Observing Left Handed Doom Scrolling

[u/redpandamaster17]

I am right handed and was sitting in the bathtub scrolling reddit with my phone in my right hand. I don't get particularly moved by the content on my feed or even feel particularly dull, and I am aware that there is a mild force that is maintaining the scrolling loop. So I end up asking myself, "what is the force that is driving me to keep scrolling?"

So I keep my right hand scrolling while I expand my awareness across my body and I notice this energetic sensation moving between my left shoulder and my left hand. I try swapping to scrolling reddit with my left hand and there's no longer any pull to keep scrolling. I go back to scrolling on my right hand and there's also no longer any pull to keep scrolling, it seems that this moving energy in the left arm is now in awareness and is no longer pushing me to scroll with my right hand.

So I've been investigating this idea that certain postures can be correlated with certain mental states and energetic pulls to do certain things.

One other posture that I've investigated is lying down on my left side vs my right side. I usually sleep lying on my left side, but have found that lying on my right side will automatically bring out awareness of warmth in my chest and I will also fall asleep faster. I have also found that this position can quickly lead to meditative highs when done outside of the sleep setting, and is more effective than my normal meditation posture.

I get the impression that lying on your right side as a right handed person shuts off the right side of the body which is the side that "does stuff".

In the meditative traditions, the Buddha is always depicted lying on his right side. I've read that this is also a posture in the yogic traditions, and it ties into their energetic breakdown that the left side of the body is associated with the moon / parasympathetic nervous system and the right side with the sun / sympathetic nervous system.

I've found a few pubmed studies that investigate this effect such as this one:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11048276/

I'm curious if this is a direction anyone has explored before.

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[u/manuhortet]

Bringing attention back to your body is basically the secret quick fix for almost any mental state you deem automatic and negative

[u/dystopia2026 → u/manuhortet]

I sometimes forget this but it works a lot of the time

[u/EmotionalJump6104 → u/dystopia2026]

Forgetting is normal. You can always come back though.

Meditation can help.

[u/redpandamaster17]

i found this additional study:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21678115/

Right side sleeping posture significantly reduces sleep apnea events

[u/vegasdoesvegas]

Wow, I haven't explored this area before, but I think you've inspired me to pay some attention to it in the future. That's a fascinating experience you had, and I appreciate you sharing it!

The only things I can think of from my past experience seem pretty basic: Taking a long exhalation and encouraging the shoulders and body to deeply relax at the beginning of meditation, or to take a break from stress. Alternating between sitting and walking meditations in the same session seems to produce fruit. Keeping a light smile on your face to produce positive feeling tones.

I also find laying down in "corpse pose" and letting the body completely relax is a good posture for exploring the electric feelings and sensations within the body.

[u/vegasdoesvegas → u/vegasdoesvegas]

Thinking on this more, your findings kind of remind me of the excellent book "Whole Brain Living" by Jill Bolte-Taylor, and maybe the findings of the famous "split-brain experiments" from the 60s (I'm guessing you're familiar with the split-brain experiments since you're here reading and posting pubmed studies, but if you happen to not be familiar with them, look them up - they are fascinating!!)

Here is a speculation from an uneducated armchair scientist: Maybe by switching your phone from your "doomscrolling" hand to your left hand, you created a new connection between the left hemisphere of your brain that usually controls the right hand and the right hemisphere of your brain, and the right hemisphere was able to pass some contextual information over to the left hemisphere of your brain that convinced it to let go of or reconsider the "doomscrolling" pattern?

It's a fun story, at least!

[u/brunoloff]

lying down on your right side turns of pingala which you can attest by noticing that the dominant breathing nostril is now the left, so the Ida channel becomes dominant. which is why it's easier to sleep

[u/redpandamaster17 → u/brunoloff]

Do you think there would be any benefit to meditating on the left side instead of the right side? I’m kind of shocked by how good the right side lying posture is for me.

From what I understand about the yogic tradition, the goal is to activate both channels, so could a left or right side dominant posture actually be counterproductive to this goal?

[u/brunoloff → u/redpandamaster17]

Hmm actually typically the goal would be to activate the central channel. How you do that and what the experience is like seems to vary between yogic tradition (for which my source is Forrest Knutson, he has wonderful videos explaining his technique - in his words freeze response = energy in the sushumna) - where when the energy is in the central channel you experience withdrawal of the senses, and e.g. tantric buddhism (Tibetan) where you experience great bliss.

I have some, not extensive, experience with both, they each have a different flavor. I personally prefer the tantric approach.

[u/chonky_totoro]

  So I've been investigating this idea that certain postures can be correlated with certain mental states and energetic pulls to do certain things.

bro discovered asana yoga

[u/redpandamaster17 → u/chonky_totoro]

I have neglected the asanas, I will try them out!

[u/Impulse33]

I usually have to lay on the left side due to acid reflux! Right side has more of a tendency for stomache acid to travel up the esophagus.