In ancient times, meditation was used for three purposes: one, it was used for enlightenment, for finding the Self. Two, meditation was used as a way to overcome misery and problems. And third, meditation has also been a way to improve one’s abilities. Leaving aside enlightenment, the way stress and problems are taking over our lives today, meditation isn’t just helpful—it’s something we seriously can’t afford to ignore.
Around forty years ago, when Gurudev used to talk about meditation, people thought it was not for young people, it was for those who had one foot in the grave or those who had nothing to do. Today, the issue of mental illness affects an estimated 350 million people around the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Unfortunately, many people don’t even acknowledge that they are depressed, and nearly 50 per cent of major depression goes untreated. And today, especially when there is so much uncertainty, tension, and aggression on one side and depression on the other side, mental health has become the biggest challenge in the world. Whether it’s reducing depression or increasing grey matter, it has been proven that meditation can help everyone at any age.
If you search the internet, you will find multiple studies and lists on the benefits of meditation. Meditation has been proven to help physical health, mental health, and emotional well-being. Here we examine the everyday practical benefits of meditation.
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More Busy? More Meditation!
One common excuse people give is that they are too busy to meditate. But it’s the reverse! The more responsibility you have in your life, the more you need meditation. If you have nothing to do, you may not need meditation so much because you have nothing to do. The busier you are, the less time you have, the more work you have, and the more desires and ambitions you have, all the more you need to be meditating because meditation not only relieves you of stress and strain, but it also enhances your ability to face the challenges and achieve your goals.
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Become More Attractive
It’s the practical experience of people, when they start to meditate, they find they have more time, because they can focus and get more done.
A subtle benefit of meditation is that it improves the bio-energy in our body, in our system. Have you noticed that sometimes you meet someone and for no reason, you don’t want to talk to them? Whereas with some other people whom you have not met so often, you still feel some sort of closeness with them and you feel comfortable. This is because of the positive energy. Meditation creates positive and harmonious energy around us.
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Improve Your Relationships
Meditation creates positive vibrations around you, influencing your behaviour with others, and others’ behaviour with you. Anger and disappointment become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish. This improves all our relationships, whether at home or work.
Meditation helps to change your perspective. It improves the way you perceive things. It brings clarity to the mind. It improves your interaction with people around – what you say, how you act, and react in different situations. You gain more awareness.
The mind gains the ability to accept people and situations as they are spontaneously. Consequently, regular meditation will, over time, result in fewer expectations and less disturbance and disappointment over unfulfilled expectations. All this naturally leads to strong, mature relationships.
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Meditation: The Missing Pill
A proven benefit is that meditation improves health. There is a lot of research now on how meditation helps with hypertension, diabetes, heart problems, skin problems, nervous system problems, and several other issues.
It’s worth thinking – what is health? What is being healthy? When one is physically strong, mentally calm, stable, and emotionally soft inside, then one is healthy. If the mind is stiff and judgmental, then it is not mental health.
In Sanskrit, there is a word, Swasthya. Swasthya means health. It also means being in oneself. Established in the Self is the word for health. Being healthy is the smooth flow from the innermost to the outer and vice versa, from the outer to the inner. How to do so? The answer is pranayama and meditation. -
Deep Rest. High Energy.
Deep rest and dynamic activity are complementary to each other. How can you be dynamically active if you have not given deep rest to your mind and body? Someone who has never slept cannot feel energetic at all.
When we are engaged in so many activities, we seem to collect mental dust, and the energy goes down. Then it is time to recharge again, to meditate. Meditation is getting back to our source, which is enormous and unfathomable.
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From Distraction to Concentration
Apart from the health benefits, meditation improves concentration. It helps one to be in the present moment. The mind vacillates between the past and the future. We are either angry about the past or anxious about the future, all the time. So meditation helps keep the mind from swinging between the past and the future, to be more in the present.
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From Chaos to Clarity
Meditation is the solution to create a serene mind, which is above craving and aversion. If there are ripples on the surface of a lake, we cannot see the depth. Similarly, unless the mind is restful, we cannot experience the harmony and union within us. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth.
Meditation makes you sharper, happier, and intuitive. And everyone wants intuition – you want the right thought to come to you at the right time.
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Freedom in the Present Moment
Have you observed what is happening in your mind every moment? It vacillates between the past and the future. It is either in the past, occupied with what has happened, or in the future, thinking about what you have to do. With meditation, however, you can become aware of these two tendencies of the mind and bring the mind to the present. Happiness, joy, enthusiasm, efficiency, and effectiveness are all in the present.
The human mind is very complex. It has its delicate and tough aspects. If you have had a misunderstanding with a friend or colleague at work, you can become stiff inside, which can distort your emotions and lead to negativity. You carry this negativity wherever you go. However, when you culture your mind with meditation, its tendency to hold on to negative emotions simply disappears. You gain the ability to start living in the present moment and can let go of the past.
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Sensitive Yet Unshakable
Emotionally, you feel lighter, softer, and purer. You can let go of all the past garbage. It sharpens our mind and intellect, making our mind very clear, and our emotions soft and strong. Either our emotions are very strong or they are very delicate. But meditation brings that balance between sensitivity and sensibility.
A regular practice can transform the quality of your life by culturing the nervous system to maintain peace, energy, and expanded awareness throughout the day. You become beautiful yet strong, capable of accommodating different challenges in life without any conditions.
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Feed Your Soul
Music is food for emotions; knowledge is food for the intellect; entertainment is food for the mind, and meditation is the food for our soul. Meditation nurtures the core of your existence. It opens the door to the unknown – shows you that your intelligence or intuitive ability is way beyond your expectations.
With the integration of meditation into one’s daily life, a fifth state of consciousness, called cosmic consciousness, dawns. Cosmic consciousness means perceiving the whole cosmos as part of oneself. When we perceive the world as a part of us, love flows strongly between the world and us.
Why Meditate Daily?
Summary
There are more than a hundred benefits of meditation, which uplift our human spirit, making us healthy, happy, and friendly. Healthy, happy, and friendly. These are three essential things we need in life. And for this, we need to meditate.
Resources
- Download Sattva App: Easiest way to learn & practice meditation for beginners
- Sahaj Samadhi Meditation: Learn from our experienced Meditation teachers
- Free Meditation Challenges: Take up a Challenge for yourself and bring positive change in life
FAQ about Benefits of Meditation
Studies have also linked meditation to improved immunity, reduced inflammation, and enhanced emotional stability—contributing to overall mental and physical health.
Sudarshan Kriya Yoga, a rhythmic breathing practice, has been shown to improve social behavior and resilience while reducing perceived stress (Zope et al., 2013). Even short sessions offer immediate stress relief and contribute to long-term emotional wellbeing.
Another trial showed it was as effective as leading medications for anxiety, with fewer side effects. Studies using MRI have shown that consistent meditation practice can lead to increased grey matter in areas associated with learning, memory, emotion regulation, and self-awareness. (Hölzel et al., 2011)
Regular practitioners report better communication, reduced conflict, and more harmonious relationships. These practices also lead to lower levels of loneliness and increased social engagement, strengthening both personal and social bonds
Samadhi has often been misunderstood. “Dhi” is that which sustains you. “Sama” means an equanimous sustainer of body and consciousness. That is Samadhi. That which upholds you, that which keeps the spring of life alive, that is samadhi.
It is a deep state that carries you higher and higher until your very presence radiates love. In Samadhi, you are given energy and long-lasting bliss.
And it’s going to give you positive results throughout the day. Take only 20 minutes every day, a few minutes of breathing, a few minutes of meditation. In that short period of meditation, your body gets deeper rest than the deepest sleep. You get rejuvenated.
You eat food only twice a day or thrice a day, but that gives you enough energy to keep going. In the same way, meditation can help you to be very calm, collected, and happy.
“Sahaj Samādhi Meditation” is the easiest, most beautiful way to meditate. “Sahaj” means natural, effortless. This is a very natural way of transcending thoughts and going into the source of our existence. In this technique, you take a personal mantra and you keep it inside. It is like sowing a seed and covering the soil on top. Then that seed has roots below and shoots above. “Sahaj Samādhi” is such a sowing of the seed of meditation.
Then every day you practice and you will see so much bliss and clarity, calmness, intuition. Everything springs in life. And this you can do anywhere, whether you are traveling in the train, car (not driving of course!), or plane.
References
- Effect of “Sudarshan Kriya” on serum cortisol level before terminal examination in undergraduate medical students Dr. Sonu Kumar, Dr. RB Kamal and Dr. Kavita Chawala https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2017/vol3issue7/PartH/3-7-56-733.pdf
- Hölzel, B. K., et al. (2011). Meditation practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36–43. DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006
- Meditation interventions efficiently reduce cortisol levels of at-risk samples: a meta-analysis Adam Koncz, Zsolt Demetrovics, Zsofia K Takacs (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32635830/)
- Zope SA, Zope RA. Sudarshan kriya yoga: Breathing for health. Int J Yoga. 2013 Jan;6(1):4-10. doi: 10.4103/0973-6131.105935. PMID: 23440614; PMCID: PMC3573542.
