Meditation is one of the oldest forms of self-regulation and is not just limited to sitting and observing your breath.
Regulation comes in all forms and was provided by the religions before science took the spotlight and we were told to stop jiggling our legs, rocking, humming and chewing gum.
Any form of repetitive motion is regulation, so long as you focus on the motion. I will focus on the conscious embodied type with my protocol.
The basic function of meditation is to create a ‘latch’ so that your dopamine system can achieve regular signalling. Regular dopamine signalling is what enables us to process thoughts and release emotions, even encode memories. Irregular dopamine signalling is what results in them getting trapped in our minds and our bodies, and why we struggle to release trauma.
Since religion is not an option for many of us, I will sciencify it.
Higher levels of dvar mean that your system is more agitated and you need higher levels of stimulation to stay on task.
A dysregulated dopamine system means naturally higher levels of dvar. This is why we flit around, unable to focus, or why we can’t get a thought out of our mind at night. You become both unable to sit still and unable to stop ruminating about why you can't sit still.
With all forms of meditation I recommend *not* setting a timer and *not* setting a target. This is likely to become yet another agitator of your dvar; another way to push yourself too hard or wind up feeling inadequate. You want the meditation to be the only latch.
All meditations should be done alone. You can have music for the high-dvar meditations but I recommend having quiet for the mid- and low-dvar ones because they are more subtle and for calming down the smaller vibrations that remain in the body.
This is the mechanism of meditation, regulation, whatever you want to call it.
Vipassana sitting meditation is just the microscopic ‘last step’ for increasing granularity of perception and it is not necessary for daily regulation.
Even chewing gum is a form of meditation. Jiggling your leg. This is why both of these things enhance performance in exams and at school - they give us a regular flow of dopamine which enables better memory consolidation and access.
So:
identify your dvar value
choose a meditation based on that value
step down the meditations as your dvar decreases
call it a day whenever you feel better
Simple.
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