TL;DR: Controlling your mind is the key to success in life. Meditation is training for your mind so that you may better control it.
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” – Plato
Introduction
Ask just about anyone what it takes to become successful and the answers that you get are usually something along the lines of the following: “You’ve got to be calm under pressure” or “You’ve got to stay focused when going after your goals and never quit.”
While calm and focus are both great qualities to have, nobody really mentions how you actually go about obtaining them. Thankfully, there is free and easy practice that is as old as time itself, that can be used to boost both your calm and focus, as well as a myriad of other positive benefits. That method is known as meditation.
What is Meditation
Meditation, in its essence, is the training of your mind. Much like how one uses weightlifting to strengthen and gain control over their physical body, meditation can be used to strengthen and gain control over one’s mind.
Meditation has been used for millennia, by a multitude of different cultures and religions around the world, to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. [1]
Benefits of Meditation
As mentioned above, meditation is the practice of training your mind. Before beginning the training of your mind it is important to first grasp two very simple, yet powerful truths. The first being that you are the master of your own mind, meaning that you are ultimately in control of everything that happens inside your head.
You control your thoughts, your thoughts don’t control you.
This leads nicely into the second point being that you are not your thoughts. It’s a common misconception to believe that that little voice inside of you is “you”. This is not the case. You are a being, a person, a spirit, whatever you want to call it. Your mind is just a component of “you”, it is not all of you.
I personally believe that these two points are of such importance that I decided to repeat them below, in bold.
1) You are the master of your own mind
2) You are not your thoughts
These two points can be understood and internalized through the use of meditation. So many people go through life being at the mercy of their own mind, constantly being tossed around by its chaotic shifts and changes. Meditation can assist you in grabbing the reins of your mind and then steering it in the direction that you want it to go.
Once you have gained control of your mind, you will find your own goals will be much easier to achieve. You will be able to force yourself to be more focused and disciplined on achieving them and the path forward will seem much more clear and much less frightening. A controlled mind is essential to achieving any sort of maintained success throughout life; meditation is a great tool for this.
Additionally, there are numerous scientifically backed [2] benefits to meditation. Several are listed below:
- Reduces Stress
- Controls Anxiety
- Promotes Emotional Health
- Enhances Self-Awareness
- Lengthens Attention Span
- May Reduce Age-Related Memory Loss
- Can Generate Kindness
- May Help Fight Addictions
- Improves Sleep
- Helps Control Pain
- Can Decrease Blood Pressure
How to Meditate
To meditate is simple, all you “do” is nothing. Of course, that’s much easier said than done. Very infrequently in day to day life are we actually doing nothing. Even when we are scrolling mindlessly through social media, binging TV shows on Netflix or fast asleep at night, we are still technically doing something. To meditate is to actively do nothing. To not even think, if possible.
“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone” – Alan Watts
There are hundreds of different methods to meditating that you may find online, yet the majority of them focus around the idea of doing nothing. I have provided my own method for meditating below.
It is recommended to meditate at least once per day to start seeing the lasting benefits from it. I personally find meditation right before bed to be most effective yet many people prefer doing it in the morning, before starting their day
- Sit comfortably on a chair or bed in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed (lying down also works, yet I personally find I’m too likely to begin falling asleep when doing so)
- Set a timer on your phone for how long you wish to meditate. (I recommend starting with 5 minutes and working your way up from there. I personally have not found much benefit going beyond 15 minutes)
- Close your eyes and slow your breath. Focus on your breaths as they come in and out (some methods utilize a short mantra that you repeat to yourself rather than breaths)
- Attempt to keep your mind as clear as possible. This takes practice as trying to block or force thoughts out of your mind will spawn more. Simply allow thoughts to come and go until they eventually stop coming. Think of this almost like a rep in weightlifting. When your mind starts to wander, exert your focus to bring it back. Repeat this until your mind gets stronger and you wander less
- Remain in this peaceful, empty state of meditation for the duration of your timer. When your timer goes off take a moment to appreciate the peaceful state you are now in before moving on with your day
That’s really all there is to it! It will take some practice to get it right, but eventually you should start to feel great calm and clarity that will begin to spread forward into your life, even during the times where you are not meditating.
It is difficult to say when meditation is actually “working” or not, as it is one of those things you need to experience to understand. The best way that I can describe when meditation is “working” for me personally is when my mind becomes a big vast empty space, almost like a dark, calm lake. There are no thoughts at this point, just myself simply existing.
Conclusion
If you want a life filled with long lasting success you must first learn how to control your mind. Meditation is a great tool for training your mind and it also has numerous, scientifically backed benefits. It is free and simple to do and only takes 5 minutes a day to perform. Try meditation today and see the benefits for yourself.
References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
[2] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation
