Science has attributed numerous benefits to meditation: physical, mental, and more. I have no way of measuring all of them. However, benefits that I have personally experienced are worth enough for me.
I started meditating 30 minutes daily from June 4th, 2020. I focused on Vipassana (mindfulness) meditation. By November 2020, I had approximated 6300 minutes of formal meditation. This is by no account any extraordinary feat. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (YMR) had totaled 60,000 hours of meditation practice by age 41!
I applied for the June 2020 session for Vipassana Fellowship Meditation Course from Vipassana.com. And, I received a weekly 30-minute meditation audio along with a daily contemplative article.
The articles are deeply rooted in Theravada tradition of Buddhism. But, it is meant for the spiritual development of people of all faiths & none. Being from India, I was awarded the Homelands Scheme and was able to access the course for free.
To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still. – Jiddu Krishnamurti
I started the meditation practice for two reasons: (1) Due to countrywide lockdown, I had exceptional amount of time in hand. (2) I had just enrolled in an online trading course and quickly realized psychology was a big part of it.
Seven months later, after approximately 6300 minutes of meditating, I looked at my results and was taken by surprise. While my meditation practice only marginally improved my trading results, I had garnered multiple noteworthy side benefits.
Here are five of those for you:
Being at Peace with Myself: Have you noticed how a glass full of stirred dirt in water looks like? The particles keep floating around like in a vortex and the water looks dark and murky. That’s how I felt within me before I started the meditation practice. The surprising thing is I didn’t knew it then.
After approximately 6300 minutes of meditating, how do I feel now? It’s like the sand is starting to settle down, giving clarity to my thoughts. Often I catch myself observing within. And, I am amazed at the absence of any internal chatter. I can feel the quiet thump of my heart, the blood racing through my jugular, and nothing else. Silence.
A ‘Happy’ State of Mind: When I started meditating, it was not my goal to be happy. I had much tangible ones like getting better at entry and exits in trading. But after about a month or so of meditation that’s how my teen son and my wife described me: happy. I remember my wife telling me, “You continue doing what you are doing. You’ve become a much nicer person!”
I had become resistant to all those grim COVID numbers and stiffening lockdown rules. It was as if all those quiet hours had taken the edge off of me.
A Push Towards Conscious Living: Interestingly, I also started making better choices for my life. For years, I had brushed aside my doctor’s advice of starting meds due to high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. But nowadays, I often catch myself looking at food labels and healthier alternatives.
My thoughts increasingly wander around sustainable lifestyle, beyond animal cruelty, leaning towards compassion. It makes me sick to the stomach reading the cruel facts of the meat and the dairy industries.
Better Sleep Quality: I often slept late but would fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I never thought there was anything that needed to be improved. But, I was wrong.
With continued meditation practice, my sleep quantity reduced while my sleep quality vastly increased. I was awakening earlier and with a clearer head. My sleep was deep, undisturbed, and restful. I was awakening with life-force filled to the brim the next morning.
Stronger Connection with the Beyond: While I value my religion, I am not religious. However, as I deepened my meditation practice, I noticed a change in my thinking patterns. I was not dwelling so much on the here and now. The life pace had somehow slowed down for me.
I was thinking deeply on the subject and the purpose of life. The works of Deepak Chopra, Sadhguru, and Dr. Joe Dispenza connecting the matter and the mind with the beyond interested me. The belief that there is more to life than just the body and breath provided me with a strong mental anchor.
As you can see, these findings are not earth-shattering by any means. But, it provides a framework for my life. And I suspect that deepening my mindfulness practices will bring greater longer-term benefits.
However, if you want my advice, start meditating. Do it early in the morning just after you wake. Pick up a YouTube video and start meditating. You probably won’t earn a living out of it. But, you will probably find something that you never thought was possible — a better version of yourself!
