First of all, meditation takes time to master if you haven’t already started. The truth is that your mind will wander, you might get frustrated and give up a few times, and you’ll probably feel it’s not working for you as a result of that. I’ve been doing this practice on and off since I was 17, and my mind still wanders. You’ll only realize that this is normal and something you can actually work with once your awareness has enhanced. The key is to notice that your thoughts are all over the place, then bring yourself back to the focused sensation of your choice – this could be your breath, your heartbeat or simply how your body feels in the moment. It makes no sense to get frustrated at passing thoughts since we are always thinking; this is what our brains are designed to do.
The practice of awareness as it pertains to meditation will also serve you well in life. You might notice that you’re spending more money than you should be on unnecessary things. You might notice that you get distracted often when focusing on a task. In any case, you can pick up on small details better than you otherwise would have been able to. And then correct yourself on faults or bad habits, which amounts to an improvement in your life.
Through my own personal experience, I’d like to share some of the benefits I’ve experienced as well as what has specifically been proven to benefit from this practice. Don’t let the negative opinions of others on this topic influence your decision to try it; chances are, these people are either too pretentious to try it at all, or they have tried it only a couple of times and claimed it didn’t work for them because they lacked discipline. Plenty of people like this exist, but upon looking online, you can’t deny that this is a well-documented, popular habit in the personal development space. And for good reason. Here is why meditation will improve your life:
Improves Cognitive Functioning
As with any daily habit, meditation must be implemented for 30 days or more in order to reap any benefits whatsoever. 30 days is known as the optimal timeframe as data concludes this is how long it will take for the habit to have any effect on you at all. That said, once you’re able to see this through, the impact that meditation has on your cognitive functioning is remarkable. I can say firsthand that it improved my memory recall for starters. I have inconsistencies with my memory: sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s brutal. Meditation is one of the habits that have allowed me to recall information that I’ve read, events in my past, and little details like specific information said to me in conversation. This was something I was relieved about because I finally noticed memory improvements; although other habits in my life likely contributed to this as well.
An article by ScienceDirect presented 24 systematic review studies to back their findings on the various psychological and physical benefits of meditation. Among cognitive improvements, another was attention capacity. Meta analyses (which is data collected from a number of systematic reviews to arrive at an indicated trend) of FA and OM-based meditation studies shows positive effects across various attentional measures like concentration, sustained attention, orienting, alerting, conflict monitoring, executive processing, and behavioural inhibition. Basically, your attention to yourself and to outside sources improves. When you need to focus on a task at work, this will come in handy. Deep work sessions for a side project will yield a higher quality. You’ll be more aware of your surroundings when you’re driving. This area of improvement speaks to one of the key reasons why meditation will improve your life.
Improves Emotional Regulation
I find that one of the most useful benefits of this practice for me has been my ability to regulate negative emotions. Naturally, my temperament occasionally leans more toward neuroticism, meaning I am more prone to feeling negative emotion… if my habits and discipline are not in line. Not to say that meditation takes all the credit in mediating this, but it has allowed me to not become so attached to what I feel or think about. I can observe incoming thoughts from my past that normally bring me down, and rationalize with them by reminding myself that I can choose to have power over my mind. You’d have to take this habit on for yourself to really know what I’m talking about.
Mindfulness is a term that goes hand in hand with meditation. It means, the awareness you foster from paying attention to the present moment; as mentioned, your attention can be brought toward bodily sensations, how you feel in the moment or really anything within your immediate space. In one specific systematic review, comprising of 12 randomized control trials and 4 quasi-experimental studies, mindfulness meditation reduced the symptoms of depression, anxiety, mood states, anger expression, and improved quality of life. The study included people experiencing depressed feelings and “non-clinical samples”. Due to the acceptance (as opposed to avoidance) of negative emotions, people are also less likely to react impulsively to events. Considering how common it is for both minor and major problems to arise from impulsivity, this is a major point to be stressed. And yet another reason why meditation will improve your life.
Furthermore, one randomized control trial also concluded that some people who were getting out of a major rut or depressed stage in their life experienced what’s called metacognition as a result of a mindfulness program. This is defined as the ability to decenter from thoughts and emotions, viewing them as passing events and not as something to identify with. As mentioned in the beginning of this section, I felt I had the power to detach from such negative thoughts and retain power over my mind. This is an example of metacognition. Once you truly understand that thoughts are simply thoughts and nothing else, as with emotions, you’ll be able to cultivate an inner sense of power. You are in control of your life, you are in control of what you choose to feel and think about.
Improves Physical Health
You can always make the argument that physical health and mental health are interlinked; if you take care of your body, your mind will be taken care of by extension, and vice versa in this case. As for meditation, there are a range of bodily processes that are improved upon practicing. For one, concentrated or focused versions of meditation were shown to decrease systolic blood pressure levels in 3 studies comprising of 72 people. High levels of blood pressure are more common among the elderly, but that’s not to say there aren’t individuals who are younger and experience the same problem. This is something to keep in mind if that’s you.
Another meta-analysis found that OM meditation decreased resting heart rate by 3.11 beats per minute, which is just behind exercise in this category at 5 beats per minute. You can see why meditation could be seen as exercise as well, and not just a stationary practice. Additionally, OM meditation was seen to slightly decrease C-reactive protein, a type of inflammatory protein. These are produced in your immune system and contribute to inflammation in your body.
What we can derive from all of this data is that certain forms of meditation strengthen your cardiovascular system and lymphatic system. Majorly important bodily systems and processes associated with them are improved. This speaks to a whole new level of importance that this habit will have on your life.
Will Allow You to be More Present
Just 10 minutes a day of meditating, over the longterm, decreases stress, improves mental and physical health, and improves cognitive function. The timeframe is subjective, but the benefits have nonetheless been made clear. Yet another positive to be taken from this practice is the level of presentness cultivated in your day-to day life, and the moments that make up those days. This makes sense when you break it down: a small chunk of time taken out of your day dedicated to letting go of thoughts and emotions by redirecting your attention to anything else in the present moment is, in itself, an act of presentness. Naturally your mind will become used to this feeling even in the moments you’re at your busiest – granted this is a habit in your life and not just a one-time thing you expect to have an effect on you.
In combination with other benefits like improved cognitive functioning, you might find that each conversation, task or leisurely activity is more enjoyable and interesting. This might even include menial tasks you don’t like doing. With a less distracted mind, life will seem better. Each minute you would have otherwise taken for granted is a minute you’ll end up showing more appreciation for. This plays out in your personal life and in your professional life. So aside from the improvement in obvious areas mentioned above, I consider the enjoyment in small moments to be an overlooked reason as to why meditation will improve your life.
That said, relationships with friends, family and coworkers might improve as a result of presentness. In a psychological and emotional sense. I find that I listen more attentively to what others have to say, pick up on social cues more easily and show more empathy. Since your self-image has a high chance of improving, this likely extends to the level of care toward others too. It’s like when people say, “you can’t help others if you can’t help yourself”. A broken sense of identity makes it much harder to relate to, communicate with and consequently maintain relationships with others.