You have probably tried meditation at some point in your life. Most people meditate to reduce stress. They use it as a way to calm the mind or improve their health.
But I am going to talk about "un-meditation." You may wonder what that means. Even if you do not recognize it immediately, I am quite sure that you are practicing it far more than you think. And that is exactly what I am going to explain.
But I am going to talk about "un-meditation." You may wonder what that means. Even if you do not recognize it immediately, I am quite sure that you are practicing it far more than you think. And that is exactly what I am going to explain.
Let us begin with a common problem that all of us face — stress.
Different people may have different reasons for becoming stressed. But in most situations, the underlying biological process remains almost the same. Before moving further, let us briefly understand this basic mechanism behind stress.
Stress does not occur only in humans. Animals experience it too.
When an animal sees a predator rapidly approaching it, its eyes send a sequence of images to the brain. These images provide information such as how close the danger is, how fast it is moving, and from which direction it is coming.
The eyes send these images one after another to the brain, almost like the frames of an old movie reel. The brain must quickly analyze them and estimate the level of danger.
Each of these images is encoded inside the brain as patterns of neural activity. And there is a continuous stream of such images arriving one after another. As the predator gets closer, these captured images keep changing. Naturally, the brain's response also changes according to the evolving situation.
The animal must either fight the predator or run away from it. This is what is called the "fight or flight" response. In either case, the body needs more energy in the limbs. This increased energy requirement is met through increased blood flow.
The heart rate rises in order to pump more blood to the muscles. Correspondingly, the breathing rate also increases. All this becomes possible through the automatic release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. At the same time, the brain must remain highly alert to track the movements of the enemy.
This rapid neural activity and constantly shifting attention create stress in the animal. The release of hormones prepares the animal to face the danger.
This is the stress scenario of a lower life form, where the primary cause is usually physical danger. But when a more evolved being like a human undergoes psychological stress, a very similar pattern repeats itself. Because in both cases, neural activity increases and attention keeps shifting continuously.
Our thoughts are also encoded in the brain as neural activity. And thoughts have a peculiar property — they multiply rapidly. These thoughts must connect various regions of the brain in order to carry out their activity.
The attention center of the brain creates the necessary pathways for this communication. Therefore, every thought competes for attention.
Since thoughts can be numerous and many of them occur simultaneously, the attention center becomes disturbed by this competition among thoughts.
Now the brain enters a situation very similar to that of an external attack. The cause may be different, but the internal condition inside the brain remains similar. Naturally, this too triggers the release of stress-related hormones, even though there may be no real physical need to fight or flee.
But if these hormones continue to be released for long periods, they can create serious problems. They are meant only for emergency situations. Prolonged psychological stress can therefore contribute to many health problems.
So how does meditation help?
What do you do when you meditate?
You focus your attention on a single object or activity. As you continue sharpening your attention, something important happens:
In this way, meditation gradually reduces the number of thoughts and ultimately calms the mind. A calm mind means less stress.
A calm mind protects you from the harmful effects of stress. The practice of meditation strengthens the brain's ability to remain focused on a specific activity. Better concentration naturally improves performance in whatever you do.
In that sense, meditation achieves two things at once:
That is a brief explanation of what meditation does and how it helps reduce stress.
But today, all of us are constantly exposed to the distractions of social media. Many people have become addicted to endlessly consuming YouTube Shorts, WhatsApp messages, Instagram Reels, and similar content.
A moderate use of social media is not necessarily harmful. It can even be useful. But what happens when you become a slave to clickbait?
Most content on social media is designed to be attention-grabbing rather than deeply informative. The creators of such content are often more interested in capturing your attention than in sharing genuinely useful knowledge.
As a result, your mind is continuously flooded with rapidly changing and mostly unnecessary information. Correspondingly, your attention keeps shifting rapidly, along with the flow of thoughts being triggered.
The human brain is not designed to handle this kind of relentless activity efficiently.
The result is:
In reality, you are doing the exact opposite of meditation.
Instead of sharply focusing attention on a single target, you are constantly trying to chase a rapid stream of thoughts and stimuli. Excessive media-onsumption gradually weakens the brain's ability to concentrate. Eventually, it may even interfere with your normal daily functioning.
Compare these two situations carefully.
Before meditation, you intentionally prepare the mind by sharpening its power of concentration. Then you apply that concentrated mind toward a single target. You continuously refine and strengthen attention. As a result, the mind becomes calm and the causes of stress gradually fade away.
But when you force the mind to continuously focus on chaotic and rapidly changing information, the exact opposite happens.
This is what I call "un-meditation."
So do not practice un-meditation.
If you do, you may be causing serious harm to your own brain. Use social media in moderation and with clear purpose. Do not become a victim of clickbait.
Different people may have different reasons for becoming stressed. But in most situations, the underlying biological process remains almost the same. Before moving further, let us briefly understand this basic mechanism behind stress.
Stress does not occur only in humans. Animals experience it too.
When an animal sees a predator rapidly approaching it, its eyes send a sequence of images to the brain. These images provide information such as how close the danger is, how fast it is moving, and from which direction it is coming.
The eyes send these images one after another to the brain, almost like the frames of an old movie reel. The brain must quickly analyze them and estimate the level of danger.
