I've been meditating consistently for more than 3 months now.
These are the noticeable changes in my life.
1. I never get lost in my scary, anxiety-inducing thoughts' roller-coaster.
There was a time when all my past mistakes would make an appearance in my mind one by one. And the more I used to think about one mistake, the more other mistakes would crop up which I had totally forgotten.
It's really dangerous when this happens because a person has no where to run. When you go through such a situation without having the necessary knowledge of how to deal with it, you'd think, "No wonder the suicide rates are going up."
Also, even though I knew there was a whole new future I could create, I still couldn't move away from the burdensome past. It's a crazy thing how our minds work. On one side there's the Logical, on another there's the "Energy" side.
Imagine: the Logical side as an ink pen; the Energy side as a cup of clear water.
Once you dip the ink pen, the water is clear no more. The mark has been made. It's gonna take a lot of time to clear up.
Just like that, once the Logical has come up with negative experiences of your past, your Energy is going to be severely affected, even if soon after the Logical tries to fix it by thinking positive stuff (that's like the ink pen trying to suck out the ink from the cup of clear water.)
I recommend the Headspace app if you're going through this right now.
2. Generally I'm not angry or irritated.
I used to be a hyper kinda guy, who's get ticked off with the smallest of the matter. And I wasn't able to observe myself getting angry either.
Now if I tend to get angry, I can sense it beforehand and while I am angry, I can be aware of it. It's less damaging that way, plus you can think rationally as soon as possible.
This improves the quality of life, relationships etc. so much.
3. My brain literally feels like it's not clogged and heavy anymore.
I'm sure almost everyone can understand what I'm talking about here. When any kind of negative emotion crops up, you feel like there's literally some thing occupying your mind and making it heavy, right?
That goes away when you start to become mindful of your thoughts. 'Mindful' means identifying what thoughts are there in your mind every moment, and just letting them go away on their own. That happens because you give your thoughts 'space' to just, be. And when you let your thought just be, without any resistance, your mind starts feelings clear and fresh. (as if you took the brain-trash out)
4. Feels like I've come back to the middle from the extremes (of good and bad; both are harmful I've found).
There were phases where I was either completely down on myself, or was so full of confidence that it was obnoxious now that I think of it.
Obviously both are bad, because without clarity, you're walking in the dark - no matter how good or bad you feel.
5. A little bit more control over my compulsions. (example: NOT going on a YouTube binge anymore)
I can see the uselessness of it. Though I'd agree that it is kinda relaxing to just sit and watch mind-numbing comedic videos (any kind of "compilation" videos and you're as good as dead), once you're done watching it, it all feels like a huge waste of time.
I still am in search of an alternative for this. Maybe playing sports with friends would solve it. Why specifically that? Because I miss playing sports with my friends. ;-;
Ahem.
So yeah, once you meditate you start noticing yourself about to go on that binge.
Really useful in saving time.
6. No more unnecessary spending of money on unnecessary things.
I just used to splurge money on ALL kinds of things man. Bought a shitton of books off Amazon (books are good sure, but still why so many?), bought a new pair of pricey sneakers that I'm regretting now.
Now, I'm content with whatever I have & whatever I don't. Contentment is something you get when you meditate.
7. Altruism
It means you start thinking about the welfare of other people. Crazy how I'm the one who's experiencing this because trust me, I'm a not-caring ahole when it comes to that.
It's more like you start thinking about yourself less, as in, you're not worried whether you're happy. Because you already are, thanks to meditation.
So then you have so much energy to consider others' happiness.
8. Now, I can choose where I want my life to go.
This is where I am currently.
I'm still searching for that one thing I'd wanna dedicate all of my life to.
Gonna spend 3 days, starting today, where I'll try to consume "outside information" as less as I can and instead, just be with my own thoughts and feelings.
I'm doing this to get the answer to that question.
Thanks for reading, hope this has been helpful in convincing you to meditate too.
It's a game-changer and trust me, you're missing out.
