Hacker News Books

The 9 books mentioned in the video are as follows:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

2. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

3. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

4. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

5. The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

6. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

7. Mastery by George Leonard

8. Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn

9. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

I can't recommend his "Mindfulness for Beginners" book enough. Although I've been "meditating" for years, this book is packed with subtleties that are easily missed. In other teachings, it can be very difficult to separate religious dogma ("all you need is love, man") to the things that actually make a difference, scientifically, to your practice ("bring gentleness and kindness to the process").

One line especially made me realise I'd missed something important for years: Be aware "as if your life depended on it". That's about it.

The best resources I have found are books, audio tracks, a good meditation app and discipline. In regards to the latter, the hardest thing about meditation is consistently doing it.

Books: "Calming the anxious mind" by Jeffrey Brantley, "Mindfulness: An eight-week plan for finding peace in a frantic world" by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, "Mindfulness for Beginners" by Jon Kabat-Zinn (my favorite), "Wherever you to there you are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Audio: The second and third book both have cds or downloadable tracks. The audio tracks are a good way to start.

App: Insight timer. I have been using it for years.

Most of these books approach meditation from a non-religious approach.

You might want to peruse some of the research on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy; there's reasonably good evidence that it outperforms conventional CBT for patients with chronic or recurrent depression or chronic pain. There are also some interesting neuroimaging studies that suggest that regular meditators have increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and reduced activity in the amygdala, which are both associated with psychological wellbeing.

Mindfulness is simply the practice of awareness, which encompasses a wide range of activities. The classic example is awareness of the breath - noticing the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, noticing the sensation of air passing through your trachea, noticing when your attention wanders away from your breath and noticing how your focus returns to it. A technique often used with pain and anxiety patients is body-scan mindfulness - carefully notice the sensations in the soles of the feet, then the ankles, then the calves etc. You might notice and categorise your subjective experience in real time - this is a thought, this is a memory, this is a physical sensation.

Mindfulness has become a bit of a fad and is often poorly taught by inexperienced bandwagon-jumpers, which is unfortunate for a practice that pre-dates Christianity by several hundred years. If it does interest you, I'd suggest just trying it out, because it's sort of impossible to meaningfully communicate the subjective experience of mindfulness. Read Mindfulness for Beginners by John Kabat-Zinn or Mindfulness: A Practical Guide by Mark Williams, set aside fifteen minutes a day to practice and stick with it for a month.

I have not practiced in a long time, but the core idea of mindfulness meditation is to enjoy the "right here right now". If focusing on your breath isn't for you, you can focus on something else that puts you in that state, like closing your eyes and simply listening to the sounds around you.

This should help in quieting your inner monologue. When you find your brain trying to restart that monologue, just acknowledge that it happened and refocus. Remember not to think of these events as somehow being bad or failing since then you are dwelling on the past, just refocus without judging.

Edit: you may find this presentation that Jon Kabat-Zinn gave at Google interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

I also found his audio book "Mindfulness for Beginners" very enjoyable. The second cd contains 2 guided meditations which may help you get started.