Each of these images is encoded inside the brain as patterns of neural activity. And there is a continuous stream of such images arriving one after another. As the predator gets closer, these captured images keep changing. Naturally, the brain's response also changes according to the evolving situation.
The animal must either fight the predator or run away from it. This is what is called the "fight or flight" response. In either case, the body needs more energy in the limbs. This increased energy requirement is met through increased blood flow.
The heart rate rises in order to pump more blood to the muscles. Correspondingly, the breathing rate also increases. All this becomes possible through the automatic release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. At the same time, the brain must remain highly alert to track the movements of the enemy.
This rapid neural activity and constantly shifting attention create stress in the animal. The release of hormones prepares the animal to face the danger.
This is the stress scenario of a lower life form, where the primary cause is usually physical danger. But when a more evolved being like a human undergoes psychological stress, a very similar pattern repeats itself. Because in both cases, neural activity increases and attention keeps shifting continuously.
Our thoughts are also encoded in the brain as neural activity. And thoughts have a peculiar property — they multiply rapidly. These thoughts must connect various regions of the brain in order to carry out their activity.
The attention center of the brain creates the necessary pathways for this communication. Therefore, every thought competes for attention.
Since thoughts can be numerous and many of them occur simultaneously, the attention center becomes disturbed by this competition among thoughts.
Now the brain enters a situation very similar to that of an external attack. The cause may be different, but the internal condition inside the brain remains similar. Naturally, this too triggers the release of stress-related hormones, even though there may be no real physical need to fight or flee.
But if these hormones continue to be released for long periods, they can create serious problems. They are meant only for emergency situations. Prolonged psychological stress can therefore contribute to many health problems.
So how does meditation help?
What do you do when you meditate?
You focus your attention on a single object or activity. As you continue sharpening your attention, something important happens:
• The brain's attention center remains steadily engaged because it is occupied with a single target.
• Thoughts generated in the brain fail to receive attention. Attention is what creates the neural pathways needed for thoughts to spread their activity through different parts of the brain.
• When thoughts are deprived of attention, the required pathways are not formed. Without those pathways, the activity of thoughts gradually weakens.
• Weakening thoughts become less capable of generating further thoughts.
• Thoughts generated in the brain fail to receive attention. Attention is what creates the neural pathways needed for thoughts to spread their activity through different parts of the brain.
• When thoughts are deprived of attention, the required pathways are not formed. Without those pathways, the activity of thoughts gradually weakens.
• Weakening thoughts become less capable of generating further thoughts.
In this way, meditation gradually reduces the number of thoughts and ultimately calms the mind. A calm mind means less stress.
A calm mind protects you from the harmful effects of stress. The practice of meditation strengthens the brain's ability to remain focused on a specific activity. Better concentration naturally improves performance in whatever you do.
In that sense, meditation achieves two things at once:
- It reduces stress.
- It improves mental concentration.
That is a brief explanation of what meditation does and how it helps reduce stress.
But today, all of us are constantly exposed to the distractions of social media. Many people have become addicted to endlessly consuming YouTube Shorts, WhatsApp messages, Instagram Reels, and similar content.
A moderate use of social media is not necessarily harmful. It can even be useful. But what happens when you become a slave to clickbait?
Most content on social media is designed to be attention-grabbing rather than deeply informative. The creators of such content are often more interested in capturing your attention than in sharing genuinely useful knowledge.
As a result, your mind is continuously flooded with rapidly changing and mostly unnecessary information. Correspondingly, your attention keeps shifting rapidly, along with the flow of thoughts being triggered.
The human brain is not designed to handle this kind of relentless activity efficiently.
The result is:
• The brain begins to process information superficially rather than deeply. Instead of understanding things properly, it starts searching merely for patterns.
• To cope with constantly changing information, the brain trains itself to shift attention rapidly over short intervals.
• This weakens our ability to remain focused on one thing for a sustained period.
• Excessive neural activity eventually pushes the mind into stress.
• To cope with constantly changing information, the brain trains itself to shift attention rapidly over short intervals.
• This weakens our ability to remain focused on one thing for a sustained period.
• Excessive neural activity eventually pushes the mind into stress.
In reality, you are doing the exact opposite of meditation.
Instead of sharply focusing attention on a single target, you are constantly trying to chase a rapid stream of thoughts and stimuli. Excessive media-onsumption gradually weakens the brain's ability to concentrate. Eventually, it may even interfere with your normal daily functioning.
Compare these two situations carefully.
Before meditation, you intentionally prepare the mind by sharpening its power of concentration. Then you apply that concentrated mind toward a single target. You continuously refine and strengthen attention. As a result, the mind becomes calm and the causes of stress gradually fade away.
But when you force the mind to continuously focus on chaotic and rapidly changing information, the exact opposite happens.
• more mental activity,
• more shifting attention,
• more stress,
• and perhaps even a permanent weakening of your ability to regain deep concentration.
• more shifting attention,
• more stress,
• and perhaps even a permanent weakening of your ability to regain deep concentration.
This is what I call "un-meditation."
So do not practice un-meditation.
If you do, you may be causing serious harm to your own brain. Use social media in moderation and with clear purpose. Do not become a victim of clickbait.
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© Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2026
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