• Sex is to exercise, as meditation is to relaxation.

Unwinding is just a bonus from meditation, basically.

Like sex is good for exercise – technically, yes, but that's sorta missing the point.

Do you love crafting amazing cinematic work, just to find speedy keyboard shortcuts? Didn't think so.

Huh! Ok, so what's actually happening
then?

The science backs up the calming and soothing effects from meditation (see this comprehensive meta-analysis in Psychological Science), so that's all good. (Also, check-out how your brain gets rewired for super-human story-craft in this post).

But here's the good bit:

“Most of what we think we need to unwind or destress from, is just a matter of us practicing to not get drawn in and tangled up with in the first place. “

Try thinking about it like this: the playhead on your timeline doesn't get stressed about what it's ‘seeing’ for the monitor, it's just 'aware' of each frame as it comes and goes, attentive but ultimately unattached – can you imagine a playhead that moved faster or slower depending on what it 'saw'?

Yes, of course, not getting ‘attached’ is way easier said than done – we're an emotional ape, not a sleek bit of heartless software – how do we not get wound up after repeated rounds of contradicting effing notes!?

So wtf to do about it then?

The trick is to practice 'watching' the wound-up-ness come – allowing yourself to feel it, without judgement – and then watch it go again. A lot of meditation instructions use the breath as a stand-in for this:

It comes, it stays, it goes – that's just what it does.

With sharp enough attention you start to realise everything, literally, follows this pattern. Everything.

A good friend, amazing animator, and long-time meditator told me recently:

'I treat thoughts like trains at a station. I let them arrive, I let them depart, I just don't get on. I simply stay at the station.'

Meditation teaches you to detach from the story that ‘you're stressed-out and drowning in notes'. You're actually just 'awareness' itself, watching the timeline unfold. And that's not even 'woo', that's neuroscience (see Metzinger's research on consciousness and self-model theory).

When you practice stopping to identify with the drama on your timeline, unwinding becomes irrelevant. The real and free part of you is not actually wound up in the first place.

 
 
 
 


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I have 1000+ ways to 'unwind', why meditate?


Sex is to exercise, as meditation is to relaxation.

Why? I don’t do ‘spirituality’ and 'woo'

I’ll bet my over-priced chair you don’t actually know what meditation is!

Like how ‘socials’ hijacked and ruined the word ‘editing’ smh - it’s the language that caused a reputation problem.

I, too, am less ‘woo-woo oneness-invisible-connection-to-the-universe’ and more ‘connect-my-effing-skills-and-experience-to-my-bank-account!’

So practically, meditations are these killer, completely free, do it anywhere with anyone for 10-mins-a-day kind of things, for building up crazy-sharp attention, insight and awareness for power story craft.

The additional empathy and patience for bullshit is helpful too.

Let alone the ‘there is no spoon’ moments, which are wild!

The science, results, training and support are all there…

 
 

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