Sometimes people ask me why I meditate, or have specific questions or misunderstandings about meditation, and my answer seems to vary depending on what I've experienced that day or how that morning's session went. But I have noticed that I offer some of the same answers over and over, and so here are my top ten reasons anyone should start a meditation practice today.
1. Meditation makes you calmer.
By offering you tools to deal with stress and stressful thought-patterns,
meditation helps you develop the option of remaining calm if you so
choose.
2. Daily meditation offers you a sense
of connection to all things by helping you notice that there is an observer
beyond your usual understanding of the term "observer".
3. Meditating helps you deal better with
anger, desire, lust and other potentially intoxicating emotions.
4. Being a regular meditator does NOT
mean you no longer experience emotion; your experience of emotion just
becomes keener and more subject to choice rather than habit.
5. Meditating regularly leads to an increased
sense of empathy and compassion, towards others and towards yourself.
6. Becoming a regular meditator will
increase your creativity, creating more space for new ideas to arise
and to be noticed, and lowering any resistance you may have to new concepts
and ways of thinking.
7. Meditating makes you healthier. Not
only does it help you become aware of how to handle pain and illness
better, but scientific studies show that "Meditating slows breathing
rate, heart rate, and blood pressure and heart rate. Some evidence suggests
that meditation may also aid treatment of anxiety, depression, high
blood pressure and a range of other ailments." (Mayo Clinic)
Anecdotally and personally I can concur that all of this is true.
8. Daily meditation will make you smarter
by growing your brain. A 2005 Harvard Medical School study showed that
"Brain regions associated with attention, sensory awareness and
emotional processing -- the cortex -- were thicker in meditators. In
fact, meditators' brains grew thicker in direct correlation with how
much they meditated".
9. Meditation is a great to deal
with your psychological "junk", offering a great option on
its own or in combination with any form of therapy. By noticing your
thoughts arise, and recognizing that they are just thoughts, you slowly
peel away the layers that cover your true self.
10. Meditation is an excellent adjunct
to any spiritual or religious practice, and can be a gateway to deeper
spiritual revelations and the essential meaning of interdependence.
Combined with my study of Buddhist philosophy, my experience of daily
sitting practice is that it offers a complete spiritual path that integrates
seamlessly with my daily life.
Bonus benefits: Meditating makes you sexier, brings you new spiritually aware and cool friends if you join a group (or visit the IDP podcasts online), and can save you money through the side effect of reduced consumption.
All this and more for just ten to twenty minutes a day. I can honestly say that beginning a daily meditation practice has been one of the most positively life-effecting decisions I've ever made. If my ten reasons for why you should start a daily practice gets you meditating even for one, two, or five minutes today, I will be deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of your decision.
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@AZ #13 - Meditation makes your food taste more delicious!
@Jerry #14 it's good for indigestion.
#15 Meditation makes you more light-hearted and brings more laugher into your life.
Wow! your website have the great information aboutmeditating.I'm sure I wiil be back agin.
Hey Jerry, I loved your response to Lindsay. Totally on the money. I'm one of those tragic "creative" types and I've struggled with positive and negative interpretations of my efforts. A lot of them from me believing the negative, being too hard on myself and sending me into major depression. But conversely I've never felt comfortable getting buoyed by positive reviews - it's a great quick win for the ego which I do believe is important, but then it can become a monster, as is the ego's want.
This line: "If you believe the good reviews, you also have to believe the bad reviews." is brilliant.
That is such a succint explanation of the whole problem.
I've started to realise that getting good comments or lots of comments isn't really what fulfils me, it's my pride in creating something honest and worthwhile, no matter if people like it or not.
Anyway, just wanted to share. Keep it up yeah.
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