Every Benefit of Meditation

It’s interesting, isn’t it?

An ancient spiritual practice is becoming mainstream. It’s not hard to see why. The many benefits ascribed to meditation are attractive to spiritual seekers and entrepreneurs alike.

For most people in the West, it’s not about reaching enlightenment.

Meditation is a way to rid themselves of suffering, be it physical, mental, or emotional. In the most general way, meditation is a way to live a better life.

Physical Benefits of Meditation

Studies show that regular meditation can reduce acute and chronic pain.

A meditation practice can improve your ability to deal with pain by not fighting the sensations. You learn to accept the pain and keep your breathing deep and steady.

Often chronic pain is associated with stress and other emotional tension. Meditation can reduce stress and help you deal with emotions better. As a result, chronic pain reduces and often even subsides completely.

The best way is to deal with pain with meditation is to first fully identify with the pain, and after having embraced and felt the sensations, disidentify from them.

The result will be less identification with the pain. This may even enable you to let go of the pain completely.

Better Sleep

Another benefit of meditation is better sleep.

The effect can be acute. Meaning meditating before bed can help you fall asleep faster. Yet meditation also improves your sleep quality in the long term.

If you, for instance, have trouble falling asleep, meditation can do the trick.

By relaxing deeply and calming the mind, you’ll easier tap into a state of peacefulness. This then leads to falling asleep easier. There is plenty of guided sleep meditation that can work well.

Studies show that regular meditation practice is a viable treatment for insomnia. The more you practice meditation the more it will become embodied. Meaning you carry your meditation practice into every activity during the day.

Less Muscular Tension

Meditation practice is an awareness practice. You try to be as aware as possible of what is happening.

While muscular tension always has an emotional component, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of the moments where you are tensing up.

One well-established benefit of meditation is reduced stress. And because psychological stress often triggers tension, reducing stress also reduces physiological tension.

Decreased Blood Pressure

Studies have shown that meditation is a natural treatment for high blood pressure.

Through meditation, you learn to activate the relaxation response, which is the opposite of the “fight or flight” response.

Most physical ailments have their cause on the mental, emotional, and spiritual plane.

For instance, lacking a sense of meaning in life may lead to increased stress on yourself. And this in turn leads to physical tension, pain, and higher blood pressure.

The promise of reduced stress and anxiety is probably the main reason why most people start with meditation. It certainly was one of the reasons why I started meditating.

Many studies confirm the positive effects of meditation on stress and anxiety (1, 2, 3, 4). For instance, mindfulness-based stress-reduction and open awareness are powerful meditative tools for reducing stress and anxiety.

The most powerful effect is when a meditation or mindfulness practice becomes embodied. Hence, your practice goes beyond sitting meditation.

This will enable you to deal with every stressful situation accordingly.

More Resilience

Increased resilience was one of the first benefits I noticed after having meditated regularly.

By resilience, I mean being able to deal with things better. Thoughts, emotions, sensations, actions, people, noise, and so on. But also, I could deal with more of all these. Intense emotions, heat/cold, relationships, big crowds were suddenly easier to deal with.

For me, it felt like I was starting to be better equipped for life. I felt like I could take on the world. Situations, problems, and obstacles became less intimidating.

Peacefulness

Peacefulness is another profound benefit of meditation.

Meditation will enable you to become less emotionally reactive. Instead of unconsciously reacting to every situation, you create space between the trigger and your action.

A regular meditation practice centers you in your own being. Hence, external events will not trigger as many negative emotions anymore. And if they do, you’ll remember to observe them instead of identifying with them.

In my life, meditation led to more calmness which translated into peacefulness.

Through meditation, you will be less likely to engage in and create drama. And because you are acting from a place of peacefulness conflicts are easier resolved.

Better Focus

Essentially, meditation is a focus practice regardless of the type of meditation you are practicing. There is always a focus component. Be it focus on your breath, a mantra, your sensations, or your environment.

