Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years, but the rise of guided meditation apps like Headspace and Calm has given even beginners a starting point to find balance.
Anastasio says the term “meditation” is a blanket term that may seem like one thing, but it’s actually not nuanced enough; what even counts as meditation is up for debate.
Anastasio is a traditionalist, so for him, guided meditations offered by apps or YouTube clips are not meditation, music is not meditation, visualization is not meditation, contemplation is not meditation, and prayer is not meditation.
So what is meditation?
According to Anastasio, it can be divided into two categories: concentration techniques and mindfulness techniques.
In concentration techniques, the practitioner focuses on one object of attention, such as a nonsense word or phrase. Breathe in, then breathe out while saying the nonsense object of attention.
Take the mystical phrase “Om” for example. Om is a meaningless syllable. It has no meaning to the culture from which it originated. The object of attention should not be associated, because the mind acts as it pleases and follows the path that the thought takes.
Given the cultural and even stereotypical associations of “om,” Anastasio said, even a nonsense word like “Sharlin” could be used.
Mindfulness techniques come from the Buddhist tradition, in which practitioners pay attention to the ongoing flow of experience and simply observe what happens. They sit steady, attentive, and as comfortably as possible. There are formal postures, but they are not always necessary or practical.
“Most Americans would break their femurs trying to get into that position,” Anastasio joked about the lotus pose.
In other words, concentration techniques try to ignore the world, while mindfulness techniques try to pay more attention to it.
As humans, we live in a world of constant notifications, both neurological and digital, so turning them off completely seems ideal — this is one of the goals of focus techniques.
“Some people just want to get away from reality,” Anastasio says. “Concentration techniques, as far as I’m concerned, are disassociation techniques. There are ways to disassociate yourself that are more harmful than ways to disassociate yourself that are more beneficial.”
Still, Anastasio is no fan of concentration techniques, nor does he subscribe to the separation model.
“You can cut yourself off from the world, but what good is that to anyone?” he said, “and what good is it to yourself?”
Once the definition of meditation is split into two, what remains is mindfulness.
From a traditional mindfulness perspective, all that exists is concrete experience in the present. Mindfulness techniques allow you to see the world as it is. Practitioners become keen observers, bridging the gaps between perceptions.
“You feel an itch,” Anastasio hypothesizes. “What happens next?”
The standard response is to brush it off.
“You’re not paying attention,” he said. “If you were to pay attention, you’d notice that this perception, this sensation that you call an itch, begins to irritate you. And the more you want to scratch it, the more irritated you feel, and so you scratch it. All pain starts like this, whether psychological, social, or moral. That’s the sequence.”
These chains of events happen so quickly that they often go unnoticed. The goal of mindfulness is to learn how to be more mindful.
“Start with five minutes,” Anastasio says, “and just watch your breath in and out. That’s it. Over time, you’ll find you can continue for longer and longer periods of time.”
Anastasio began practicing at age 29. He found himself sitting for an unbearably long period of time, seven minutes.
But at the height of his training, Anastasio was meditating six to eight hours a day, which suggests he couldn’t run a marathon without training, or sit through it until the end. He now meditates two hours a day.
“You have to be able to tolerate discomfort, be convinced that what you’re doing is good, and keep doing it until you see results,” he added.
This isn’t to say that paying $69.99 for a year of app-based meditation isn’t worth it. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that Headspace use improved depression in 75% of studies that evaluated it as an outcome. Results were mixed for mindfulness, well-being, stress, and anxiety, with 40% of studies showing improvement for each.
While Anastasio might not consider guided meditation to be meditation, it can still be helpful: it simply surrenders your mindfulness to a disembodied voice rising from within.
“This is my own experience, but I never get depressed, anxious or angry about anything,” he says, and it’s all thanks to paying attention to his breath.
“Meditation is the simplest thing, but not the easiest.”
