It’s impossible to find anything simpler to do. It can have a profound impact on your mental, emotional and physical well-being. It can help you be more productive, save time, be more creative. It can even make you more tolerable and pleasant to be around!

Yet, chances are you don’t do it. And if you do, I’m willing to bet it is an on-again, off-again relationship.

I’m talking about MEDITATION.

It is drop dead simple to do but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to do. In a world where multi-tasking is the norm, it takes profound skill and training to do nothing and I really mean NOTHING.

That’s why so many people avoid it entirely or struggle to maintain a consistent meditation practice. Myself included!

I also hear people say to me that they do meditate, just “in a different way.” They say things like, “my run is my meditation” or “gardening is my meditation” or “hiking is my meditation” or “writing is my meditation”.

Unfortunately, those things are all healthy things to do but they are not the same as sitting still, closing your eyes and concentrating on something. There is a difference between exercising or practicing a hobby and actually meditating.

You should meditate because it is so simple to do, and is guaranteed to result in a tremendous benefit to your overall quality of life.

Want more specifics on the benefits of meditation?

Infographic created by https://raviraman.com

A few years ago I wrote a blog post about my experience of meditating for 30 days straight. I experienced plenty of benefits first hand.

Turns out, I am not alone. There has been a ton of research done on the benefits of meditation. Instead of citing a bunch of boring research, I’ll point you to an entertaining and illustrative video (check out the citations to the video to see the actual studies being referenced):

Some of the scientifically proven benefits of meditation include:

Decreased anxiety
Decreased depression
Increased pain tolerance
Increased memory and learning capacity
Increased self-awareness
Better capacity to set goals
More pronounced empathy
Higher “alpha” waves – resulting in less tension, sadness, anger
Decreased blood pressure
Increased oxygen and CO2 processing capacity
Better immune system function
Cellular and DNA protection
Potential anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, anti-heart disease benefits

If you are ready to give meditation a shot, check out my previous post for some tips:

Three Powerful and Simple Ways to Meditate

Don’t worry about having to do it every day. Just start meditating, and if you stop – commit to starting again whenever you can. Habits take a while to build up, and over time the practice will get easier. Stick with it. Eventually it will be something you look forward to doing every day!