Does meditation even work?
I’ve had some folks ask me this question from time to time. It’s usually a question that comes from someone who’s never tried it, but occasionally I get this question from experienced meditators.
After all, you spend a lot of time “just sitting there.”
But, if you know anything about meditation, it’s not just “sitting there.” Things happen to the brain, to the body, to the mind. It’s subtle, though.
The Journey of 10,000 Miles
It’s kind of like a journey of 10,000 miles. You take that first step. It doesn’t seem like much, and honestly, it isn’t. Then you take another. Eventually you get to 10,000 steps. They start to add up. Over time, you surpass 1,000, 5,000 and finally 10,000 miles. That’s about 20,000,000 steps. I took over 3,000,000 steps from April 2017 – April 2018 for the LIFE Project.
The point is, all those hours of sitting add up, little by little.
How do I know?
I’ve lived it.
How you know that meditation is having an effect
You know it when you turn to the breath in a time of crisis
Time and time again, I find myself returning awareness to the breath no matter what happens. Someone honks at me in traffic? I take a breath. Irate personality crossing my path? I take a breath. Get news of a loved on in the hospital? I take a breath.
It becomes second nature to come back to the breath in times of chaos and in times of calm. What I can’t tell you is when it starts to happen. I imagine for some people, it happens fairly soon after starting a meditation practice. For others, it might take hundreds or even thousands of hours.
I don’t remember quite when this started happening for me. It wasn’t immediately. But then one day I became aware of how I was breathing in stressful situations. Now, it serves as such a powerful anchor.
You know it when you feel this inner power that comes from deep within
As you go deeper with your meditation practice, you start to feel an inner strength and knowing that wasn’t there before beginning.
You have an internal strength that allows you to weather life’s storms more effectively. I still feel plenty of stress or get unsettled feelings. But then you learn to become an observer and detach from those feelings even as you acknowledge them. Then you return to center more quickly.
You know it when you start to change your life
In the years since I’ve started meditating, little by little, I started noticing changes in my life. I began decluttering, taking on challenges I wanted to do, and taking better care of myself. I started to simplify.
You are a temple
I started treating my body like a temple. I’m not perfect – I do forget to mop the floors and dust the cobwebs sometimes, but overall, I have a greater desire to love myself.
You gain compassion
Relationships start to change. You start to feel compassion for everyone, including those who would be your enemies. You can see the humanness in friends and foes alike. And I realize the “foes” are people in two camps: those whose life experiences or personalities are so different than mine that it’s just hard to relate, or that they are just not meant to be in my inner circle. Either way, it’s okay.
You just might go vegetarian
And maybe you won’t become a vegetarian (no judgment there, I promise), but I had to stop eating meat. I felt like I could sense the suffering of the animal that gave its life for my sake. I didn’t want to participate in that any longer. I’d like to go vegan eventually, but no one else around me is even vegetarian and so a highly specialized diet is…difficult. I have a lot to learn about vegan diets before trying again (I tried it for 30 days in October 2017 and found that I got a lot of headaches and dizziness).
Some people have a propensity for being anxious and nervous. You might. I certainly do. Other people I know either don’t, or they hide it well.
Regardless, returning to the stillness of meditation (and no…the mind doesn’t go still – it’s a myth!) has taught me a thing or two about the kinds of thoughts I have, and how much I worry.
It’s taught me a lot about how the human mind works. Whether you’re a worrywart or not, the human mind typically has between 10,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day.
I’m still working on completely detaching from my thoughts and not identifying with them. The ego is a powerful force and it takes a lot of effort to overcome this attachment.
When you or I no longer attach and identify with the ego, that will be the day you observe all your thoughts and enter a state of balance and bliss in perpetuity. I think they call that enlightenment.
For now, I am able to identify with my worries less and less and enter a state of calm more and more. Meditation is worth it for that alone.
You know it when you hear an inner voice guiding you
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve “felt” answers come – both in and out of meditation. Or see things. Or get a feeling. It doesn’t happen all the time, and I have a long ways to go in honing my sense of intuition, but I’m working on it.
The frequency of things happening has increased dramatically since starting to meditate, however. I’ll get glimpses of visions of others’ dreams, a sense of the intentions of a person when I meet them, deja vu, and more. I often do a form of meditation called, “self-inquiry” (if you don’t know what that is, hang tight, I’ll be releasing some free guided meditations in the next couple of months).
The answers that come! Wow! Not in meditation, mind you, but outside of it, AFTER I have detached from any expectations of an answer.
