Meditation has been around for thousands of years, though the recent uptick in available guided meditation apps, such as Headspace and Calm, has provided mindful novices entry into finding balance.
According to Anastasio, the term “meditation” is a catch-all term that seems to refer to one thing but actually refers to several practices; the term is insufficiently nuanced. What counts as meditation is even up for debate.
Anastasio is a traditionalist, so for him guided meditation — as provided by apps and YouTube clips — is not meditation; music is not meditation; visualization is not meditation; contemplation is not meditation; prayer is not meditation.
So what is meditation?
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, like a meaningless word or phrase. They take an in breath, then breathe out saying the meaningless object of attention.
Take the mystic phrase “om.” Om is a nonsense syllable. Even from the culture from which it arises, it means nothing. The object of attention shouldn’t have associations because the mind will do what it does and follow the path of thoughts as they occur.
Given that “om” has cultural, even stereotypical, associations, Anastasio says that any nonsense — like “shah-ring,” for instance — could also work.
Mindfulness techniques come from the Buddhist tradition, where the practitioner pays attention to the ongoing flux of experience, simply observing what happens. They sit stable, alert and as reasonably comfortable as possible. There are formal positions but they’re not always necessary or practical.
“Most Americans would break a femur trying to get into that position,” Anastasio facetiously said, on the lotus pose.
In short, concentration techniques want to ignore the world; mindfulness techniques want to pay more attention to it.
Human beings live with a constant flow of notifications, neurologically and digitally; turning them off completely can seem ideal — one of the goals of concentration techniques.
“There are those for whom the world is simply too much, and they just want to escape,” Anastasio said. “Concentration techniques, as far as I can tell, are detachment techniques. There are harmful ways of detaching yourself from the self, and some ways are somewhat more beneficial.”
Still, Anastasio isn’t a proponent of concentration techniques; he doesn’t agree with the detachment model.
“You could detach yourself from the world, but then of what use are you to anyone?” he said. “And what use are you to yourself?”
With a bifurcated meditation definition, that leaves mindfulness.
From the traditional mindfulness perspective, all that exists is a present, concrete experience. Mindfulness techniques take the world as it is. The practitioner becomes an astute observer, filling in the gaps between perceptions.
“You perceive an itch,” Anastasio hypothesizes. “What happens next?”
The standard response: scratch it.
“You’re not paying attention,” he said. “If you paid attention, you’d observe that the perception, the sensation that we call an itch, starts to get annoying to you. And then you find it annoying enough to intend to scratch it, then you scratch it. That’s what happens with all pain, whether it’s psychological, social or moral. That’s the sequence.”
These sequences happen so quickly that they often go unnoticed; the purpose of mindfulness is to learn to pay better attention.
“Start with five minutes,” Anastasio said. “Watch yourself breathe in and watch yourself breathe out. That’s all. Over time, what you’ll notice is that you can do it for longer and longer periods.”
Anastasio started practicing at 29. He sat for an unendurable amount of time, and it turned out that that was 7 minutes.
At the height of his practice, though, Anastasio was meditating 6 to 8 hours a day, which goes to show marathons can’t be run — or sat through — without training. He currently meditates for a couple of hours every day.
“You have to have the ability to persist through discomfort and have confidence that what you’re doing is a good thing, and you’re going to keep doing it until it shows results,” he added.
This is not to say that paying $69.99 for a year of app-based meditations is worthless. In fact, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the use of Headspace improved depression in 75% of studies that evaluated it as an outcome. Findings were mixed for mindfulness, well-being, stress and anxiety, but 40% of studies showed improvement for each.
Anastasio might not consider guided meditation as meditation, but it still can be helpful; it just puts mindfulness in the hands of a disembodied voice that can just as easily come from within.
“This is my own experience: I am never depressed, I am never anxious, and I very seldom get angry about anything,” he said, all because he’s paying attention to his breathing.
“Meditation is the simplest thing you can do, but not the easiest.”
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