14 proven benefits of meditation

Meditation is one of the most happening things across the world. We see CEOs, actors and actresses, entrepreneurs, political leaders, sports celebrities meditating and talking about its benefits. Some of the doctors, too, are recommending patients to meditate when diseases are the result of day-to-day stress. Many research studies are conducted on people who meditate regularly, and these studies have confirmed that regular practice of meditation offers several benefits. Today, let’s understand what meditation is.

Planet Earth has millions of species, and human species is one of them. The ability to think is what makes human beings the most superior species on this planet. This thinking capacity made us invent airplane and fly like a bird or swim like a fish or live in deserts or forests. Thinking is critical and essential for human survival and happiness.

It is estimated that an average person generates 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts per day, which amounts to 2,500 to 3,300 thoughts per hour. And the strange thing is that most of these thoughts are repetitive and unimportant, which don’t add any value to our lives.

We started thinking right from the stage when we were a fetus, and our thinking does not take a break. It goes on and on and continues in sleep, too, in the form of dreams. We think even when there is no need to think, and for many of us, thinking is an addiction which is not under our control. Even when we want to stop it, we cannot stop it.

Any machine, when it is continuously used without a break, eventually loses its efficiency. The same is with our mind and thinking process. When we continuously think for years together without a break, we lose the sharpness and efficiency of the greatest ability given to us – thinking. So, it’s highly imperative to give a break to our minds and sharpen our tool of thinking.

How to give a break to our minds? One commonly tried method by many people is to try not to think. But when we close our eyes and try not to think, that’s when a greater number of thoughts bombard us. So, “trying not to think” does not work. A systematic process is needed, which can train the mind and gradually take it into the state of no thoughts. This process should help us use our thinking ability when we need it and to shut it off when we don’t need it, just like how we use a car. This systematic process is called meditation.

Meditation is a process that takes the mind gradually into absolute stillness. In this state of absolute stillness, one experiences the state of no thoughts, no emotions, no tomorrow, no yesterday. Just stillness of the mind, with a deep mindfulness of the present moment, is experienced by the meditator. This state of deep silence is one of the most blissful experiences in life.

This absolute stillness does not happen in one or two sittings of meditation. It takes anywhere from some weeks to months to experience the first taste of deep silence. Like it took us many years to learn to read, it takes some time to train our mind, and this time varies from person to person.

Below are the benefits of the regular practice of meditation.

14 benefits of meditation:
1. It gives you clarity of thought. Life has hundreds of choices, and with meditation, you know which choice to make.

2. You make better decisions in life because your mind got enough rest through meditation, and it has the strength to think productively.

3. You clearly understand what you want and what you don’t want in life. This clarity helps you pursue your dreams and achieve big things in life.

4. You gain mastery over your thoughts through meditation, and this mastery helps you in creating new business or invention or new painting or a song. All the great inventions and businesses in the world are built by people who have mastery over their thinking capacity.

5. It relieves stress and results in better health physically, emotionally, mentally. Many of the modern-day diseases are due to stress, and regular meditation can protect you from such diseases.

Stress
6. It refreshes and recharges you to handle your day-to-day situations.

7. It helps you find solutions to the problems challenging in daily life.

8. It gives you control over your emotions. Emotions play a great role in our life, and when they are beyond our control, they can impact life negatively. Emotional mastery is one of the biggest assets in life and can make you super successful in life. Meditation helps you gain emotional mastery.

9. Relationships improve because meditation helps you choose your words, actions, thoughts, emotions carefully, and impulsive reactions in relationships come down.

10. It improves your productivity in your work and life because of the sharpened mind.

11. Your learning capability is enhanced significantly, and you become creative.

12. It brings you profound inner peace and purpose in life.

13. It helps you become kind and compassionate, and a better human being.

14. Meditation helps you overcome depression and suicidal tendencies.

These are some of the benefits gained by the regular practice of meditation. So, how to meditate?

There are more than 100 types of meditation in the world, and all of them have the same goal – the stillness of the mind. Today, let’s start with the simple form of meditation – mindfulness. Mindfulness is fully being in the present moment without thinking about the past or future. Many of us are mostly either thinking of what happened in the past or thinking of what is going to happen in the future. We are rarely in the present moment.

When you are eating food, mindfulness means being aware that you are eating the food. You are just eating food, not thinking about other things, not watching the TV, not on a phone call, not sending a text message. In simple words, mindfulness means only doing and focusing on what you are doing in the present moment.

The practice of mindfulness is the simplest form of meditation, which you can start right now. You can practice mindfulness on your breath or on any activity you are doing.

There are many types of meditation. You can pick up any meditation that suits you and start practicing it. Don’t wait any more to start on this beautiful journey of meditation. In order to stay on top of the game, it’s important to have a sharp mind. Start your meditation journey right today and gain the many benefits of meditation.

Happy meditation!