In this article, I would like to share three reasons why we should meditate, how meditation changed my life, and how it can change yours.
Six years ago I was stressed and overworked. I was living on autopilot, chasing some vague notion of “happiness” based on external material things. But the finish line kept moving farther and farther away the more progress I made to reach it.
At some point, I felt utterly frustrated and empty inside. To top it off, my body started to fail me. I had constant back pains and headaches from neglecting my health, sleep deprivation, and burnout at work. It got to the point where I would never leave home without taking pain medication.
One day, I woke up and thought to myself, “If I feel this bad now, what will happen to me in five or ten years? I need to do something about this.” My friend suggested that I try yoga as a supplement for my treatment. I decided to give it a try, and to my surprise, it was amazing for my body and health.
But something else happened during that time. At the end of each class, we practiced Shavasana. Our teacher would instruct us to slowly scan each part of the body to release tension in the muscles. During this body scan, I noticed that I was completely present. I wasn’t thinking about my problems, what I had to do, what I should have done, and all the other stuff in my head. I shared this with the group, and they said that I should try meditation. And I did.
Since then, meditation has become more than just a means to stress relief. It became a spiritual practice that lead me to Buddhism and made me a better and stronger person than I was before. If you’re not sure why you should meditate, I will share three life-changing reasons in this post.
Meditation Changes Our Relationship with Ourselves
One of the incredible ways meditation can affect our life is how it changes our relationship with ourselves. As we meditate, our awareness grows, and we start to see specific patterns in our thinking and behavior. It becomes clear that sometimes we unconsciously create unhappiness because of our programming and past trauma.
For example, I noticed that I always found myself in the company of people who would trigger my worst insecurities and fears. There was something in me that wanted to be miserable and unhappy. And all it took to end that pattern is noticing it and a simple decision to stop.
I became kinder to myself and more forgiving. I saw all the flaws I had, but at the same time, I was aware of the ego in me, it was not who I really was.
Meditation Changes Our Relationship with Other People
Another transformation that happens to us is how we change our relationship with other people. When we become aware of our own ego and patterns, it becomes easy for us to see the ego and patterns in other people.
But it doesn’t end there. We also gain the ability to see beyond the ego. We see a glimpse of their true self that is devoid of all the programming and unconscious behavior. So even if someone is causing trouble and making life harder for us, we don’t automatically label them as “bad.” We respond to the person, not react to their unconsciousness.
We might take action to protect ourselves, but that action will not come from negativity and anger. We will take the right action to resolve the conflict in the best way possible for everyone.
Meditation Changes Our Relationship with the World Around Us
The third way meditation changes our life is how we see the world and ourselves in it. When we live unconsciously, completely identified with the ego and its thinking patterns, we tend to see ourselves as separate. We are only interested in our own wellbeing and perceive everything outside as an “obstacle” that we need to overcome.
Meditation allows us to see through this delusion of separateness. We start to realize that we are an intrinsic part of the interconnectedness of all things in this universe. At some point in our practice, the tendency to label events and people as “good” and “bad” starts to fall away. We stop blaming circumstances and face every challenge from a place of inner stillness and presence.
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