The way I like to describe meditation is non-focused focus. While focus on a specific object during meditation is a good place to start, eventually, you’ll want to become aware of your experience in the present moment.

You open your awareness to whatever is present in each unfolding moment. This requires a relaxed non-grasping state of mind, and focusing too intensely can be a hindrance.

The good thing is that focus is a transferable skill. If you are good at focusing on your breath, you will also become better at focusing on any task.

Focus, like resilience, is a valuable life skill. Many people report that meditation enabled them to not only focus for longer periods but also made keeping focus more effortless.

Less Mental Chatter

As your meditation practice progresses you will less identify with your mental chatter. And because you’ll identify less with it, you’ll pay less attention to the mental chatter. And if you pay less attention to the chatter, the chatter will decrease.

“Stay in the thoughts. Just be there…You become the center of the thought. But there is not really any center…Yet at the same time, there is…complete openness…If we can do this, any thought becomes meditation.”

Increased Self-Awareness

Previously I mentioned that meditation is mindfulness and focus practice. Both of these can also be translated into awareness practice.

Focus is the art of keeping your awareness on one thing. And mindfulness is the art of being aware of the present moment.

Increased self-awareness is another benefit of meditation. Self-awareness means being more aware of everything that is going on in your field of awareness.

• Behavior that previously was automated or unconscious

• Beliefs that are limiting

• Emotional reactions and their triggers

• Thought patterns

• Your true desires

Self-awareness enables you to live a more authentic life, which leads to more satisfaction and a deeper sense of purpose.

Relieves Depression

Recent studies have found positive effects of meditation for the treatment of depression (1, 2). While depression can be debilitating, it’s a major opportunity for spiritual transformation.

During meditation, you are encouraged to observe your inner space. And accept thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they are without labeling them.

When you experience an uncomfortable thought, for instance, you’ll see that it’s just one thought, not more not less. It’s one possibility, among many, the mind has conjured. You don’t have to take it seriously.

Just observe your thoughts for a day and you’ll see that your mind likes to take both sides.

If your inner voice were your roommate, you’d probably not take him seriously. He changes his opinions and views every moment. One moment he is encouraging, another moment he is discouraging.

Another aspect to consider is that emotional states, such as depression, can persist because you are resisting them. You are not allowing yourself to fully feel whatever wants to be felt. And this is true for depression as well.

Many accounts of enlightening experiences are announced by a deep state of depression. And when despair is greatest, the clouds are suddenly removed and the sun shines forth.

Again, as you first allow yourself to feel the feelings and sensations and then disidentify yourself with your depression, you are well on your way to letting go of it.

Keep in mind, you are more than just your depression.

Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

For most people in the west, meditation is not necessarily a spiritual practice, but a tool for life improvement.

In my experience, however, the longer you practice meditation the more you will be drawn to the spiritual rewards.

Increased Sense of Purpose

Meditation allows you to connect with something transpersonal (beyond the ego/person). This will allow you to see behind the veil of matter.

You will no longer do things just for material gain, but for the value, it brings for you, others, and the world as a whole. You’ll shift from a what to a why.

This also involves a deeper connection with your inner authentic self.

You’ll be more attuned to your creative urges and inspirations. As a result, you will naturally start to unfold your talents and abilities and then use them for the common good.

Deeper Connection

Another spiritual benefit of meditation is a deeper connection. A deeper connection to what you might wonder. Well, to everything really.

Meditation can connect you deeper with yourself, other people, nature, the universe, and God. Your object of focus in your meditation determines the nature of your interconnection.

Hence, immersing yourself in nature may lead to a feeling of connection with the natural world. In contrast, meditating on your deep inner core – your soul – may increase your connection with your true self.

Or meditating on a higher force may connect your more deeply with God or the field of consciousness.

Whatever it is you want to connect to, meditation is a powerful tool for it.

Getting in Touch with Pure Awareness

When you practice meditation in a non-grasping way, you enter a receptive mode.

