I’ve been meditating for about 6 months now. It nearly skipped my mind because it feels like such a normal thing to do but I feel like I’ve learned a few important things during that time.
Here are 5 reasons to start meditating.
1. Increased Focus
Staying focused on things can be difficult because we have to remind ourselves not to succumb to small distractions. That requires energy and it’s significantly easier to be distracted than ignore them.
While meditating, you aim to just focus on your breathing (at least the mindfulness approach to meditation). Meditating daily means that you’ll improve your ability to remain focused on one thing instead of following every thought that pops into your head.
I no longer feel the need to follow everything that pops into my head because I understand them for what they are. Small urges.
2. Less guilt
Noticing that you’ve failed to do something we think you should have done can result in a lot of self criticism. It can be extremely harmful to your overall well-being and difficult to stop. I’m still quite self critical. However, while meditating I don’t have those feelings at all.
It’s a beautiful moment. Even if it is brief.
When thoughts of inadequacy rush into your head, it’s tempting to follow them into an even darker train of thoughts. However, all you have to do is bring your focus gently back to your breathing. You’ll probably find it quite difficult to do but it gets much easier with time.
The practice is something you can do even when you aren’t meditating.
3. Less stress
When we’re stressed, we’re often worried about things that we need to do in the future or there are too many things that are going on in the present moment. We feel overwhelmed and want it all to stop but we can’t make it stop.
Meditation is fantastic at reducing stress. When you meditate you’re just trying to focus on a single thing instead of allowing yourself get consumed with the various commitments you have. Taking a few deep breaths and slowing yourself down will let you approach the things you need to do with a clear mind.
4. Better posture
I have a bad back problem and tend to slouch a lot because of it. While the problem is far from being over, my posture has improved slightly. Both in front of the computer and while walking.
Meditation promotes a better posture because you need to be fairly alert. Eventually, good posture will become a habit. It’s improved my concentration and breathing is actually easier!
Remember, having a good posture does not mean keeping your back completely straight. That’d hurt more if you have upper back problems.
5. Increased mindfulness
When I think about my position before I start meditating and now, I’d say that meditating is a positive aspect in my life now.
However, the biggest influence it has had on my everyday living isn’t the act of sitting down and meditating. It’s how I go about my day.
I think about the things I’m doing instead of thinking about what it’ll do for the future. I savour meals and drinks more instead of rushing them for no good reason. I get completely involved in what I’m doing instead of continuously dividing my attention with unimportant things.
Ultimately, I actually feel like I’m experiencing the things I do instead of just doing them. That is what it’s like to live in the now.
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If you want to know how it felt after 1 month, you can read my last post on meditation. It’ll show you my experience when I first started. It can be quite frustrating but like anything else, it requires a bit of persistence to get used to!
I hope at least one of these reasons is a reason to begin meditating for at least 5 minutes a day.
If you already meditate, how would you convince someone else to begin? I’d love to hear your reasons! If you don’t, do you think you’ll try it?
1. You may ask why I didn’t do 6 reasons after 6 months to meditate. You may not. Either way, I don’t have an answer to your question.
2. If you feel like a peaceful person after reading this, you can share the peace by sharing this post.
3. I like meditation and will write more about it. If you want to keep updated on whatever I write, you should follow the blog. It’s easier than not laughing at any of my jokes.
Improving Slowly 
The few times I’ve tried meditating I just can’t stop myself thinking about random stuff. I don’t try and stop myself or anything. I realise I’m thinking and just stop but then thoughts slowly come back. Will this stop over time? Even when focusing on breathing etc I start thinking about random stuff.
Yes it will. The act of mindfulness meditation is always gently bringing your focus back to your breath. At the beginning you might only be able to focus on your breath for a second before you think about something else but it’ll improve.
I’ve been meditating for 6 months now and it still happens quite a lot. The solution isn’t to get angry at what’s happening but to just recognise what’s happened and bring your focus back to your breath.
Keep on meditating and I hope you’ll see the benefits soon.
Thanks for reading too!
Joe, maybe try guided meditation? I use an app called Smiling Mind that really helped me start (because I didn’t know where to) and it guides you through how to handle the random thoughts.
One more: it’s the only method for quitting smoking that worked for me.
Well done for quitting smoking. It’s great to know meditation helped but why do you think it did?