Why Does Meditation Work?

I’ve never been a big follower of meditation. Sure, I’ve read the same dozen articles about its benefits and heard plenty of lectures about the importance of it from various people, but I never grew to ‘like’ it. In fact, I find sitting in silence for more than 20 seconds a traumatic experience, and I’m sure many people reading this will feel that way. All of us raise a simple question, why would I sit and do nothing for 5 or 10 minutes when I could do something ‘productive’ with that time? Maybe, finish a few assignments ahead of time to reduce stress. However, I want you guys to think deeply about this. How many of you actually spend all of your time intentionally? I’m not saying to do work, or to learn, but just intentionally; every minute you’re doing something because you planned to do it at that time, even if it is watching youtube. The answer, including myself, is no 90% of the time. So, why do many people not meditate? That is because not many of us realize, and I didn’t realize until today, what meditation is. Meditation isn’t about sitting on top of a mountain with your eyes closed and waiting for enlightenment. It isn’t about freeing your mind from thoughts; it is intended to acknowledge them. You have to watch your emotions and thoughts play out in your mind from a third person perspective. It seems difficult conceptually, and I agree, but like many other skills, learning to meditate is a marathon, not a sprint. So, if I’m merely watching my emotions or thoughts in my mind, how does that provide the benefits meditation does, like calmness, reduction in anger,etc? To find an answer for that, we have to skip to pain management. When you get hurt, how do you deal with that pain? Most people take some form of medication to alleviate that pain. However, an interesting scientifically backed theory to ‘deal’ with pain is pain acceptance. You simply have to acknowledge it, and that actually reduces the intensity of the pain by a significant amount. The reason this works is because when you merely acknowledge pain, you are not fighting it and logically, it makes sense. You only feel tired after a task if you mentally coined it as ‘hard’. This works with anger and other emotions. Instead of standing between fighting your anger and yelling at everyone, you recognize you’re angry, and at that point in time, you’re taking no action towards it; you’re simply observing it and to some extent, ‘accepting’ it. This works for all emotions, and by reducing intensity of those emotions, you reach a ‘neutral’ state, and we call that calmness.  What does this mean for meditation? Meditation can be done anywhere; while on a crowded bus, in the living room while the tv is on, or like traditional methods, sitting with your eyes closed in solitude. This is what I would like you to do if you want to pursue meditation, simply whenever you are not occupied with a task, close your eyes, and see what’s going on in your mind. DON’T think about solutions to your problems, or when to finish that assignment. Just observe the problems and the assignment. 

Meditation isn’t getting rid of thoughts; Meditation is observation of thoughts.