7 Benefits you Should know about Meditation

Meditation has many benefits that you'll never know unless you partake in it regularly. I've been meditating on and off for almost 10 years.

It's a tedious practise that offers the benefit of getting to know yourself which is the ultimate purpose of life. If you're not self aware via meditation or practising presence, you're asleep.

You live life unconsciously at the whim of chance. In this mindset life is very frustrating because you cannot find clear answers to life's challenges.

Your mind is constantly chattering and conflicting itself. You're rushing around trying to get places in life. Happiness is always just over the next hill.

Once you feel you've arrived, there's soon after something more to attain or achieve. Satisfaction is never lasting. It's fleeting.

A new relationship, car or a house gives you satisfaction for a week, month or even a year. But it begins to present its own set of challenges so the feeling of happiness dissolves. The novelty wears off.

When challenges arise the only way to solve them is with continual effort and action. If you don't take the time to fall still for clarity of mind you're ruled by your ego.

All your actions stem from fear, worry and doubt. The quality of your results from your achievements reflect your state of mind.

When you live in a state of reacting to life every day you're not at ease. What if instead you could respond to life instead of react to it?

Responding comes from a collected state of mind vs a panicked state. A typical human reacts more than they respond.

It takes effort to be self aware and to take your time responding. It requires being in your higher self vs being in your ego.

We each have a higher self (our true self) and a lower self (an ego). The ego is survival oriented. It is the voice in your head that cautions you about danger.

It also cautions you about life decisions. Most of the time it's over-cautioning.

It adds worry and doubt to most life situations--especially new experiences. The most common aspect of the ego is that it embellishes fear of the unknown (man's greatest fear).

When you feel triggered the ego coaxes you to react out of anger, frustration, disappointment, fear etc. You don't even think about it. You automatically get lost in that emotion (auto-pilot).

In the moment it feels good to express those emotions but that's the ego at play. It thrives on superiority, pride, envy and it just loves to be right all the time.

Your higher self instead has no baggage. It has no need to be right, no worry, doubt, fear or pain.

It is the silent observer... You are true raw power under layers of egoic reactions.

It's hard to see it because of the emotions and thoughts that rule your day to day life but if you meditate you can access it. You have pain and conflict in your life because of the ego.

You're not alone, it's quite common. This is why meditation is so important.

It takes continual practise and willingness to sit with yourself. Many think it's a waste of time but many who say that have not even tried it enough to know the benefits.

When I began to meditate nothing amazing happened for me.

I found it tedious but kept revisiting it because adequate practise is the only way to draw a valid conclusion.

Many great spiritual leaders advocate for mediation and I wanted to know why. The only true way to know why is by putting it to personal practise.

So I did and I found the benefits through direct experience which I will explain later.

Meditation is a path to knowing oneself. The great spiritual masters say that knowing yourself is ultimate freedom.

If you have a hard time sitting with yourself quietly you're missing the most important aspect of this life. You unconsciously avoid the key to nurturing your best life--You remain imprisoned until you learn meditation practices.

Without meditation and self awareness, negative emotions get trapped in your body over the years. They collect as tension within. This results in health issues if left unchecked for too long.

Stress is the root of many diseases and it's proof that our minds can wreak havoc on our physiology. It's common to avoid negative feelings and suppress them.

These emotions cannot be released until you become self aware to process them. Self awareness is achieved with meditation. It allows you to tune in to those emotions.

Without self awareness you just think incessantly. It's said that thinking too much speeds up your life -- so the more you think the faster life slips away.

Many people wake up in the morning and start immediately into the tasks of the day or go straight into work. I am guilty of it as well and find myself a little restless and stuck in my head.

It's go go go mode without rest, which is tiring. I now incorporate 30 minutes of meditation a few days per week.

I notice that it helps to settle my mind and set the pace for the rest of the day. I then create the day from my higher self as the starting point for the day.

Without a meditative practise in the morning you'll often fall into incessant thinking. When thoughts are racing you suffer via tensions in your body.

It creates uncomfortable feelings due to resisting the present moment. Your natural state of being is relaxed and present (inner stillness) yet it is not your normal state.

I practise presence (inner stillness) every day now because I've lived with self-imposed tension in my body for most of my waking years. It has been uncomfortable living life as though always trying to get somewhere... to a more fulfilling moment in the future.

My goal is to be in a meditative state (presence) all day long so that I may respond to life instead of reacting to it. I keep reminding myself of this because as I bring self awareness into my life I'm able to break away from bad habits.

Instead of reacting I'm able to take a moment and gauge my intentions to maintain peace in daily interactions. This presents new experiences in life rather than the same old painful program.

Meditation has different variations which offer corresponding benefits. I recommend practising one or many of these depending on what you aim to accomplish:

The 7 Benefits of Meditation

1) Provides answers to life's challenges

We do so much thinking in a day that it clouds our minds. This makes it difficult to find optimal solutions to life's challenges. Incessant thinking is the work of the ego which produces so much thought in a day that it's hard to even comprehend.

When you're faced with a challenge in life and not sure how to resolve it, meditation is that pathway to clarity. You can start by sitting cross legged in a comfortable chair.

Your hands may be on your knees palms down or up (by preference). You then aim to come back to your breath only without thoughts.

If your thoughts are racing you can start by slowing your thoughts. As they begin to slow you'll eventually come back to your breath only.

If thoughts arise you simply observe them and let them go until the mind is inactive. The idea of meditation is to renounce everything including your body.

You'll know you're successful at falling still in meditation when you feel the spaciousness within you. When you are simply following your breath in and out without thoughts you are successful.

Just let your body be as it is. Your legs may fall asleep, you may feel an itch. Ignore it.

These sensations are the ego coming in to distract you from tapping into your higher self. It may also be difficult at first to sit in silence for any length of time because you're not used to it.

The ego will try to convince you that there are more important things to do. This is normal and should be ignored.

The way to tap into your true essence and power is to overcome the sensations of the ego. You do so by staying with the meditation practise regardless of what your mind is telling you.

The more you practise the more you will be able to relinquish yourself to stillness. It is where answers arise when the mind is clear of it's egoic chattering.

Optimal solutions to life's problems are available to you at any time once the mind is quiet.

The reason answers arise in the silence is because the silence represents the void or the un-manifested. The un-manifested is a space of infinite possibilities.

It's the platform of creation from nothingness. With consistent practise of meditation you'll have more "Aha!" moments in life.

Answers sometimes arise in the form of ideas and visions. It will be subtle at times but as you practise more answers become more clear.

When I meditate ideas arise for business, solutions to personal conflict, relationship challenges etc. Your higher self is the bottomless pit of answers. When you fall still (in meditation) you are in tune with your higher self.

Your higher self is the real you underneath the mind chatter created by the ego. Meditation is the easiest way to begin tuning out the ego to tap into your higher self.

2) Healing

Meditation offers the silent space to process negative emotions and resentment that is trapped in your body. Unprocessed emotions take form in your physiology and until forgiven and processed, they keep being triggered.

Your ego tends to want to avoid facing uncomfortable emotions so it suppresses them. It also coaxes you into using substance to escape those feelings.

There are different meditation styles which offer healing such as the Chinese circle method and Ho'ponopono. I practised these a lot after separating with my wife so that I could become a better person for my next partner.

I'd definitely been guilty of suppressing emotions over the years which resulted in tightness in my body and lack of confidence. After a steady year of practising these meditation styles I feel more confident in myself.

I did it to overcome personal flaws and grow stronger so that I could offer bigger love to my next partner. My current girlfriend is falling in love with me because of this personal transformation.

I feel that I've moved a lot of trapped energy from me to become self certain in this new higher vibe. The magnetic energy that I now emanate has drawn a powerful love connection to me.

I am ever grateful.

I've also practised advanced healing techniques similar to Reiki. They are performed while connected with my crown chakra. The sensation in my fingertips feels like tremendous raw power and subtle heat.

It's almost like a superhero state where I'm entirely in tune with my higher self and it feels as if there are no bounds to what can be accomplished. I've also achieved this state in simple meditation to music.

It's the feeling of wholeness and that's what offers the deeper healing even for injuries such as sprains, fractures etc. It's reported by that this technique can even revive dying animals and people.

Right now that's just a theory to me. I haven't proven it.

There's is tremendous energy in our finger tips which is transferable for healing. It's most accessible when in a meditative state because in that state your energy is laser focused and not divided by thinking of other things.

Thus you heal from a state of wholeness and without distraction. Once in that state you simply apply your hands to the area that needs healing.

Healing ultimately requires attention... and intention. This applies to both physical and mental ailments. The mental is about properly acknowledging and processing suppressed feelings.

Additionally your breath is a healer. Breathe into an area of pain by following your in-breath to the place of pain.

I do this often with a stubbed toe or any kind of sudden pain and it subsides faster than it would otherwise. After all, pain is amplified by the perception of the mind.

If you dwell on the pain or try to avoid it, it increases the level of trauma experienced. When you instead breathe into the pain it tends to calm the mind. The resulting calmness relieves the sensation much quicker.

This seems strange at first but the only way to find truth is to experiment. Practise to find what works for you.

These concepts take practise to develop the skill adequately. If you implement it immediately you'll quickly discover whether it serves you or not.

3) Manifestations

Meditation is often used for manifestations. The first step is to empty your mind for a period of time to bathe in the space of your higher self. Once your mind is clear it is prepared to receive the image of your manifestation.

Thoughts may arise and you simply need to observe them and let them go. As you clear the preoccupation of your brain you make the space in the frontal lobe of the brain. It is then ready to receive the image of what you want to manifest.

The frontal lobe takes suggestions and makes them law. So when you want to manifest with absolute power the way is to clear the mind then lay down the image of your desired manifestation.

