I’m definitely not one to promote any sort of esoteric things within Epicurean Philosophy, but the brief discussion in the music thread got me wondering if anyone here practices mediation as a therapeutic discipline? Not to attain any metaphysical goal, but rather as a form of relaxation and centering?
As I said in the music thread, I listen to ambient music to detoxify my brain (to get music ear-worms out, to muffle the sound of news chatter etc.) and to relax. In the past I tried various forms of meditation, especially during my George Harrison-like Eastern philosophy journey. Usually those forms of meditation have some metaphysical goal attached to them as in Buddhism and Vedanta which now are very unappealing to me. One form from Chinese philosophy made the most sense for me. The “quiet sitting” technique that is used by Taoists and also historically by Confucians, was the most beneficial. As opposed to visualizing anything, the idea is to let go of all visualization and mental phenomena and attempt to trance out. Kind of like putting your brain into a hibernation mode to clear away noisy thoughts. This particular mediation works well for me as long as the environment is without distraction. But again, I also can do something similar with headphones listening to ambient drone.
So does anyone else do any practices?