All this because of meditation. It’s a life-changing practice.
Well you have convinced me – but honestly, I didn’t need much convincing, dear Cynthia.
I love how you combine the theory with your practice / experience – meaningful insights always gained.
Have a wonderful week. Love you and hugs, Maria
Sweet Mar! Hehe, thank you for that! Yes…I feel like in order to walk my talk, I have to live what I’m telling others to do: to get still and meditate. 🙂 And with that, I can share my own experiences and wisdom along the journey, too. Sending you big hugs! xoxo
You know you already convinced me eons ago. But if I wasn’t this article and all your reasons here would have done it for me today! Hugs and now wishing you a wonderful week ahead and so many hugs, too!! xoxo <3
Janine – hehe, thank you! So great to see you. Happy Monday! Hehe…you know…just making sure to cover all the basics when it comes to meditation. 🙂 Sending you big hugs and wishes for an incredible week! xoxo Thank you always for your sweet words and comments. I so appreciate you!
Kudos on your dedication to meditation and growth Cynthia. I guess I’ve been casual about both for a while now.
Brad, thank you for your friendship, and encouragement on this journey. And whatever your journey looks like for you right now, is meant to be, because it is what it is. If you’re casual about meditation, that’s just fine; it is where your journey has taken you presently. You seem to have a calm balance about you, anyhow. I say keep on keeping on. 🙂
thank you Cynthia. Peace out.. 🙂
Good post.
While, like the others, (here in Commentville), I do not question the fact of meditation ‘working’, it is useful and enjoyable to hear how the benefits manifest in another’s world.
There are always those fun opportunities, when listening to another describe their own efforts to self-improve themselves to say, “Hey! I thought/did/felt that!”
It may not directly improve the results of my own efforts, but it will reinforce it.
(We sometimes talk, ’round the Doctrine, about ‘referencing’. On the occasion of witnessing some improvement or good luck or dramatic change for the good, I stop and deliberately associate it with whatever practice I’ve engaged in. Some people think that’s sort of ‘after the fact’ justification. But they do call it practice for a reason.)
Clark – thank you for your comments here in Commentville. Haha. And I could see how you would find it useful and enjoyable to see how it might be working in my world. It reassures us and our own experiences, doesn’t it? And can certainly reinforce our efforts. Likewise, it’s wonderful to see your writing journey, and the things that you report on and go through. It’s also reassurance for the rest of us. Thank you for your commentation. 😀
Reading it as you described it, made me realize, Hey, I have changed and breathing/meditation is part of it. 🙂 Thanks for sharing. Insightful post.
Bernice, I would say that is so neat. It’s always wonderful to meet a fellow meditator on the journey. Thank you for your insights and thoughts. I hope you are having a wonderful week.
Does it work? Do peacocks poop in the field? Of course it works! Duh!
No selling necessary, Lil Sis. I’m a believer, in meditation and in you!
How is 2019 so far? Busy as 2018? lol The hits just keep on playing in my world. All days look the same, an endless supply of opportunities, and ain’t that too cool for words?
Hugs coming atcha from windy, wet Olympia!
Big Bro, I like your analogy there. Peacocks make me laugh. And they are incredibly beautiful. Thank you for your belief in me. It means a lot coming from someone who is as wise as you. It’s incredible to think that we first met in January 2012. How far we have come on the journey, no? 2019 is proving as busy as 2018 but I’m grateful for the endless supply of opportunities, and yes words are fairly inadequate. All the same, it’s good to be alive! I hope you had a wonderful week. Talk to you soon!
Just trying a few words again, the password didn’t want to recognise my own PW, but will give another comment a go..
Got your comment, Sue! Hooray! Hehe
Yessss!… working, now to answer your post.. 🙂
Looks like what ever glitch has sorted itself out thought I couldn’t sign in using the email PW settings, it shook its head vigorously at me lol.. So what ever the problem seems to have gone away..
Meditation WORKS… I call many of my own small medi’s going into my Sacred Silent place.. You don’t always have to sit with mantra’s or guided meditations, Sometimes you just need to quiet the mind and LISTEN.. Really LISTEN..
At first its difficult because the mind want to chatter.. And we never know which voice to trust.. But as we sit in the quiet, be it in the garden watching birds feeding.. or being absorbed in painting or drawing or writing.. Over time you begin to hear your Inner guidance,, Your Higher Self.. You discern TRUTH, and you then see the SIGNs that start to come in one after the other as synchronises begin to unfurl.
