4 Reasons to Start Meditation Today

How Meditation Changes Your Life

Meditation is often misunderstood. People seem to think that meditation means one must sit endlessly contemplating nothing. How boring is that? The monkey-mind likes to be constantly in control, so just sitting observing is way too challenging for such a do-junkie. The mind may keeps us busy for lifetime after lifetime. It is up to us to tame it or it will tame us. So the first thing is to change our mindset about this topic and face meditation as daily hygiene for the mind.

“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art won’t to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself.” Marcus Aurelius

Meditation is a state of full presence into the now. It may often be achieved through prayer or mantras or focusing on the breath or by undertaking a mindfulness activity, one of those that completely immerses us into a state of flow where we forget time and space. This state of full presence can be cultivated by closing our eyes and observing the mind thinking. The mind kind of shies away when it feels like it’s no longer in the driver’s seat, but merely being observed.

The scientifically proven benefits of meditation are no secret to anyone these days. Indeed, meditating is to the mind what brushing is to your teeth. When you open the eyes after a few minutes contemplating the mental chatter, you feel as though the soul has been renewed for you understand how you don’t need to identify with the thoughts in your head or act from them: you feel free!

Basically meditation is a way to get some distance between what is happening and who we are, between the do-er and the observer. It is an invitation to harmonize the heart rhythm, to breathe deeply and to relax.

“Inside ourselves there…