A client said to me, “I’m just trying to be more mindful. Most people don’t even know what that is.”
You know what? I think he’s right. If I had to sum up mindfulness in one sentence, it would be: To think about what you’re thinking about.
The purpose of mindful meditation is to become aware of the present moment without any pressure to do, think, or be anything other than what you are doing, thinking, or being at that very moment.
No need to worry about the past because it has already happened. No need to contemplate the future because it hasn’t yet happened. Just bring awareness to this very moment, as it is, without any judgment, because our present moment is always changing.
Sri Swami Venkatesananda suggests that you can ruin the practice of meditation by stating the benefits of meditation, because you introduce a goal into something meant to be goal-less.
He says, “The moment you introduce a goal to meditation, it is gone. Happiness in life comes not by manipulating what you want to achieve but by paying attention to something seemingly totally unconnected with it.”
I would agree. However, I might be getting way of head for those of you who are already scratching your head and wondering, “I don’t even know what this meditation thing is and why it’s important to do, let alone how to ruin it!”
For those of you out there, here are the first steps, the essential how-tos, the building blocks to success. Your simple guide.
In this one article here, I will not only list reasons to meditate, but make the practice of meditation easy.
The List of Reasons Why You Should Meditate
1. Heal your mind and your body. Because your body and your mind are intimately connected, it’s important to know how your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions affect the physical well-being of your body. Prolonged stress without relief, for example, can cause headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure, heart problems, and high cholesterol and can contribute to depression and anxiety symptoms. Want more on this connection? Read WebMD’s article on the stress’ effects.
2. Escape the noise. Our lives are filled with noise. All three kinds of noise:
- Physical noise like people’s talking, music, television, or anything externally that distracts your immediate train of thought.
- Psychological noise of your judgments, thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, and internal biases you bring to every conversation or situation.
- Physiological noise like a headache, stomachache, or other bodily functions that may disrupt your current train of thought.
Meditation is a practice to free you from all three. It helps you create a quiet space for yourself where you put your judgments, stereotypes, and biases aside and distance your mind from any physical symptoms you may feel at the present moment.
3. Improve mood and immune function. Research suggests mindfulness meditation helps with a whole host of conditions. For instance, mindful meditation seems to help ease the symptoms of anxiety, and practitioners in one study had a better immune response to the flu vaccine than those who did not meditate.
Another study found that cancer patients who did mindfulness meditation for seven weeks had 31% lower stress symptoms and 67% less mood disturbance than those who did not meditate.
The National Institute of Health’s Center of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine has done research on the effects of meditation on various ailments, including eating disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, HIV, depression, and lower back pain. Results in all these studies looked good.
The Purpose of Meditation
Meditation doesn’t have to be involve you sitting Indian-style wearing a robe (though there is a reason this image is part of the tradition–which I’ll touch upon in Part 2).
Really, to get started, all you need is the intention to quiet your mind.
Why quiet your mind? That noise we talked about before, remember?
Also, by quieting your mind, you are then able to actually HEAR yourself THINK.
If you’ve followed all my posts here, you’ll know that I wholeheartedly believe in the power of your thoughts. They control your every emotion and action. So you better know what you’re thinking!
I tell my clients–and now I’m telling you: You need to think about what you’re thinking about. It’s a very important aspect of change. But it’s not easy to do unless you quiet your mind.
OK, OK, you get it. But after all this talk about quieting your mind, how do you do it? Stay tuned! If your taste buds have been tempted, you won’t want to miss Part 2 of Meditation Made Easy!
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photo credit: markhillary
“Fight Truth Decay.” I saw that slogan on a sign along the road on my way home from my brother-in-law’s house. I had to take a picture of it because it meant something to me–albeit something different than it did to the church that posted it on a billboard.
Here’s what it means to me: Our truth is really our spiritual existence, and by spiritual existence, I’m talking about something that goes way beyond our belief systems. Beliefs are what we learn. Core truth is what is and what will always be.
For more on what I’m talking about, check out an article on self-love written by Hara Estroff Marano in Psychology Today.
In it, Marano gets to the heart of what core truth is by nicely summing up what self-love is:
Core Truth 1: Honor who you are. Remember you are meant to be in this world, both having this physical human experience as well as existing as a spiritual being of pure love, peace, and perfection. Honor that core person, for it is the truth of who you really are.
Core Truth 2: As a human, you are capable of creating joy, happiness, pain, sadness and suffering in your life. Choose what you will create. You have the power to control your own destiny through this self-will.
Core Truth 3: You are always evolving and becoming a better and more refined human being. This is your purpose in life.
Ultimately, to understand this core truth, it’s important not to confuse why you are here, your role for existing. As Marano says, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
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