How the beneficial effect of meditation affects our lives

From the moment I started to meditate, it seemed to me to live in a different world.

Since I’ve discovered the world of meditation, I see every single detail with different eyes. Before, I was just like many other people: in a world always anxious, getting angry with everyone, taking my anger out on every single foolishness. Now I’m very happy to live in “my own world”: I can explore the deep meaning of every little gesture. Today, I don’t get angry if something goes wrong, but I wonder if it is really worth to waste mental and physical energies on something that I probably can not even control. It’s better to be present, relaxed and any situation will resolve in the best way.

This is what meditation is doing. It allows us to live and appreciate the present moment, also helping us to unlock some situations that we would never have had the courage to face.

Main Benefits of Meditation:

• Increases concentration
• Reduces anxiety and stress
• Increases the sensitivity of perception of the world around us
• Reduces slackness
• Increases self-esteem
• Reduces anger

It would take me hours to list what benefits meditation increases and what defects it decreases. They are generally very subjective and always positive!

We always feel so taken by our habits that sometimes we are not even aware of the world around us. We do things automatically, like a robot. We go to work and think about the issues that will be waiting for us. We brush our teeth and we remember how we looked bad today in front of our colleague. We shower and we blame ourselves for not having started studying time before for that damn exam.

Thinking, thinking, and still thinking – we do it all the time. In fact, we are simply taking away the space for our happiness but continuing to stuff our mind with thoughts, we are no longer able to appreciate what surrounds us.

All we have to do is to strive and not collapsing in our thoughts without taking care of what we are at the moment living

All this is much easier if you start doing small meditation exercises every day.

How do you meditate?

• Take a few minutes just for you, in a place where you know you can’t be disturbed.
• Sit or lie down, and slowly close your eyes.
• Begin by breathing slowly and deeply, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
• Count on your breaths and focus only on them.
• When a thought begins to distract you, try to send it away and concentrate on your breath.
• Keep doing this for a few minutes, and every day try to do your best, enduring more and more in concentratiing on your breath.

Congratulations! You have just completed a meditation session! Did you think it was more difficult?

You will find that if you are constant in your daily doing this practice, it will be easier to concentrate on your everyday activities and, by shutting the negative thoughts out, you will enjoy each single instant of your life better.

In the long run, you will realize that this practice will improve your mood, making you feel more relaxed, even unlocking situations that seemed insurmountable before.

The more you meditate the more you will begin to feel a particular sensitivity to the surrounding world, for example you will want to spend more time in a park or on a beach rather than being locked in the house. Your sensitivity will allow you to be less selfish and more empathic: you will better understand the needs of those around you and make you angry less easily.

If you have anxiety problems, meditation will help you reduce the agitation that follows you daily and you will feel much more serene.

If you have any doubt about meditation, do not be afraid to leave a comment below!

I conclude the article with this quote of Swami Kriyananda about meditation.
I hope it can inspire you 🙂

“Become a cause, not an effect, of whatever happens in your life. Live at the center, not on the periphery, of your personal universe. Be who you are and not an echo of others’ expectations and desires.”