Why meditate?

Mindfunless meditation: An Rx for all the things.

“The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this lifetime.“ —Sogyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Dzogchen lama

Our contemporary lifestyle is getting busier and busier, and many of us now juggle multiple-tasks at the same time. The tech-crazed world that we live in makes it infinitely harder to switch-off, and finding quality time to think and relax often feels impossible. Today’s society looks somewhat like a zombie apocalypse, with everyone walking around looking down at little glowing screens. Even at a stoplight, I look around and see that everyone, immediately when they stop, reflexively looks down to their phones to check for texts and emails, and see what new ‘likes’ they have.

Tech is cool, until it eats your soul.

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered, “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” The irony of all this is that through science and progress, we’ve developed a way to contact each other beyond place and space, almost everywhere, but at the same time we’re causing a deterioration in quality human interaction and conversation, and also making our brains more an more distractible.

But really, why just sit there and breathe?

To put it quite simply, to train the brain. And get it back to our default state of well-being that is inherent to every one of us. Meditation makes it so we’re not hostage to our thoughts anymore. Incessant worry and rumination really sucks. It does a number on our mental health, that’s for sure. And it keeps us at odds with not only ourselves but other people. If our mind is always elsewhere where the grass is greener, or even worse, replaying that stupid thing you said earlier, our brain is full of dissatisfaction. Why not nip that sh-t in the bud?

“The hours of folly are measured by the clock,” wrote the poet William Blake, “but of wisdom, no clock can measure.”

A wandering mind is an unhappy mind

Most of our waking moments are spent being lost in thought about completely unrelated things. Harvard psychologist and happiness guru Dan Gilbert recently tried to quantify this in a landmark study. They found that most of our moments are spent thinking about something unrelated to what you’re doing. The study concluded “A human mind is a wandering mind and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” This is true even when thinking about something pleasant.

Our day to day experiences get stuck in our minds, and we ruminate. Whether we’re thinking about the past or the future, or neither, distraction is unhappiness. There’s this thing in neuroscience called the Default Mode Network (DMN) that is a network of brain regions that is more active when an individual is thinking about themselves, the future, the past, or trying to guage others’ perspectives. While thinking about others, or losing yourself in your work, the DMN is less active. Studies have shown that experienced meditators have reduced activation of the DMN.

Think outward, or don’t think at all → Less activity in DMN → Happier

Think about yourself → More activity in DMN → Less Happy

You are less happy when the mind is wandering, even if you’re day dreaming about something pleasant.

So, even neuroscientifically speaking, your thoughts (and the way you breathe) affects the way you feel.

Meditation: An Rx for all the things

The scientific community has only scratched the cortical surface of how all this really works, but experienced meditators have a number of interesting and positive changes even in brain anatomy. Meditation also leads to less pain, addiction, irritable bowel syndrome, less stress, better coping skills, decreased anxiety, better quality of life, boosted immune system… the list goes on and on. There are even studies linking meditation and mindfulness to more compassion, better sleep, even feeling less lonely.

The mind and memory need rest, and meditation is the deepest rest of all. So, we meditate to hear, see & feel more clearly. We meditate in order too learn to shut off the incessant noise (internal and external), and be present in the current moment.

“The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” — Abraham Maslow

How does “Mindfulness” play into all of this?

Meditation is a way to train ourselves to be more mindful. Thich Nhat Hanh, a poet, Zen master, and meditator extraordinaire, describes mindfulness as “keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality.”

Mindfulness is simply a way to describe what we’re after: that mental calm and freedom that is inherent to the very nature of our minds. Mindfulness isn’t just thinking more clearly it’s experiencing more clearly.

To put it even more concretely, the goal of mindfulness meditation is to continuously be present and experience what is happening right in front of you, right now. It’s a gentle effort to bring your mind back to the present moment, and pay attention on purpose. Left to itself, the mind has a tendency to wander off to all kinds of unpleasant places — depression, anger, craving, self-pity, wanting, regretting. And thoughts, as we all know, are tied to our emotions, and when we’re constantly caught up in negative thoughts and feelings, including stress, we suffer. And stress, as we know, takes a serious toll on our bodies.

Believe it or not, our default state is positive feelings

Being “present” has no measurable output except happiness. It’s the absence of negative. When we stop making our lives and our minds so busy, and switch to simply being still and aware, we can pay attention to our thoughts without judging them—without putting ourselves down because of some “right” or “wrong” way we’re supposed to be thinking or feeling.

“All of man’s difficulties are caused by his inability to sit, quietly, in a room by himself. “ —Blaise Pascal, French mathematician

Meditation for the win.

This is the essence of waking up. Let’s put mind and body back together. Find the fun in the dull. The novel in the familiar, the new in the old. Forget wanting and not wanting — try to find pleasure in simply being alive. We’ll get into the “how” in the next post, but don’t stress too much about the specifics. Meditation is an individual practice for each person. When it comes down to it, it’s really about stopping the excess over-analyzing and over-thinking we all do, and tuning in to yourself and the present moment to both calm the mind and let your true consciousness shine through. Then you feel good ☺.

And here’s the kicker: When you feel good, you treat others around you better. And the cycle continues. Who would have thought that something as simple as closing your eyes could transform our world.

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” —Franz Kafka