Meditation
Known and Unusual Benefits of Meditation
Meditation benefits not only your mind, but also your body and soul. Meditation Benefits It has numerous advantages that would take a whole book to write about. Here I will mention the most important benefits and the most overlooked benefits that meditation provides.
The Most Important Benefits of Meditation
It is very useful to read about meditation benefits if you are still unsure whether you want to start meditating. These benefits will help you decide if meditation can contribute to your well-being and improve other aspects of your life.
1. Meditation improves your focus
One of the greatest meditation benefits is its ability to increase your focus. Once you start meditating, you will be able to effortlessly concentrate on any work you do without getting distracted.
That will make a huge difference in your life as you will significantly increase your productivity. You will be much more successful than the average person who cannot sit still for more than 5 minutes.
2. Meditation makes you aware of your thoughts
During meditation you will need to focus on silence. That means that you will be able to spot your thoughts as soon as they come in. This will give you an opportunity to judge your own thinking. For example, you will be able to check if the majority of your thoughts are positive or negative.
You should not be surprised if you find the latter to be true because negative thinking is almost a default thinking for the majority of people.
3. Meditation reduces stress
Meditation almost instantly reduces stress as soon as you start practising it. This is because during meditation your whole mind is cleansed from negative thoughts. You can sometimes even feel the cleansing process whilst meditating. When you feel energy circling in your head, it means that the intensive cleansing process is taking place. It is a very interesting feeling, I must say:)
So when your mind becomes more pure, you will have less negative thoughts. As a result of this meditation benefit, you will not be suffering from thoughts of worry and fear.
Of course, you will not be able to get rid of all negative thoughts you have (especially if you keep introducing new negative thoughts after meditation). However, if you constantly meditate, your main mental state will remain positive.
4. Meditation develops patience
If you meditate daily, you will remain calm and positive during the times when most people lose patience. For example, waiting in a queue will no longer be of concern to you. When you are stuck in traffic, you will feel as good as when you spend your time at home.
5. Meditation gets you into the state of joy
Another great meditation benefit is that sometimes you will become happy for no reason. Your surroundings will look magical and you will see everything in different colours. Such state of joy will usually last just for a minute or so, but with time this will increase.
Being in the state of joy means that you will see yourself as a very happy person. You will perceive your life to be without any problems. Whilst you are in the state of joy, the positive energy inside you will look for ways to express itself. Therefore you will be able to express it anyway you wish. You may think of doing something creative, pursuing your goals or spending time doing something you really like.
6. Meditation helps you achieve inner peace
One of the meditation benefits is clearing your mind from negativity. Because of that you will become peaceful as there will be less worrisome thoughts left in you. You will notice a huge difference once you develop inner peace. This will feel as stillness inside you. Even if someone tries to upset you or make you angry, you will not give in because you will be strong inside.
External circumstances and events will affect you less because your main concentration will be inside you, rather than outside. You may still get a bit emotional on the outer level, but deep inside you will will remain still and peaceful.
7. Meditation detaches you from negative emotions
During meditation your mind is cleared from useless thoughts. As fewer negative thoughts will be left in your mind, you will experience less negative emotions. This is because all your emotions result from thoughts.
Besides that, even if you still feel negative emotions, they will not affect you greatly. This is because during meditation you will be able to observe your thinking. Once you think about something negative, you will be aware that you had a negative thought. The thought will not have control over you as you will spot it before it could overwhelm you with some emotion.
8. Meditation makes you aware of emotional harm
This is a great meditation benefit. With the practice of meditation you will be able to feel what harm your negative emotions do to your body, mind and soul. This new awareness will make you wonder if you want to get into the negative state again and therefore you will avoid arguments and other harmful situations.
You will also become more sensitive to the energies of other people. You will sense from a distance if a person is angry, upset or happy. That will benefit you greatly because you will know which person is better to be around. By only being with positive people you will avoid being dragged down into low emotional states.
The Most Overlooked Meditation Benefits
These meditation benefits may or may not apply to you.
Meditation Benefits It depends if you are interested in becoming more conscious and aware of the universal laws as well as higher consciousness.
Even if you are not interested in the subjects above, it might be worth reading the rest of the article so that you would not miss out on something beneficial.
1. Meditation makes you connected with the universe
This is an amazing meditation benefit. When you practice meditation, you start feeling connected to everything in this universe. You understand not only human beings, but other forms of life, like animals. I do not mean to say that you will understand their communication methods 
However, you will be able to sense how they feel.
You will feel emotions of animals when you pay close attention to their behaviour. So when an animal is scared, you will feel the fear he has. I find this ability amazing because then you can sense when animals are happy and express compassion when they feel upset.
When you start understanding how they feel, you will look at animals in a different way. You will no longer see them as some external beings that are complete strangers. You will feel connection with them at some level. And that connection is the consciousness that we all have.
Because of this meditation benefit you will understand nature better. You would not tear a leaf off a plant, for example, because you will know that plants can feel the pain.
2. Meditation raises your awareness
Meditation naturally raises your awareness because you start seeing the true colours of life. You see abundance of everything rather than lack, you feel that the world is going into harmony rather than getting deeper into chaos.
You start understanding the truth. Instead of relying on media for information (which is almost always depressing and false), you find all the answers in your consciousness.
3. Through meditation you connect with the universal mind
That is one of the best meditation benefits that I have found. Once you are used to meditation and you have made it into your daily practice, you will experience flow of ideas at some times.
For example, you need to come up with some business idea and but cannot think of anything. All you should do is to ponder on that for a while asking yourself ‘What are the best business ideas I can think of?’
After that just let go of this thought and meditate at normal times. You will notice soon that you start getting business ideas from different sources. You may read a book and some words will catch your attention and you will realise that this is a great topic for your business project. Such idea may come in a form of your thought. Or some friend might introduce some idea that you can apply for your business.
The ways ideas from source can reach you are really unlimited. Just be open to receive them by being aware of what is happening around you.
4. Meditation removes obstacles for manifestations
When you visualise and try to manifest your desires, meditation practice will be of great help.
Meditation eliminates most of your negative thinking. Negative thoughts are nothing more but limited beliefs that you kept reinforcing until they became unconscious. So once you get rid of them, they will not block your desired manifestations from reaching you because there will be no external forces clashing with your positive intention.
5. Meditation raises your vibration
Meditation benefits you immensely in raising your vibration. After you finish meditating, your vibration might fall a bit, but if you practice meditation constantly, your entire vibration will be raised.
When you get into the higher vibration you become vibrational match for positive circumstances and events in your life. This is because by raising vibration you change yourself into more positive, loving, peaceful and happy person.
Meditation is also the first step towards opening up to different frequencies. This can help if you want to experience other dimensions, communicate with spirits or understand the universal mind better. As I did not reach this level (nor am I trying to at this moment), I cannot be more specific as to how exactly this can be achieved.
Conclusion
Meditation is practised by millions of people because it provides numerous advantages that everyone can benefit from. The great thing about meditation is that you do not have to be an expert in meditation to start feeling the benefits it provides.
After a week of meditation you will start seeing and sensing first meditation benefits like reduced stress, inner peace and inner strength. When you keep meditating for longer, you will notice much more benefits including the ones that I have mentioned in this article.
The Top 10 Benefits of Meditation
According to an international survey of 400 people from 44 different countries, here are the top 10 benefits of meditation:
#1 Inner Peace, Peace of Mind
#2 Calmness
#3 Stress Reduction
#4 Increased Focus/ Clarity
#5 Relaxation
#6 Health
#7 Connection with Source/ Others
#8 Balance
#9 Wisdom
#10 Increased Energy
Peace of Mind
With meditation you realize that you are NOT your mind (or your thoughts)! You are the peace beyond the thoughts! Meditation helps you not get so wrapped up in the drama that often arises from most of your thoughts.
You become the observer of thought, instead of the reactor! You become that “witnessing Presence.”
This is complete freedom!
Gandhi said that “Peace to be real, must not be dependent on outside circumstances.” Meditation helps you realize the peace beyond any circumstance that Gandhi spoke of.
Regardless of what is going on externally, you can experience peace. And meditation is that portal to peace!
Calmness
Again, by becoming the observer of thought, the drama is lost. Underneath is a stillness, calmness.
Meditation teaches you to become responsive instead of reactive. This is a calm place of Being in the world.
You’ll notice with regular meditation practice, that you “respond” to situations more calmly, rather than “react” from a place of anger or stress.
Stress Reduction:
Meditation helps you live in the moment, which alleviates stress.
Most of us spend our lives trying to get somewhere. We need to finish this project by such and such deadline. We need to accomplish a specific result by a specific time.
And while that is necessary in the real world, taking action while being fully in the moment reduces stress tremendously.
We get stressed out because we’re living in a future that doesn’t even exist, except in our minds.
For example, let’s say I’m working on a writing assignment and I have a deadline of four weeks to complete the project. I can spend that four weeks stressing about that deadline, (which is counterproductive) or I can live in the moment and do the necessary tasks to move me in the direction of the goal.
When we live in the moment, our whole way of working is different. Our whole way of living is different!
