To wanderer -
Well, as a dude how knows little about meditation, I'll offer this balanced perspective.
We all have an emotional range. And for a reason. It's adaptive. Yes, there are "types". "A-type" personalities that run around stressed and angry
most of the time and thrive on it and those who are calmer and like to be and thrive on it -
most of the time.
But, the key word is
most
No one is one way all of the time. And I'd just take it on assumption that people here and everywhere want the full range of emotions (but their own personal and chosen configuration of the emotional range) and that meditators want to increase their capacity for peacefulness
, harmony, stress-reduction, returning to equilibrium after an upseting event, but do not wish for a brain lobotomy. Do not want to be at complete calmness all the time and unable to experience excitement, thrill, ecstacy, joy, all the good intense emotions, as well as outrage at social injustices, etc. Just as I love both my intensity and my calmer moments.
I'd guess you are worried about over-self control and losing some good intensity. And maybe some who value calmness would over-restrain their anger. But, I assume everyone knows what anger feels like and what useful anger is and that those who value calmness think a safer managing of the situation would be found through their own less intense route.
Anyway, I'm, an unabashed proponent of the full emotional range and developing myself in all directions and utilizing the adaptive qualities of all emotions and admitting within myself all emotions.
My interest in psychoanalys is showing here.
So, if I looked into meditation it wouldn't be for the non-drug equivanent of being on Valium, 24-7, it would be so when life gets under my skin and some bullshit is overwhelmingly, I could return to a healthier state quicker.
But, here is probably why I'm interested in psychoanalysis and have never looked into meditation. I always want to think and work-through a problem, and not empty my mind of all thoughts. Yet, the mind works at more than the conscious level and some things seem to be processed better when we aren't paying direct attention to them. So, maybe meditation can augment thinking and its processing. And maybe a little meditation can go a long way (like unwinding at the end of the day).
Also, some forms of meditation are purposively attention-enhancing (focusing on a single object for a sustained time).
http://www.ncbi.nlm....Pubmed_RVDocSum
1: Trends Cogn Sci. 2008 Apr;12(4):163-9. Epub 2008 Mar 10.
Links Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Lutz A,
Slagter HA,
Dunne JD,
Davidson RJ. Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53705, USA. alutz@wisc.edu <alutz@wisc.edu>
Meditation can be conceptualized as a family of complex emotional and attentional regulatory training regimes developed for various ends, including the cultivation of well-being and emotional balance. Among these various practices, there are two styles that are commonly studied. One style, focused attention meditation, entails the voluntary focusing of attention on a chosen object. The other style, open monitoring meditation, involves nonreactive monitoring of the content of experience from moment to moment. The potential regulatory functions of these practices on attention and emotion processes could have a long-term impact on the brain and behavior.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....Pubmed_RVDocSum1: J Clin Psychol. 2008 Jul;64(7):840-62.
Links Cultivating mindfulness: effects on well-being. Shapiro SL,
Oman D,
Thoresen CE,
Plante TG,
Flinders T. Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA. slshapiro@scu.edu
There has been great interest in determining if mindfulness can be cultivated and if this cultivation leads to well-being. The current study offers preliminary evidence that at least one aspect of mindfulness, measured by the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS; K. W. Brown & R. M. Ryan, 2003), can be cultivated and does mediate positive outcomes. Further, adherence to the practices taught during the meditation-based interventions predicted positive outcomes. College undergraduates were randomly allocated between training in two distinct meditation-based interventions, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; J. Kabat-Zinn, 1990; n=15) and E. Easwaran's (1978/1991) Eight Point Program (EPP; n=14), or a waitlist control (n=15). Pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up data were gathered on self-report outcome measures. Compared to controls, participants in both treatment groups (n=29) demonstrated increases in mindfulness at 8-week follow-up. Further, increases in mindfulness mediated reductions in perceived stress and rumination. These results suggest that distinct meditation-based practices can increase mindfulness as measured by the MAAS, which may partly mediate benefits. Implications and future directions are discussed. Copyright 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Edited by Rags847, 03 August 2008 - 05:46 AM.