongest: mindfulness training improves working memory and test focus partly by curbing distracting thoughts, and brief sessions can quickly reduce state anxiety.

These days, there are many programs (including online ones) to help us start meditating, and I hope many people will try it.