Why meditate? Six good reasons - and a life-changing one!

Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

I recently spent intensive time with some lovely smart warm-hearted people who are also diligent and have a strong work ethic. They mostly do the right things to take care of themselves in terms of diet and exercise. Many have family obligations involving children, elderly parents or both. They are busy.

When it comes to meditation, they acknowledge it’s value. They’ve mostly tried it somewhere along the line. A few continue sporadically. But it’s not an important part of their world.

Why so?

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Some may not really have the answer to that themselves. Not everyone is comfortable being open even if they do know. But what I’ve come to understand is that some of my nice, conscientious friends see meditation as a bit self-indulgent. Heavily invested in what The Times columnist James Marriott describes as ‘the galley slave culture’ of international finance, where hard work is a sign of status and phenomenal feats of productivity are unquestionably admired, the idea of setting aside half an hour a day, or even 15 minutes, to achieve absolutely nothing, seems like lotus-eating excess.

We’re not doing anything, right? There’s no measurable output. Perhaps if we were better at it, it would be worthwhile, but let’s not kid ourselves – our minds are all over the place.  Taking a walk in the park or plunging in a bracing ice bath, Wim Hof-style, is probably a better way to manage our mental wellbeing.

I get this way of thinking. I also find it sad because of the way it unknowingly diminishes the possibilities of meditation, and conversely overstates the importance of conventional reality. Yes, we may be busy managers, parents, business-owners, professionals, artists or whatever. These things may define our identity in the world. But they are not who we are.

There’s so much more to us than creatures running on a relentless treadmill. But if we don’t meditate, there’s a good chance we will never get so much as a glimpse of that more panoramic picture.

So, for readers who may find it useful, I have gathered a few of what I count as the most powerful reasons to meditate daily.  

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The first six of these offer strong enough conventional reasons to set aside time to meditate each day. You’ll find evidence-based research to support them in my book Mindfulness is Better than Chocolate, and plenty online. I have presented them as ‘Physical’ and ‘Mental’ benefits, but this division is artificial because body and mind are one: what benefits the one, benefits the whole.

It’s the seventh reason that, for me, is the most extraordinary one. Best of all, it requires no external validation because it is something we come to experience directly for ourselves.

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PHYSICAL BENEFITS

1.      Reduces stress

Meditation is one of the most powerful ways to reduce stress of both body and mind. Countless studies since the 1980s show that no matter how new you are to meditation, or how out-of-control your mind is, when you meditate your breathing and heartbeat slows, you produce less stress-inducing adrenaline and cortisol and more self-repairing ‘feel-good’ endorphins. The amygdala part of your brain stands down and executive functioning steps up. Just 15 minutes on the cushion effects a massive shift. What’s more, the regular, repeated impact of this practice is significantly sustained for longer periods of time.

2.      Boosts immunity, mood and sleep

Meditation boosts DHEA, the most abundant steroid in our body that combats bacterial, parasitic and viral infections. Our bodies also produce more serotonin, which regulates mood, appetite and sleep. The most widely prescribed anti-depressants in the world do just the same thing – i.e. increase available serotonin. You could say that meditation is an anti-depressive practice. When meditating we also manufacture more melatonin, which helps regulate the circadian rhythm, enhancing sleep and helping minimise insomnia.

3.      Slows ageing

The Shamatha Project found that meditation increases telomerase activity, which helps maintain telomere length, a key marker of cellular aging. Separately, Nobel prize-winning scientist Elisabeth Blackburn has shown that meditation aids genetic repair and slows genetic aging. Early studies by the Transcendental Meditation movement also showed that people who had been meditating for five years or longer, had biological markers of people 12 years younger.

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MENTAL BENEFITS

4.      Improves focus

When we meditate, we train ourselves to sustain attention and resist distractions. Studies show that meditation increases the thickness of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for attention and executive function. There is stronger connectivity between brain regions involved in attention regulation. Simply put, meditation makes us more productive and effective in what we turn our attention to. We may be taking time out from work. But when we return, we will do so with a more laser focus.

