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Peter_de_Blanc comments on Ureshiku Naritai - Less Wrong
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It's not like I never tried it because I was like, "Oh, that sounds understimulating". I've tried meditating, and it was understimulating and I was in a bad mood for a considerable period afterwards trying to get the crick out of my back and haul my brain back into a more suitable level of interaction with the world.
This won't help with the understimulation, but to avoid the crick in your back you can try sitting in seiza.
Seiza has got to be one of the least comfortable possible ways to sit. Unless you count things like "on top of stalagmites" as sitting methods.
From Blackadder:
Aunt: 'Chair'? You have chairs in your house?
Edmund: Oh, yes.
Aunt: [slaps him twice] Wicked child!!! Chairs are an invention of Satan! In our house, Nathaniel sits on a spike!
Edmund: ...and yourself...?
Aunt: I sit on Nathaniel -- two spikes would be an extravagance.
I think I smell a generalization...
For me, sitting in seiza is more comfortable for the upper body (compared to sitting cross-legged), but less comfortable for the lower body. The latter has been less of an issue as I've had more practice.
When I meditate I sit in a chair. I find the standard postures highly uncomfortable, and they cut off my circulation. My body had never been very flexible, and I broke my back a couple decades ago, an injury which still somewhat limits what I'm capable of.
I don't meditate regularly but I have done a fair amount at various times. (About half of my immediate family is buddhist.) The idea of calming down the internal monologue is attractive to me, but meditation has never put me in a noticeably different state of mind. I feel the same an hour into it as I do right when I sit down.
I get a crick in my back when I try to do anything that could be described as "sitting up straight".
Tentatively offered, but there are methods of physical luminosity (Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Cheng Hsin) which might be useful. They're all based on making the best use of the body you've got, and especially the first two are very clear about not fitting your body into a predetermined shape, but instead getting better access to your innate ability for self-organization.
You're the second person to recommend Alexander Technique; if I run into a non-expensive way to try it, I shall.
Not AT but something similar and free online vids is "Intuflow", for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMPqP7hxRk
I've done a little with IntuFlow and it looks very good to me-- I intend to do more with it. However, it doesn't strike me as much like Alexander Technique.
Feldenkrais is the easiest one to check out cheaply because there are huge quantities of solo awareness through movement exercises available.
Somatics is good, and the whole book (except for the pictures, which may not be essential) is free at google books.
Ruthy Alon's Mindful Sponteneity is excellent-- only partially available online, but there should be enough for you to see whether you're interested.