For many people, meditation doesn’t really rank high in our daily priorities list, with more emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and even physically, draining activities filling up the top spots more often. It’s strange to think that meditation, something that provide you with a ton of both physical and mental health benefits, is still something that many people find strange; in fact, studies show that people see meditation as just another “new age fad” and something that is unnecessary in daily life, with some religious people believing it to be evil and demonic. Weird!
But the ancient peoples who first noticed the benefits of meditation knew that clearing your mind and allowing the Universe to flow through you brought not just bliss and clarity, but also enlightenment, a sense of well-being, and ultimately, a way to end earthly suffering and become one with the energy that encompasses all life.
The ancients observed that practicing meditation on a daily basis was the way to becoming a holistically-developed human being, something that is sorely lacking in todays fast-paced, highly draining world. It’s time we brought back daily meditation as a necessary activity, not only to keep our body and mind in check, but also to allow us to get back in touch with our souls and our connection with the Universe. Here are some of the purposes of meditation, along with some perks:
A Calm Path to Inner Peace
Leave anything to the elements, without proper care or maintenance, and it starts to break down. With computers, constant usage builds up strings of unnecessary code that, if it accumulates, slows down the entire system; houses, if left neglected, builds up dust and dirt and becomes home to insects. Even places in nature, if something is out of balance, will result in the entire region becoming unlivable.
It happens all around us, and yet many people feel like it doesn’t apply to them or their mind. Left untreated, your mind becomes tangled and choked with negativity, bits of unnecessary code, house dust, and barren soil. This manifests into a constant state of mental and spiritual turmoil, as your mind starts to combat itself and the darkness it has created.
Meditation cures that by creating a sense of calm, stilling the storms, defragging unnecessary code, cleaning up the house, and bringing life back to barren lands. It’s a way to process all your negativity and turn it into something more productive: energy.
Grounds You in The Present
In our modern fast-paced, tech-augmented, reality-questioning world, it’s hard to stay in the present, to be in the moment of things. Everywhere we go, we’re always somehow outside of the now and the here: commuters glue themselves to screens, updating themselves about the lives of other people living in other parts of the world, social media shows us ‘throwbacks’ and keeps us living in the past, and even modern entertainment is all about rehashing, retconning, or rebooting franchises from decades ago.
One of the purposes of meditation is not only to shield you from the mind-warping capabilities of social media and other emergent technologies, it’s also effective at keeping you anchored in the present, in the now, in the here. That’s because meditation is more than just simply “emptying your mind”, it’s about allowing your mind to be fully aware of its surroundings, space, energy, and emotions, and dropping all other unnecessary toxicities. Do this enough times, like every day, and you’ll find yourself craving to be in the moment and to be away from a computer screen.
Unlocks Your Hidden Potential
When you meditate on a daily basis, your mind starts getting used to having access to more of your brain’s natural capabilities. As you train your mind to be less distracted with negativity, free of toxicity, and ever present in the moment, it becomes more attuned to what you’re doing right now. Basically, like a computer with a fast processor, a mind that is used to meditating processes things faster, retains things better, and allows you to access parts of your brain that you might not have used so much in the past.
Of course, this doesn’t grant you superpowers (although we wish it did!), but it does grant you a mind that is more effective, more creative, and more powerful. As one of the main purposes of meditation, unlocking your hidden potential (or potentials) is one of the best perks you can get from meditating daily.
Happiness from Within
One of the worst things the modern world has taught us is to find happiness in external things: branded commodities are marketed to us to make us feel like life is incomplete without it, social media validation has become an actual source of income for some people, and the accumulation of wealth has become the end-all-or-be-all of many people’s existence, even becoming our barometer of whether or not a person is a functioning member of society. But all these are unnatural and temporary, and this creates disharmony within our minds, making us toxic, negative, and even physically sick.
One of the purposes of meditation is to create harmony with your mind, your body, your soul, and your surroundings. It cannot change the outside world, but it can help you create a mental and spiritual space within you that is immune to the damage of the outside world. As you get better at meditating, you start to find that there are many things about who you are and what you can do that brings true, permanent happiness. Because it comes from within, it cannot be destroyed, muted, or taken away; inner happiness is indestructible, and something you can carry with you for the rest of your days.
It Makes You a Better Person
Eastern philosophers have long believed that meditation breeds desirable traits like wisdom, mindfulness, honor, and above all, compassion for your fellow person. That’s because meditation allows you to be in touch with your true emotions which becomes sensitive to the emotions of people around you. As you meditate daily, you become attuned to the people around you, their pain and their anger, their joys and sorrows, and it kickstarts this natural empathy humans are born with. As humans, we are all born with light, and meditation is a way for us to let that light shine out into the world, giving it to people in darkness, and making them feel the kind of happiness you feel.
This is one of the most important purposes of meditation; it’s not just a way to be more mindful, or more present, or healthier, it’s a way to make you into a better person as a whole.