In this state, you’re not trying to make things happen, instead, you allow things to unfold inside your awareness.

You start this by becoming aware of your experience in the present moment. You open your awareness to whatever is present in each unfolding moment.

And every time you become lost in your thoughts, beliefs, and stories about what it was, what it is, and what it should be, you become aware again.

Practicing meditation in this way doesn’t require you the demonize mental activity.

Once again, the contents of the mind become the vehicle for transformation. By being with the thought, the emotion, and the feeling, you narrow the gap between “yourself” and “your experience.”

Instead of running away from your mental activity, you go “through” it.

In this awareness, you’ll start to recognize those fleeting moments of pure presence – the underlying ground, the emptiness that is fullness.

Higher States of Consciousness

There are a plethora of higher states of consciousness. The description of those states varies depending on the spiritual/religious/philosophical/psychological framework you go to.

But one common theme is that some form of inner work leads to those states. And meditation is a practice that has the benefit of inducing a wide range of those higher states.

Altered states range from No-Mind, over Cosmic Union, to One-Taste. Even if some people may not reach a long-lasting state of enlightenment, if you are dedicated to meditation you’ll sooner or later experience an altered state.

Even a short experience like that may lead to long-lasting transformation. By peaking into another state of being, you may be even more committed to your meditation practice.

Rediscovering Your Unchanging Core

So many people feel lost in their lives or feel like they are not living an authentic life.

If you feel like that, the reason may very well be a lack of connection with your inner world. This inner world is there for you all the time. You just have to rediscover it.

Through meditation, you start to chip away at who you are not.

You’ll find that who you are is not who you think you are. Because who you are on the deepest level is not influenced by your thinking.

As you get closer to your inner core everything else in your life will reflect that.

Your intuition will increase, and you’ll naturally start to unfold your abilities and talents. Hence, you’ll not only discover who you are beyond your personality, but you’ll also get more in touch with your authentic personality.

Being Happier

Regular meditation practice enables you to come into contact with the inner witness of your life. With time, you’ll see the inconsistency, formlessness, and fluctuation of everything.

Meaning you’ll recognize that every experience, and emotion, is transitory.

We believe that happiness is something we have to strive for, but true happiness begins when you decide to be unconditionally happy.

Then you’ll discover that happiness is an underlying field behind all emotional activity. What this means is that you’ll be happy even in sadness and anger.

Emotions are like waves on a limitless ocean. Often we are only aware of the waves and even then we are resisting the waves.

But you can also be aware of the ocean and the waves at the same time.

That way you’ll neither resist the waves nor believe that the waves are the ocean. You’ll be with the vast, open spaciousness of the ocean while allowing the different waves to pass through the ocean.

In this state, you experience true happiness.

Personal Transformation

Personal transformation is not just an individual process. It’s not just being more in touch with the universe and the divine. Personal transformation is also transforming your interaction with others and your environment, and ultimately who you are in this world.

Meditation can bring about true personal transformation.

Through meditation, you discover more about yourself and develop traits like kindness, compassion, and generosity towards others and yourself. And these traits will not only make you happier but drastically improve your relationships with others.

Meditation can also connect you with the spiritual world, and this connection can improve your life in the material world.

One benefit of meditation is that it enables you to see the material as well as the spiritual perspective. As a result, you’ll develop a holistic or integral perspective about life.

How to Get the Benefits of Meditation

To experience every benefit of meditation mentioned, regular practice is necessary.

This doesn’t mean that you have to meditate for hours every day. A few minutes is enough. Yet as soon as you build the momentum, you’ll look forward to your daily meditation. It will become the best part of your day.

Meditation is like a seed. The more you cultivate a seed with love, the more it blossoms.

No matter how busy you are, taking the time to meditate is absolutely worth it. And, paradoxically, with regular meditation, you’ll feel like you have more time.

So dive deep into yourself to enrich your life.