I know, for me, once I incorporated meditation into my daily life, I don’t think as much about the future and I work on my projects in the moment. From this place of living in the moment, I experience increased joy and creativity and my projects are completed on time, or even early.
Whereas, before if I had a deadline on a project, I would worry about what would happen if I didn’t finish the project, I would think about how my life was going to be over the next few weeks while working on such project, I’d think about the things I was giving up working on such a project. These are all useless thoughts that don’t help me get any project done! And not only are the thoughts useless, but they take away the joy and creativity of working on any project!
If you’re stressed, it’s most likely because you’re thinking about future events (or worrying about the past).
When you live in the moment, you are better equipped to handle the tasks in life!
Meditation helps you to be grounded in the present moment.
Increased focus/clarity:
Meditation is an excellent tool for clarity. Often, if I’m unsure what direction to take, I will meditate and the answer becomes clear to me.
And I can say that since I’ve started meditating regularly, I’ve been more focused and more clear on the things I’m doing in my life. But I approach them from a place of Being.
Relaxation:
Meditation is a peaceful process. If you’re feeling stressed, meditation can be used to help you relax.
Health:
The benefits of meditation on overall health have been widely publicized, so I’m not going to go over them in detail here, all you have to do is Google “the health benefits of meditation” and you will find numerous studies and reports.
Meditation has been shown to lower blood pressure, decrease stress, increase immunity, decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, promote healing and increase energy.
Meditation is one of the greatest things you can do for your health.
And when you live from that meditative place, you naturally make choices that are also conducive to your overall health and well-being.
So the practice of meditation also helps us make other choices that are beneficial to a healthy lifestyle!
Connection with Source/ Connection with Others:
Meditation helps you experience your connection with Source. (And I’m not sure the word “connection” entirely describes it because you are always connected with Source, but most of the time unaware).
Meditation helps you be aware of the truth of who you are! Beyond your body, your mind and your thoughts you are pure Spirit.
It’s the “energy” that remains even after our physical bodies have disintegrated.
Some call it Source, Soul, Essence, Energy, God, Consciousness, Presence or Being.
It does not matter what “name” you give It. It is you and you are It.
However, most of the time you are not aware of the truth of who you are. Meditation helps you live from that awareness.
And when you are aware of the truth of who you are, you also know the truth of everyone else. You realize that connection with others. You understand that we are all one!
Meditation helps you experience deeper connections with others. You realize that people aren’t their clothes, their status or even their actions. You are able to listen to people with this awareness of the truth of who they are! What a gift to give others!
So meditation helps you live from the awareness of the truth of who you are, and recognize the truth of others and know that there is no separation.
Balance:
Meditation helps us maintain balance in our lives. We realize the truth of who we are and yet understand that we live in a world of form. It helps us balance the two.
Wisdom:
Your inherent wisdom is revealed through meditation. Most of us go seeking outside ourselves for answers, when the answers are within.
Meditation helps you to go within. From this place of Presence, answers are revealed to you.
Increased Energy:
A 15-20 minute meditation can have the same effect on your body as a good night’s sleep. If I feel tired in the afternoon or evening and I do a short meditation, my body is rejuvenated.
While all of the benefits above are true, there are a few more that weren’t mentioned in the survey that I, and others, have experienced. They are:
Increased Joy
The greatest benefit that I have experienced personally from meditation is more joy in my life!
Meditation is a blissful, joyous process!
There is more laughter in my life! I even find myself laughing at my thoughts. Situations that would have bothered me before become laughable.
Increased Creativity
From a place of centeredness that meditation provides, you become more creative. I’ve had some of my most creative ideas stem after meditation sessions.
Every since I started meditating, I’ve had surges of creativity.
And if you think about it, it makes sense. All creations come from a place of stillness, nothingness. When we are “in this place” through meditation, ideas and opportunities present themselves.
Positive effect on the world:
The effects of meditation on our environment have been documented, and this book isn’t going to cover this topic in detail. A great book to read about the positive affects of meditation on the world is Permanent Peace by Dr. Robert Oates.
While Dr. Oates’ book scientifically documents the positive effects of meditation in our world, we don’t even have to read the studies to know this to be true, we can see this in our daily lives.
Have you ever been around someone who is very stressed out and then when you left his/her presence, you found yourself feeling wound up?
And have you ever been around someone so peaceful that when you left, you felt inspired, peaceful and noticed the beauty around you?
Our energy affects everything around us. When we live from a place of Presence, we have a profound affect on others, and ultimately the world!
As you can see, the benefits of meditation are vast. It truly is the greatest gift you can give yourself and the world!
