What Is the Benefit of Practicing Meditation?
On this site, we’ve discussed how to deal with thoughts, emotions, sensations…even sleepiness while trying to meditate. Those are the “how tos,” but how about the why? Why meditate? Or, even if we know the why of meditation, why practice?
This question is partially answered when you consider the obstacles (mentioned above) to our meditation; if we don’t practice, how do we know whether we’re progressing on our path?
Almost daily, I experience situations where I wish that my “meditative mind” was in charge instead of my habitually distracted mind. Does this ever happen to you? I’ve come to realize that these situations are reminders, wake-up calls, calls to action…whatever I wish to name them. They all have one common purpose, to wake me up to my distracted mind!!
So, why practice meditation every day?
- It reminds us to practice every day. Huh? Practicing reminds us that we need to be practicing, otherwise, without a consistent schedule, we can easily forget that we really need to practice.
- It reminds us to integrate. In a recent post here, the topic of integration was discussed. This means that we remember to return to our present state of awareness, without distraction, whenever we find that we’ve lost our mind(fulness).
- Our lives aren’t perfect. Okay, maybe some of us experience a near-perfect life, but in general, we encounter things in our lives that we either aren’t prepared for or that we would rather not have to deal with. When we’re consistently practicing, it provides the stability for us to deal with the unexpected and unwanted occurrences that happen – sometimes daily – in our lives.
- When our lives are perfect, it provides us with a foundation for easy practice. That is, when we’re in a positive state of mind, it can help us to practice. Kind of a no-brainer, when we’re not distracted by challenges, we may find ourselves more at ease, and more able to enter into practice.
- We can practice meditation anywhere, anytime. Because there are so many waking “moments” to work with, working with our mind to achieve a state of non-distraction (a common definition of meditation) can be an ongoing process, a practice of life!
Reasons to Practice Meditation Every Day
These are just some of the many reasons to practice meditation in our daily lives. By practice, in this case, we’re talking about formal practice. While this post discusses integrating practice into our daily life (also see post: 17 Ways to Practice Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life) it’s important to remember that we need to set aside time for ourselves each day, apart from our busy lives, to practice meditation in order that we’ll be able to be present with our “informal” practice in our daily life.
For more information on how to meditate, and how to retrain your attention, please see the Related Posts below. Also, don’t forget to download the free ebook, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World?, for help with getting started in you meditation practice. Also, you can now download the new ebook, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation to learn how to deal with some of the obstacles to meditation.
As always, please feel free to share your comments. Let me and others know what situations you find yourself in when you’re able to be compassionate with yourself when finding yourself distracted during a compassionate moment. And, as always, please feel free to contact me if you’d like to see additional content or other discussions on this site.
Resources for Meditation
So, you want to mediate and don’t know where to start? Or, you’ve already got a meditation practice but would like to learn more? Great!
If you’re new to meditation, I’d suggest downloading the free ebooks available on this site, Can Meditation Change the Way You View Your World? and, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation.
If you’re already meditating, one of the most important things that I try to remember is that there’s always time to meditate and that I can practice anytime and anywhere.
And, if you’d like a tip on the most important thing that you can do in your meditation, then check out this post, How to Meditate – The Most Important Practice…Plus One Great Tip!
Finally, here’s an amazing 10-part “how to” video series from the website, What Meditation Really Is. Check it out. The videos are easy to follow and are accessible to anyone with an interest in meditation.
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This site has tons of tools for learning how to meditate and be compassionate.
I encourage you to look through the HUNDREDS of articles that I’ve written and especially check out my weekly meditation tips and other useful meditation materials provided for your health and well being. Please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding anything that I’ve written about.
Other Great Meditation Resources and Information:
For More Information on How to Meditate
Please view the Related Stuff below for help getting started in your meditation practice! Also don’t forget to download my free e-book, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World? and download the free e-book, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation and get started learning how to deal with some of the major obstacles in meditation.
As always, please feel free to share your comments on meditation and contact me if you’d like to see additional content or other topics for discussion on this site.
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Coming up next week: New Scientific Evidence on the Benefits of Meditation
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