There is internal freedom that meditation brings into your life that is soon reflected in your external life. It is hard to see how sitting in one place and doing absolutely nothing can bring about any form of a positive result. However, what comes through practice is a series of side benefits that alter your interaction with your life and, in turn, life gets easier to manage.
I live my life as an adventurer and I crave as many different activities I can without causing harm to myself or to my community. I set about each year defining for myself what sorts of interests I wish to engage in. This goal of life explains my dogged 34-year journey to meditate daily despite the demands of career, family, and community. In my single-minded pursuit to find my own philosophical answers to Life, the Universe, and
Everything, a slew of beneficial side effects from mediation started affecting my life. It is these unintended consequences that have brought about the most significant, positive change for me.
With the amount of press meditation has received over the past few decades, I’m sure at some point you have asked yourself the question:
Why should I meditate?
Here are just a few of the advantages I have found by meditating a small amount each day.
Slowing down: meditation allows you to slow life down and focus on the most important person in your life. You. How can you hear the “small, still voice within” when you have so much stimulus coming from thoughts, your 5 senses, and emotions?
Receiving Clarity: You deserve the clarity that meditation brings. In our highly engaged, busy lives, it is important that we take the time to learn all that we are experiencing and notice the people and events around us with deeper attention. The effect of meditation will improve your experiences and your relationships as you come to understand your own reactions and behaviors.
Quieting the Mind: Meditation by its very practice calms the mind in a gentle way. You are implementing a structure of practice that will guide you into thoughtful solutions you need to create the life of abundance you desire. The power of changing your life rests in these introspective sessions that meditation brings.
Calming the Emotions: There are times in life when your emotions get the best of you. Anger, Fear, Distress, Excitement, Anticipation, Eagerness; our emotions come with a complex bag of flavors and reactions. Through meditation, you can calm those choppy seas and use special breathing techniques to pull yourself out of the darker emotions. Over time you harmonize the emotional rollercoaster you may be experiencing and you notice that life’s challenges no longer affect you so drastically. Your thoughts and emotions begin to harmonize with practice.
Growing in Self-Awareness: In order to bring about the life you crave, self-awareness is key. By learning more about yourself through meditation, you’ll be able to make life-altering decisions from a solid foundation of understanding. By examining your words and your choices in daily life you can’t help but become better each day as you make small adjustments in your behavior with the world around you.
Communicating with the Divine: The most important function of meditation is communication. The ability to communicate with the highest good we can achieve while on this planet. To do that it is necessary to get the bird’s eye view on our life and that is done through viewing our lives through the lens of our Soul or Higher Self. That form of super-conscious communication does not come about through to our awareness through physical or mental means; you need the intuition on this one. That is the territory of the heart and emotions, hence the need to calm them as well as the mind.
As you move about your daily life, observe the words you use to describe yourself, your life situation and your desires for moving forward. What do you want for yourself, your family, and your community? Meditation creates the steady ground for expressing the changes you need to make your future life.
This is such an inspiring post. Thank you for writing it. This is the ‘why’ of meditation, I’d be interested in something you have written on ‘how’ to meditate. I found that when I first began to do it, it was difficult and distractions got in the way. Eventually, though, I found some wonderful YouTube music that I could focus on, together with beautiful images and sounds of nature… these tend to help me focus better.
Thanks for this article, loved it.
Kaye
When it comes to the “how” to meditate, I have learned over 25 different techniques from three different countries and many different teachers. Like many things in life, there is no singular “one” right way to meditate. However, I do have a free 3 Minute Meditation Guide and I will happily write more articles on some of the ways you can meditate. Thank you for the comment and I’ll get your suggestion into my content cue for publication in the next few months.
Welcome Janine! Love this article. It embellishes all the reasons why we should meditate. I think sometimes people are in a state of meditation without even knowing it at times. The inner self needs to be honoured and nurtured really. A true sense of dignity is formulated when we meditate. I like to think I’m with the address of my soul when I spend time with my higher self. It becomes a companion.. the more you allow it ..and eradicates the pressing forces of evil we face daily. Thank you for this piece and sharing it here! Have a great weekend too! Paula
Paula, Thank you for taking the time to read the article as well as comment on it. Meditation started off as the only tool I could find to get the answers I required of life. After learning a multitude of techniques over the course of 3 decades, I achieved the state of understanding my analytical brain necessitated. I’m thrilled you have found similar dignity of self as you merge with the address of your soul. Well done! Oh, and Happy All Saints Day!
Thank you so much! To you as well