5.      Enhances clarity

Reduced stress and improved neural connectivity dampens down ‘thought pollution’ – disjointed, vague rumination. The impact of mental clarity can be massive in helping us see fresh opportunities of all kinds. For example, I had written many novels over many years without publisher interest when I began to meditate. Within months I landed my first publishing contract. Why? Because I identified a genre of interest to publishers that I was capable of writing. I had seen the connections, joined the dots. Clarity also brings us joy – music sounds sweeter, coffee tastes more delicious, our sensory experiences are more powerful when clouded by less inner chatter. We start to see the proverbial wood for the trees.

6.      Builds resilience

A key reason why US Marines and a variety of corporates promote ‘mindfulness training’ is because all the benefits listed above make us more resilient. We are less likely to feel emotionally provoked and behave reactively, instinctively or angrily. We are, instead, more capable of choosing a wiser response, recovering our equanimity more rapidly after upsets and staying focused on the main game. We become increasingly aware that even if we can’t control external reality, how we experience it is at least partly our own choosing.

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7. BROADENING AWARENESS

For me, by far the most life-changing benefit arises from the fact that meditation is the only way we can observe our own minds for ourselves. When we do this, we discover a number of things that shake our reality.

The first is that thoughts are temporary. Like clouds passing through the sky, they arise, abide and pass. Many people have a vague and unchallenged view that ‘I am the sum total of my thoughts.’  I certainly did. I also used to assume that my thoughts were quite important!

Observing our minds we recognise that cognitive activity is fleeting and prone to change. Instead of being infatuated by thoughts – which are also the cause of most of our unhappiness – a more interesting line of inquiry is: where are these thoughts coming from? Let’s step back and take in the wider picture rather than remain fixated on what’s happening centre-stage.

Thoughts arise in our consciousness – so what is the nature of that consciousness? What is mind like, when we are able to let go of the constant chatter? It is quietly thrilling to discover that our own mind is naturally clear and lucid, enabling any thought or sensation to arise. That it is boundless, with no beginning or end. That the subjective experience of it is astonishingly peaceful. Even blissful.

Favourite metaphors include a casket of treasure lying just beneath the ground. Or an ocean of tranquillity available to those able to dive just beneath the surface waves. And this is merely gross consciousness. We start to experience how consciousness isn’t a singular thing, and it exists in varying degrees of subtlety. One of the reasons I cherish Tibetan Buddhism is the way it provides clear direction on how to experience consciousness at its more subtle levels.

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I am not making any personal claims of great accomplishment. But my own adventures in inner space have a similar impact, for me, as visiting new places. A few weeks ago I shared images from my recent visit to beautiful Croatia and Slovenia. As I mentioned at the time, I find travel stimulating – not only because I get to see different vistas and cultures but because, on return, my take on home has evolved too. The more context and comparables we have, the more informed our appreciation of anything becomes, including where we live.

Our understanding of conventional mental activity necessarily changes when we spend time in more tranquil waters. As does our sense of who we are. The more acquainted we become with a more panoramic, sublime perspective, the less we identify with the creature on the treadmill. We hold the conventional self more lightly. Let go of some of the intensity.

This doesn’t mean that we’re going to drop out of our career and live as modern-day hippies. From the outside, we may appear to be doing exactly the same things. What changes is our inner reality, based on our own direct perception of consciousness. We may begin making subtly different choices about how we spend our time, the people we let into our lives, the news, television and books we consume. Over the months, years, decades, the trajectory of our life will most certainly shift.

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A short time ago I was met by an earnest young man, enjoying a lot of success with his self-made business, who told me that he meditated “to be the best version of myself.” I smiled at the contemporary phrase. The fact that he is meditating regularly is enough. More than enough, it is wonderful!

In time, I know, versions of his conventional self will be of less importance or even interest to him. He will become familiar with the space from which all thoughts - including those of self – arise. And he will come to understand that boundless, tranquil benevolence as his true home. Not an end in itself, but a state of being that, once tasted, strengthens our conviction that our own enlightenment might indeed be possible.

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As subscribers, you are helping support the orphans at the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery. Right now it is the middle of winter there, and despite the blue skies, temperatures are cool. But their carers make sure the charges are kept snug on those bracing mornings:

Their constant companion, Splat, demands equal blanket-rights for goats!

Thank you for helping support these extraordinary beings. I will be visiting them in person again soon and will let you have updates!

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You may also like to read my previous post, Returning to the cushion, five insights for ‘lapsed’ meditators here.

And you can read more about the work of the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery here.

Plus, bringing the two together, a video of meditating with elephants here.

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