Why Mediate? (feat. the Flobots)

“I can ride my bike with no handlebars. No handlebars... No handlebars”

What is meditation and why should you try it? I think the answer lies in the 2005 hit song ”Handlebars” by the Flobots. To those who have heard it, this might sound like a terrible metaphor. It’s a manic, almost stressful song of self-aggrandizing delusion. It features lyrics about all the amazing things the singer can do (like “I can make new antibiotics”, and “I can do anything with no resistance”), interlaced with a catchy and comparatively calm hook (quoted above). However, the song (intentionally or not) perfectly describes meditation. Let me explain.

Whenever I sit down to mediate, I look at a little notecard with the words “Shake the Narrative” scrawled in red sharpie. This sets my intention for the session: to quiet the constant commanding chatter of my executive mind. I try to sit for 10 minutes and stop the incessant planning, self-flagellation, and judgment. I lose control and watch what happens… in other words, I’m “removing the handle bars from my mind”.

That sounds pretty dumb. Why would you do that?

Well, there are a few reasons. First, maybe it’s just me, but the guy on my shoulder who’s constantly trying to control everything gets pretty old. Making him shut up for ten minutes is really refreshing. However, there is a deeper and more practical reason than “chasing inner calm”.

I’m sure you’ve heard of “Deep Work”, a productivity method based on cutting all distractions and getting lost in your important tasks. This is a great approach, especially in these days of thinning attention. 

In my opinion, Deep Work is the same exact thing as meditation. The only difference is meditation focuses on the breath and Deep Work focuses on… well, work.  Before a work session, I look at the same “Shake the narrative” note card that I use to meditate. I am setting a similar intention: to “shutdown my executive mind” and coast without control, just long enough to engage fully with the work at hand. 

This is counter-intuitive; that relinquishing control actually leads to better discipline, but it makes sense when you think about the process of working. I’m sure everybody has had this experience:

 You’ve procrastinated on a challenging project for a long time, and you finally sit down to do it. You feel a deep resistance to starting, all you want to do is get up and indulge in the nearest distraction. But... you persevere.  You stick it out for 10 minutes, and you finally make it over the hump. All of a sudden you realize the task you’ve been avoiding isn’t that bad, even enjoyable.

In my opinion, the game of productivity is to beat that 10 minutes. The conventional strategy is to force yourself to the laptop and “play whack-a-mole” with thoughts and distractions until you get momentum. This strategy is obviously tiring, hard and incredibly unpleasant. Meditation, on the other hand, let’s you side step the whole painful process.

Meditation’s approach to curbing distraction is simply shutting down the guy who would get distracted. I use the skills from mediation to focus calmly on the work in front of me. I notice the thoughts and feelings pulling me away and recognize them as appearances in consciousness, just like the sensations of breathing and sounds. Slowly, the linguistic narrative complaining about my work fades away, and whenever it comes back, I see it as a sensation like any other and move on.

Notice that mediation sessions are conveniently about 10 minutes, exactly the amount of time it takes to get over the productivity hump. The point is if I can keep up a meditative state for 10 minutes, I can neutralize the pain of starting long enough to actually start.

Interesting... but how?

For this, let's return to the Flobots. Remember, we are seeking a state of mindfulness with weak executive control... which is exactly analogous to riding a bike with no handlebars. Riding with no hands requires a tuned sensitivity to your body's momentum and constant subtle corrections.

 A semi-regular meditation practice lets you balance the “bicycle” of thought. People often say they feel “centered” after a session, articulating that they won't fly off the rails the second they let go. You watch your thoughts and feelings carefully in a controlled environment, trying to notice when a distraction takes hold. You watch yourself start to fall and make corrections, just like bicycling. 

So I hope you will give meditation a shot. However, if you do, you’ll inevitably find yourself discouraged. It feels impossible to focus on attention for any period of time, much less 10 whole minutes. So when that moment of self-doubt hits, I want you to remember these 4 things about riding bicycles (and meditation):

1. You can’t strong-arm yourself into riding a bike without handlebars. It takes practice... and crashing. You need to get comfortable with the sensation of falling to effectively correct it (I joke that meditation is watching yourself crash for 10 minutes)

2. Riding a bike with no control is a pretty dumb thing to do for itself. All this is just an exercise in self mastery. How good a cyclist will you be if you can ride with no hands? Watch professional cyclists, they eat and drink effortlessly in the middle of a ride. Imagine the utility of not needing an iron grip on the handle bars all the time. (Meditation is a means to an end)

3. Riding with no handlebars is the hardest way to ride a bike. The easiest way is to focus on a stationary object somewhere far away, letting your subconscious automatically adjust steering to track it. By removing these crutches, you are forcing yourself to understand how to stay balanced with inward, directed attention. (There is a reason why everybody gets lost in their work occasionally, but no one accidentally meditates. If you have an engaging, tractable task and a goal to keep yourself oriented, focus is easy, almost natural)

4. Most of the time, you will have handlebars, so if you never perfect riding with no hands, it’s not a big deal. (So don’t beat yourself up if you can’t meditate right away. It doesn’t matter if it takes a lifetime to perfect, as long as you try. The stakes are relatively low)

So if you go ahead and listen to that Flobots song, it should take a new meaning. The verses discuss grandiose skills and world domination, but the hook focuses on the seemingly silly task of riding a bike with no handlebars. But it’s not silly, because a calm command of your “vehicle” is clearly a prerequisite to greatness. That’s why you should meditate, because your mind is the only vehicle you truly have. 

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this!