Meditation is one of those activities, which is not really well understood after being done for a first time. You sit in a chair for 10 minutes, only with your thought — what a scary picture huh? and then you open your eyes and… nothing. You do not feel any significant difference.
But still, there are many people who meditate each day, some of them for long sessions (60m +). Why they do it? What is the benefit from it?
Well, I cannot speak for somebody who meditated for eons, but I can speak as somebody, who starts to understand what is meditation probably about.
For me it is all about being an observer of thought, not their slave. As I wrote in previous article, I do have a problem with anger. Sometimes I’ve got angry even without realizing it. There was one great quote from a book called 7 habits of highly effective people which really stuck with me till this day. It goes like this:
Between stimulus and response is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose response. In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.
When I get angry, there is some stimulus (which I do not have to be necessary aware of) to which my natural reaction is anger (which is in most cases automatic). What meditation does in my eyes, it wider the window between stimulus and response. When that window is wider, your chances of realizing your response dramatically increase. You may even get to the point, where you can freely choose all your reactions to different stimuli. And that is a superpower right there!
Wouldn’t it be great to simply choose not to be angry while sitting 2 hours in traffic jam? Or not to be nervous when you are about to experience public speaking? It seems like meditation has some potential to deliver precisely that.
There is a price to pay though. It is a sloooow process which requires time and will test your discipline countless times. Is it something, that you are willing to pay?
Thanks for reading.
Ou and… check out my Instagram! Sometimes I share my current Headspace streak (awesome app for mediation practise) over there. Currently I am at number… well, see for your self ;-)