Benefits of Meditation

The act of “meditating” to me has always been a concept far from my reach. In health classes, as students, we would hear how meditation, yoga, etc. are healthy ways to start your mornings or ways to improve your daily life. While there was a basic understanding of the benefits of meditation, I never had the patience (or incentive) to do so.

But then, I was tasked to write about meditation. Like most, I had a basic background on meditation, as well as the stereotypical ideas around it. I’ve tried meditation before in the past though it was something that simply didn’t stick. My first attempt at mediation was after I watched a video by one of my favorite youtubers, Matt D’Avella. Back in May of 2019, he made a video called “I meditated 1 hour everyday for 30 days.” Throughout this video, he shares his meditation experience. He starts the video off by explaining how he’s the perfect candidate for someone to be into meditation.

While I am no youtuber, filmmaker or minimalist, I am a college freshman. I also run my own organization and am partnered with a few others which makes my life packed. Between classes, studying, friends both on campus and back home, family and my outside work, I learned early how important it is to develop habits. Specifically, habits that assist your mental wellbeing. My morning routine has become a safe haven and moment of reflection. Usually, I wake up around 6, take a shower, eat breakfast, make some coffee, read and sort through emails and daily work for the day. The reason why meditation didn’t work well for me earlier was because I too (like D’Avella said in his video), never put it as a priority. But just as Matt did in his video last year, I thought it would be more beneficial to try meditating daily. So for almost three weeks now, I have done fifteen minutes of meditation each morning.

The first thing I learned is that meditation is not sitting in silence and thinking about nothing. In fact, it’s the opposite. Firstly, according to spirituallyinspired.co, meditation’s goal is to be “fully immersed in the present moment.” It’s not thinking about what’s not in your life, but rather taking a step back and appreciating what is in the moment. One of the main results of meditation is awareness, which comes straight from the goal itself. To meditate, I used an app called “Oak.” While many meditation apps on the app store cost a monthly prescription, “Oak” is one of those few meditation apps that is free. However, if you would rather spend a few dollars on a more customized experience, check out “Headspace” or “Balance.” But Oak still gave plenty of personalization, such as choosing the background sound, voice, and “focus” to assist in being aware of surroundings. Which again, is the overall goal of meditation. I learned that meditation is about appreciating the moment.

“The moment” means appreciating the air you breathe and focusing on the things that you sense. It’s taking a step back and being completely focused in the moment. The thing that scares most people away from meditation is the stigma that it’s sitting in silence while thinking of nothing. In the first practice of meditation with “Oak,” we are told that thoughts arising during practice are welcomed, and we’re told to “acknowledge it and let it go.”

Outside of me practicing meditation for ten to fifteen minutes every morning, I did some research on the actual benefits. According to healthline.com, there are six (popular) types of meditations:

- Mindfulness: most popular in the west, pay attention to thoughts and then let them pass

- Spiritual: like prayer, reflect on what’s around you and connect with your faith

- Focused: focusing on one of the main senses to help focus attention

- Movement: like yoga, can also be walking, gardening, gentle motion, active form of meditation

- Mantra: softly speaking a “mantra,” helps evoke a deeper self awareness

- Transcendental: most popular in the world, like “mantra” but more specific

There are billions of different “focuses” within meditation. And it may require some personal research to find which subfield may be best fit for you. But, needless of the focus, the benefits remain the same. According to another article from healthline.com, meditation benefits can be narrowed down to a few specific points:

- Reduce in stress

- Control in anxiety

- Promotes emotional health

- Deeper self-awareness

- Increase of attention span

- Aids memory loss

- Generate kindness

- Fights addictions

- Improves sleep

- Aids pain

- Decrease blood pressure

Most of these points are self-explanatory. However, most of these are rooted in being in a state of mental and physical calmness. Taking the moment to sit down and breathe assists blood flow (hence the health benefits). It also allows your mind to “breathe” as well. Meaning, it can help you sort out your thoughts, assisting you in being self-aware. Being self-aware is what ties the rest of the points together. Through meditation comes gratitude. With gratitude comes kindness and promotions of emotional health.

Stated earlier though, these things are well known to the overall public. My experience over these past few weeks with only ten minutes of meditation was physically and mentally relieving. Living in New York while my family was in Washington, I was stressed coming into my first week of meditation after a family crisis arose. As someone who practices faith, I picked up spiritual meditation, which allowed me to be closer to my spiritual relationship. Outside of a spiritual sense, being able to spend ten minutes focusing on the sounds around me calmed me before I began to overthink. Emotionally, I was able to approach the day with gratitude. In one of my meditation courses with Oak we gave gratitude to those in our lives. I was able to reach out to a few friends to say, “I love you” and “Thank you.” Saying these short phrases benefitted both parties.

Physically, I was able to sleep better. Often, I struggle with feeling well rested after sleeping. Meditating (even in the mornings) helped me feel more rested throughout the day. Because of how restful I felt, I began to do a nightly meditation as well. This time, I followed a ten minute video on YouTube by “Great Meditation.” Waking up without feeling restful often made me wake up sore or fatigued. Meditation, while it didn’t “cure” it, aided the soreness in my muscles, influencing me to stretch before nighttime.

D’Avella talks through meditation’s flaws, too. It’s extremely difficult to “focus on the moment,” because life is full of countless situations that take you away from it. It’s also hard to do anything for an extended period of time: especially with something like meditation that can easily tire a person (it definitely made me want to fall asleep a few times.) If you’re struggling to sit down and practice meditation for an extended amount of time, I would recommend shortening it. Try meditating for three to five minutes and slowly building from there. D’Avella meditated for 60 minutes every day which he later says “fatigued” him mentally. Therefore, keeping it to a shorter time may be better for you.

I think the most interesting find about meditation was how meditation is beyond sitting in silence. That “active meditation” already falls into habits many people already have. Like walking, running, or yoga. Meditation is the act of becoming aware. Perhaps listening to a guided meditation may be something you can add into your pre-existing schedule. Though, reaching full self-awareness is practically impossible: something D’Avella states many times in his Youtube video.

Physically and mentally, I feel more content with myself. While headaches and stressful days will come with life (some days more than others), ten minutes of simply sitting back and appreciating the good around you, is an easy tactic to ensure a brighter day – even when it’s dim.

Citations:

Bertone, Holly J. 6 Types of Meditation: Which One Is Right for You? 2 Oct. 2019, www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/types-of-meditation.

H., Sara Rae. What Is the Goal of Meditation? 3 Apr. 2020, www.spirituallyinspired.co/2017/08/15/meditation-goals/.

Staff, Mindful, et al. How to Meditate. 10 Aug. 2020, www.mindful.org/how-to-meditate/.

Thorpe, Matthew. 12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation. 5 July 2017, www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZqIya_7NQU

Name: Seika Brown

Editor: Claire Ottenstein