Top Ten Reasons To Start Meditating Today

This is such a great article and I am also a firm believer in the power of meditation. It's amazing how such a small time, out of our day, can greatly change our mind, our body, and our life. Thank you for pointing out 10 great reasons to meditate, everyone should take it to heart and start doing it today.

Thanks again!

This is a good list, and my hope is it will help people get started or stay motivated.

But the one thing you don't mention, maybe because it is so hard to put into words is meditation changes you at a fundamental level. You still want health, better emotional balance, and so forth, but these aren't the goals any more. You develop a core of inner well-being, and from that springs genuine kindness for others as well as yourself.

This is a really great top ten list Jerry. A friend of mine got me into a regular meditation routine and I can't believe I didn't try it sooner. I am always more relaxed which has not only reduced my blood pressure, but also has made me more successful at work. Anyone can post their own list to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

@Dayne - thanks for the kind words!

@Carole - it will take approximately 9 to 14 months of daily meditation practice for it to make you sexier. If you miss just one day the clock starts over.

@Mahala - you are totally correct, it is impossible to put into words the fundamental change that happens in your perception after doing regular meditation for a while. I am just at the beginning of my practice having only been doing it for two years and look forward to even deeper changes. I'm not at the point yet where I am "goal-less" and I also see that you cannot set a goal to become goal-less.

@Kelli - I am not a meditation teacher so cannot offer you any personal instruction. The best idea is to find a local group of meditators (every large city and many smaller ones have them - google it) or to start here at Shambhala Sun. http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=161 .

@Vince - that is awesome that meditation helped you become healthier. makes me happy.

@Lindsay - I work in film and television and was getting very excited once about a great review of one of my shows in a newspaper. Someone with more wisdom than I leaned over to me and said "If you believe the good reviews, you also have to believe the bad reviews." I look at the world the same way. When things are good we try to hold on (grasp) and worry about when they are going to start decaying - i.e. we are deeply concerned about the impermamence of things being "good/happy". But when things are bad, we seem to have no problem grasping strongly onto the situation, and believe that not only are things bad they are going to get a whole lot worse.

I don't know if this is a modern phenomena or human nature, but my advice is this: All things change, all the freakin' time. Recession, unemployment, hard faces are as much part of life as abundance, joy, and spaciousness. You need no further proof that things will change then to think of yourself and your world five or ten years ago (or five or ten seconds ago) - everything's different and yet your awareness is still present and able to make the most appropriate choice, if you've developed the tools to do so and choose to. At core, your awareness/observer is always flickering with the same steady intensity; it's when I start to layer my judgments, hopes, expectations, fears, etc that I get deluded about the true nature of my experience.

keep hope. the world is a beautiful, magnificent, terrifying and sun-filled place. meditate, put on some great music, dance, run, write to others to ask how they are feeling as you've done, talk to some of those people with hard faces about how you can hope together. share your fears. eat some chocolate.

and know that despite all of that, no matter what you do, there are going to be dark days and light days.

Great list, Jerry. I would add, based on my own philosophical slant, a caveat in the form of #11:

We do not practice meditation with any of the wonderful benefits of it (as listed in #1-10) as ends, for we approach the means as the only end. In this way, we simply act and we do so without attachment.

Hi Jerry,

Thank you so much for your beautiful reply to my comment. Last night was a rough one -- I got very little sleep and was pretty consumed with thoughts and pains and uncomfort. But, the ability to write to you inspired me to keep breathing through it all...and waking up this morning to read your message just speaks truth in volumes. I love that you reminded me to look five/ten years ago at my life, or five/ten seconds ago, to see that things are constantly changing.

Thank you for the ability to connect to you. I still haven't found a comparable community to the ID Project out here in Calif, and this blog reminded me that we do all live in "one city" and all I had to do was reach out.

Bless you Jerry. I miss you all.

@ Mu - I did not understand the idea of goal-less-ness until well into my practice so I was trying to avoid bringing it up here. But point well taken.

@ Lindsay - so glad I could be here to communicate with you , and thank you for sharing so intimately with us. Ethan's book One City is a great one to help through dark times - he's a really smart, contemporary and light-hearted teacher.

@ Mahala - thanks for sharing the resource!

Thanks Jerry! Great inspiration to come back to when I get off my practice.

Keep up the good work!

@AZ #13 - Meditation makes your food taste more delicious!

#15 Meditation makes you more light-hearted and brings more laugher into your life.

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.