A Simple Explanation of Why You Need to Meditate
Meditating is exactly what you are missing in your life.
Picture is of me meditating outside in -25 degree weather.
Meditation has quickly grown in popularity in the Western world as people have begun to focus on mental health and self-improvement.
Personally, I started meditating around 13 years ago. I really only started because of a fascination with Jet Li, which led me to want to do everything he does.
Naturally, that led me to meditation and from there, I fell in love with it.
If you go into it with an open mind and try it a few times, I’m confident you will also fall in love.
In this blog post, I will simple, quick explanation as to exactly why you should meditate.
You’ll learn to love yourself
Self-love is all the rage nowadays, and it’s great to see. However, very few people offer a good explanation as to how to start.
I believe self-love starts with meditation.
Meditation forces you to spend time with yourself and very few of us actually do this.
Chances are you aren’t comfortable going to a restaurant and eating by yourself. Many of us don’t even feel comfortable going shopping or to the gym by ourselves.
Would you travel by yourself?
Meditation will allow you to grow extremely comfortable with your own thoughts and the more you get to know yourself, the more you will begin to accept and in turn, love yourself.
And guess what!
If there are parts you don’t love about yourself, you can change.
That brings me to the next part.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is one of the most important skills a human can have, and meditation is the ultimate tool to grow self-awareness.
As you spend this time alone with your mind, you will become extremely aware of all your faults, where your mind goes, why it goes there, and everything you love about yourself.
Through this newfound self-awareness, you will be able to properly make changes in your life.
Not only that, but you will become aware of your feelings, and what triggers them.
This will lower your anxiety levels and stress., bringing you more peace, and relaxing you.
But it’ll do more!
With increased self-awareness, you will know what your biggest skills are so you can double down on them, and you will know what you need to work on.
Self-awareness will literally help every area of your life.
The superhuman ability to focus
The truth is, we’re all distracted the majority of our day. There is so much going on all around us that it can be hard to focus on one task.
Meditation helps us gain the ability to focus and to be able to focus for a longer period of time.
When you meditate you are literally focusing on one thing at a time. Maybe it’s your breath, maybe it’s one train of thought, or maybe it is nothing at all.
How is that a superhuman ability though?
For one, it is extremely rare to find people who are able to focus for a long period of time nowadays.
But, high focus is also a very common trait amongst extremely successful people.
Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. They are all known for being able to (or having been able to) focus extremely well.
With increased focus, you are bound to see improvements in your professional and personal life.
You will sleep like a baby.
Andrew Huberman said that sleep is the best stress reliever, immune booster and mood regulator.
Matthew Walker said that the shorter you sleep, the shorter you live.
It’s safe to say that getting good sleep is the most important thing you can do to improve your health.
Meditation will help you sleep by relaxing your body and brain, and increasing the natural melatonin levels in your body,
I personally try to get a 5-10 minute meditation in every night before going to sleep. It relaxes me in all the right ways and then I’m able to fall asleep within minutes.
Typically I get a perfect 7-9 hours of sleep, but that only started once I started to meditate regularly. Meditation is the (not-so-hidden) secret.
Bonus! Your dreams become incredibly clear.
For a while, I had an obsession with trying to gain control of my dreams and remember them as much as possible. This way, I could make use of all hours of my day.
A little crazy, I know.
But, in this pursuit, meditation has proven to be the greatest tool.
Meditation will help increase lucidity by elevating your awareness and mindfulness.
I’ve noticed I dream better and have control of my dreams when I meditate before sleeping. However, when I meditate in the morning, I am able to fully replay my dreams in my head again.
Now, if you have shitty dreams or bad dreams you may be thinking that you don’t want to remember them. Well, that’s where the control comes in.
Since I have control of my dreams, I am aware throughout my sleep and can choose what I do. Sometimes that means I can fly, and other times that means I have conversations with people who I can ask advice from.
Those people are likely just parts of my subconscious, but I’ve found this to be very helpful regardless.
Conclusion
Meditation can be intimidating. Being alone in your head, with yourself… not many people are comfortable doing that.
However, the more you do it, the more comfortable you will be, and over time, you’ll begin to enjoy it.
On top of that, you’ll start to enjoy it more as you start to see all the benefits I listed.
Meditation is the single greatest thing I’ve done for my mental health, confidence, and inner peace. My hope is that you find the same benefits as I have!
Thanks for reading,
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