My friend asked me about meditation the other day. She told me that she is interested in it, has tried it, but doesn’t “get it.”
She wondered what the real value of meditation is. Does it make you feel good right away? Is it some kind of long-term practice that only helps after a long time? What’s the point?
The Point of Meditation
Here’s the deal with meditation: You are choosing to work on yourself, and nothing else, for 10-20 minutes at a time. When you decide to meditate, it’s all-or-nothing. You can’t “kind of” meditate. You either do it or you don’t.
Meditation is the simplest way to call yourself out on your bullshit. If you believe that you take good care of yourself… why aren’t you willing to do 10-20 minutes of a really helpful, proven thing? If you don’t want it, that’s fine. But if you are looking for something… why not this?
When you put in the effort to work at improving your mental health via the practice of meditation, you actively move towards feeling better. It’s a good addition to your other forms of “taking the edge off.”
There are few things that are as simple as “sit still for 10-20 minutes per day and you will feel better.” Exercise is tricky and you can hurt yourself. Entertainments can be addictive or abusive. With meditation, it’s hard to go wrong. You sit quietly and focus on your breathing for 10 to 20 minutes and then you feel a little better.
If You Don’t “Get It”
Even if you don’t “get it” at first, if you want to feel a little better, it’s good to meditate.
It is great to practice making your own health a priority, and meditation is a good way to do it. If you sit still with your eyes closed for at least 10 minutes, you did a good thing.
Take care of yourself. If meditation seems interesting to you, give it a try.
If you need some help, I like the Headspace app. All you do is click “play” and sit still while the voice guides you through a short meditation. The basic app is free and contains everything you need.
What holds you back from trying meditation, or from meditating more regularly?