This week Cynthia I am taking part in the Spring Forest Meditation Blessing with three Tibetan Monks whose chants are helping send healing and blessings into the water of the ocean from the boat they are on into the ocean.
On Sunday their first Medi was 7pm Central Time, which was my 1 am.. I set my alarm to wake myself back up to listen and partake.. It was said over 20,000 were tuned into that meditation.. It was so powerful I had tears on my cheeks, as my heart opened..
Yesterday and the rest of the “Heart Sutra is the most powerful teaching of Buddha. It is a summary of all his wisdom about how the power of the heart can end all your sufferings and help with your personal enlightenment. This chant will fill your heart with love and allow your heart to connect with anyone who comes to you this week. week, they hold one at 7am Ct and 7pm. so for me now its better for its 1pm in the afternoon .Yesterdays again powerful, but today it was different.. I felt myself drift off, hearing the monks and Master Chunyi Lin in the background, but I was way off somewhere, and felt like I had been put to sleep, though I was sort of between worlds..
I have been lethargic the rest of the day.. And really had to force myself to concentrate on what my granddaughter and I have been doing together the rest of late afternoon.
But I feel a new sense of Peace within, as if nothing really matters, Only how we are shifting the energy within ourselves..
I have been taking on board lots of the worlds energies of late, even though I am trying not to by avoiding the media.. It’s been a constant rabble in my head.. Since the medi, its like a broom has come along and swept it all away.. The worry of what I was carrying for the world is not gone, but eased, if that makes sense..
I know I have to try to convey in my blog Peace, but I also have to reveal some found truths, which for those who are willing to listen need to hear.. Those who are not ready will dismiss me as more than weird..
This has been a dilemma for me, worrying what others will think.. Now I am not worried what people think.. I need to speak of what I have been shown and researched and what has slotted together via synchronicities to fall into my orbit..
Its difficult at times to sort the wheat from the chaff.. But I see I have to try.. I need to try to make others open their minds and hearts and see how if we join in unity through love we have a chance.. I know you understand.. I really should have written all this in an email rather than public domain, But it no longer matters what others think.. I KNOW what is to come.. And we really do ALL have to wake up..
Love and Hugs and fingers crossed this posts.
Sue! It posted. Hehe. And it’s a beautiful comment. I will respond properly later on (when I’m not at work hehe). But I just wanted to let you know it posted just fine. Maybe it was internet gremlins the other day. Lol
Sweet Sue, what a wonderful, wonderful comment. I saw it come in the other day when I was at work, and I had to stop everything just to read. Though I couldn’t respond immediately, I have been thinking about and contemplating what response I might make. I’m there with you, 100. Meditation works. There is no doubt about it. And it can take on almost any form: singing, dancing, sitting silently, focusing on the breath, chanting, walking, and doing ordinary activities. It is very true. You learn insight, you learn truth. It changes you. I hope you post about your experiences with the dedication you were doing. Your perspective will inspire many, I’m sure. I really am yearning to go on a meditation retreat, that is a REAL retreat. Not one where I am working towards becoming a meditation teacher, or one that only allows for sitting I would really like to experience a lot of movement, and different types of meditation. Why? I am exploring so many different kinds myself, right now. I am so into chi kung at the moment. I have been practicing for two months on this particular meditation style. I can’t tangibly say what exactly is happening to me, but there is something incredibly powerful going on starting from within. It’s like the universe is growing inside me, and I feel this need to imagine traveling to different galaxies, and stars, seeing infinite light and darkness all at once in my minds eye. Sometimes I imagine meeting incredibly different humanlike figures with such wisdom that no human has ever known before. I see different worlds, landscapes, skies, and possibilities. I see the potential for infinite peace, and oceans of love. I am not sure what’s happening, but I feel this need to keep going and explore. I think it has something to do my rising chi energy. I think these experiences will lead to a book someday. I have this need to imagine the fantastical and share it to inspire. I don’t know, but I am lettingThere is not a lot of information on this type of qigong. However, I actually think it’s a good thing. My first instinct is to look up articles and find as much information about things as possible. It’s forcing me to rely upon intuition. Something I need to do more anyway. Something is happening. I don’t know what. But I like it, and I want to continue. In that line of thinking, when you reveal your truths, those who are ready will hear. (As a side note, the fact that you used the word “orbit” – it does speak so that part what I was saying about touching the universe.) Shout from the mountain tops, my friend. Help our fellow humans to wake up. I will do my part also.