It helps to draw or write a few words on a piece of paper of what you want to manifest. Then once you're still for a period amount of time--visualise your drawing or words from that space of stillness.

Allow yourself to feel the feeling of already achieving the manifestation. This matches your frequency to it because you're already on the vibe of attracting it in.

Jesus says to pray as though it has already been given to you and that prayer will manifest. This furthers the point about frequency matching.

4) Calmness

When life is chaotic it's easy to fall into the chaos and feel frustrated, tense, restless etc. Sometimes you feel tense and under pressure because of what's happening in your outer world.

When I single parent my 4 kids there are moments of frustration and emotional distress. Many times I feel the pressure of the steady responsibilities and sometimes find it challenging to catch up.

Lately I've been meditating at the start of the day before the kids awake to set myself up to a state of calmness. I'm then ready to embrace the day from my higher self.

It sets the stage of the day from a place of peace and tranquility. This gives me leverage on parenthood because when there is harmony in my heart there is harmony in my environment.

Being connected to my higher self puts me in a position to be responsive to my children vs reactive. It's often the case that the start of your day usually dictates how your day is going to go.

Starting with a meditation or peaceful practise in the A.M. offers the foundation of temporal life circumstances. You bring more peace to your life by being peace. It always starts from within.

If you happen to feel tension and resistance to life chaos throughout the day you can also make time to meditate to reset the mind. A minimalist meditation works wonders.

With a busy home environment and an active toddler it's sometimes difficult to find time to meditate. I'm aware of the 1 minute meditation which involves setting a timer on your phone for a single minute and dropping still.

During the minute aim to surrender to inner stillness (your higher self). Remember it's not about achieving stillness because that implies some kind of effort. It's about surrendering.

The one minute meditation can offer a nice reset to an overactive mind. Because the activity of the mind alone is what perpetuates the chaos in the environment.

As you calm your state of mind the outside environment will lose power over you. Then it begins to reflect your new found inner state by mirroring your calmness.

Children are intuitive and they feel the subtleties of your emotions. If I feel frustrated or misaligned my kids tend to act out more which matches my emotional state.

Everything is energy and as Nikola Tesla said:

So when you bring a calm state to your environment the universe starts to match that. You change the outside world from the inside.

5) Presence

The practise of meditation is the beginning of living a life from a clear mind. It's conducive to living life in the moment detached from wanting to control life.

As the Buddha said the root of all suffering is attachment. Meditation is the practise of renouncing everything and surrendering. Its about detaching from your body, mind, past and future.

As you get more in touch with your higher self via mediation, you're able to self observe in everyday life very similarly. This allows you to respond to life in a peaceful manner which fosters a harmonious existence.

As you learn to be present in the moment you transcend compulsive thinking. You are much more than just a body and there is tremendous power in transcending both your body and thoughts.

You are a soul which is infinitely powerful. Meditation increases your awareness to connect you to your soul. This is conducive to a state of presence in your waking life so that you create life from a state of wholeness.

With lack of presence your life is directed by the ego which thrives on superiority, fear, worry and doubt. This of course limits your true potential.

Meditation is the gateway to presence because presence is essentially waking meditation. The difference is that it involves action taking and thinking.

Learn to balance presence with thinking and action taking. When you do you are living an empowered life. You now self-direct your reality through conscious intentions.

6) Longevity

Different forms of meditation are linked to longevity via telomere lengthening. Telomeres are the ends of your chromosomes and they dictate the length of your life.

Scientists have discovered that various meditation practices lengthen your telomeres by connecting you to the source of all life (inner stillness). The longer your telomeres the longer you live.

7) Attunement to intuition

Meditation fosters the attunement to your higher self. It develops the practise of being in touch with higher answers (answers derived from above thinking).

Answers to questions are available at all times on the fly. They come in the form of synchronicities (aka serendipities).

As you get more in touch with your higher self through meditation you'll align more with synchronicities. Synchronicities are events that occur to guide you to the most optimal life path.

They present themselves in the form of opportunities and favourable breaks. They are often viewed as coincidences; however there are no coincidences.

There are only purposeful happenings in life.

Each life experience offers a seed of growth or sign of guidance which points the direction for your greater good. Meditation is a stepping stone to self-attunement which links you to intuitive abilities.

Summary

As you see there are many benefits to meditation which foster a peaceful state of mind. As you integrate with yourself you no longer need to look outside of you for answer to your life challenges. You have ALL the answers within.

Experiment with meditation by scheduling times during the week to practise. When you set a schedule it will allow you to form a habit of it. Without discipline and consistent practise you'll never know the truth of the benefits.

It has offered me such self certainty and trust that I no longer fear the twists and turns of life's river. I always know that I am a container of infinite answers and that healing is always at my finger tips (literally and figuratively).

With this knowledge I wish you find the same and that your world reflects the harmony that you truly are.

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With love,

-Kush