At the time of this writing, I’ve been practicing daily meditation for a little over 1250 consecutive days. Sitting in that glorious silence with a total time ‘invested’ of roughly 620 hours.
And while you can assume correctly that I’ve made some pretty big leaps in my progress, I can’t refute the countless hurdles I’ve come across. Those that led to an array of experiences where I repeatedly asked:
Why do I even meditate? Is there any point to this?
For this reason, I trust this will give you some great insight to hold strong, whether you’re just starting out or ready to commit to a daily meditation practice.
Here are the top lessons I’ve learned to help you with your meditation journey.
Daily Meditation’s Benefits may not be so Obvious
When it comes to having a mindfulness practice, It takes time to “see results.” At least it did for me…
The sheer volume of meditation posts I’ve read and speakers I’ve listened to didn’t help as much as I thought they would. Especially with how much the content proclaimed the benefits people were experiencing within their first few sessions or weeks.
This led me to feel like I was doing it wrong, and even question if it was worth it to continue.
The truth is that we’ll experience our progression in a variety of timelines. And even if we aren’t noticing a difference in ourselves, you’ll likely have people in your life eventually commenting about positive shifts they are seeing in you.
Being asked: How are you so calm? What are you doing to these days to be so “Zen”
Regardless, my biggest advice here is to do your best to avoid expectations of results. This could very well lead to disappointment and inevitable quitting.
If you Meditate Daily, Your Mind will Still Wander
Let’s get one thing straight, meditation is not about eliminating thoughts from your mind as this is next to impossible. No matter how mindful or still you are they will always come up.
You see, every second our minds process inconceivable amounts of information. So large in fact that our brains are constantly working to keep our conscious awareness from being overloaded with that data.
Why does this matter? Well, out of the thousands of thoughts we have on a daily basis, chances are you’re never going to have 60 thought-free seconds; let alone a whole meditation session.
But here’s the good news and the whole point…
As your daily practice evolves, you’ll learn to become more of the observer and not the reactor of those thoughts. Understanding to a greater extent that YOU ARE NOT your thoughts.
As your practice evolves, you realize your increasing power of choice as to what you can do with them.
The flow of meditation in its simplest form is with the awareness of breath. Then noticing thoughts as they come up and tuning back towards your focal point of simply breathing.
This video here will give you help to expand on that awareness simplify your daily meditation practice.
Daily Meditation Changes Your Minds Default Mode
Throughout our lives, we’ve developed habits and patterns we engage in without even thinking about it. This is the power of our subconscious mind shining through whether these patterns are beneficial or detrimental to us.
Over time as you meditate every day, you’re rewiring your brain to be more of an observer in your life. An observer of your autopilot responses, bringing greater self-awareness to control your default reactions.
This increased level of mindfulness can really compound over time to make positive shifts in your life.
It’s Not Only Limited to Sitting in Silence
I’ve found that with this greater attention you develop through your daily practice you can actually incorporate meditation into other parts of your day.
It’s really about the state of awareness and control that you develop with your mind that becomes this powerful tool you can use in a multitude of situations. From your ability to be present in conversations with people to really and seriously enjoying a meal. Watching the thoughts and feelings that arise in more stressful times such as those of disagreement or simply being stuck in traffic.
You have the increased ability to step aside from your familiar reactions. Then, question, introspect and reflect on what you are about to say, think or react to make a different choice.
For this reason, this “self-examination”, I came to understand the next lesson I share with you
The Impact of Meditation for Anxiety Management
My stress levels are a small fraction of what they used to be. Mostly in part because of how I choose to perceive and respond to what I experience.
It really boils down to the ability you can develop to respond instead of reacting to various situations that come up. You can dwell in the stress and build it up by looping it in your mind. Or take responsibility and understand that you have control over where you focus your attention.
In particular, through much of my life, within seconds of waking up my mind would be running through fear and worries in line with money, relationships the future and past forming terrible patterns. Resulting in, you guessed it; generating more of that which I was creating.
I didn’t have a daily practice or mechanism to interrupt the pattern. And while meditation isn’t necessarily a direct effect solution, it can help you see that these are choices we make in our day to day.
As such you have the power to stop and ask “is this really what I want to be creating in my life?”
Of course, the answer tends to be an overwhelming “heeelll no!”
This brings me to the final lesson I’ve learned.
Your Personal Development Should be a TOP Priority
We are going to be experiencing life through this mind and body for as long as we can. For this reason, we’re pretty well-guaranteed challenges and rough roads.
Since you’ve made it this far, I’m certain that you have a greater interest in flourishing over struggling.
Therefore, you know very well that this requires that deep work!
Together with the importance of how we nourish our bodies with food and exercise; developing and training our minds to navigate through life’s peaks and valleys will allow much more opportunity to thrive on this journey.
Of course, it’ll take time to notice results and I hope that this doesn’t intimidate you from deepening your daily meditation practice.
Consistency is key and adopting the habit of sitting in silence daily is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.
The gift of managing your thoughts, emotions and the cascade of effects that will positively impact your health, longevity and quality of life.
P.S. I’ve got an expanding list of meditation videos with a twist to help you become your Next Level Self.
So what are you waiting for??