8 Things I've Learned From 18 Months of Meditation

I lost my streak.

I had performed meditation or mindfulness every day from 26th April 2020 to 20th November 2021, a stretch of 573 days. Did I learn anything within that time? If so, how is it useful in my daily life?

Firstly, I’ve been super consistent in creating and performing the habit. Before I go to work each morning, I meditate for 15 minutes. It wasn’t always this length though. I found it hard to sit and concentrate for no more than 5 at the start.

I built the time up gradually, becoming more comfortable as each week and month passed. I do still feel agitated often however that is normal and is to be expected.

One of the key mindsets when approaching meditation is to be non-judgemental towards your thoughts. When I missed that one day, I wasn’t angry or annoyed at myself in the slightest — I felt joy.

Joy? Even though I lost the streak, I was more proud and pleased with myself for the level of consistency I’ve shown. I turned up on days where it felt more like a chore than something I wanted to do.

The popularity of meditation and mindfulness has increased dramatically in the last 10 years. The accessibility of apps such as Headspace, Insight Timer and Calm has meant everyone can access some sort of free beginner meditation guide.

If you’re unsure what meditation is then it can be defined as a practice in which you sit and concentrate on a single object — the breath. If you try this right now you will become distracted by a stream of thoughts after a few seconds. This is normal. Notice the thought and bring your attention back to your object of focus.

I’ve learned a lot about meditation over the last 18 months and wanted to share the main benefits I’ve found. This may not be the case for everyone. After all, it’s your subjective experience.

1. Increased focus

This is probably the most obvious one. Your focus is like a muscle. The longer you train it, the more you build it up. Over time, it gets stronger and can handle more load too.

I find it much easier to get settled into a task and overcome the initial resistance. Getting into that state of flow becomes effortless.

2. Increased pain tolerance

I had read a study where participants had self-reported increases in pain tolerance. I found this interesting but wasn’t sure how this was the case.

I had a chance to loosely test this out. I was going to the dentist.

I’m not a fan of going however I know the importance and that’s worth more than the slight inconvenience it causes me.

I had often found the procedure to be sore and cumbersome. My latest visit was not the case. I still felt the prodding around my mouth but it didn’t seem to bother me as much as it did on my previous visit where I hadn’t been meditating so frequently.

I walked out slightly confused but also with an even greater sense of curiosity. How far could people take their pain tolerance levels through meditation?

3. Increased calmness

If you can be non-judgement towards your own thoughts then this is much easier in the outside world.

In a world where empathy is at a premium, showing compassion to yourself and others is advantageous.

4. Improved listening skills

I think this one stems from focus and calmness. I find it easier to be present in conversations and really listen to what the other person is saying. I don’t always need to respond. Listening and understanding them is often enough.

5. Better communicating

Getting the listen part down opens up an avenue for you to be able to communicate better. That could be in email form or a face to face conversation.

Calmness, listening skills and focus allow you to formulate the most effective and efficient method of communicating.

6. Better relationships

Relationships are built on trust.

Listening to other people and understanding them develops this.

7. Ambition

I am naturally quite an ambitious person. I like setting myself hard targets that push me towards and beyond my limits.

All the random thoughts you have that come to the surface during meditation can actually be quite useful. You might even surprise yourself.

For me, a thought popped up about starting a blog. I wrote it down and sat on it months before actually doing anything about it.

So you could this post has its origins from a meditation session in my bedroom.

8. Better quality of breath

When you meditate, you close your mouth. This means you breathe through your nose.

If you use your mouth to breathe you cause the pressure to decrease. The soft tissue at the rear of the mouth becomes loose and flexes inward. The already tight space at the back of the mouth decreases which makes breathing more difficult.

How to prevent this? Use your nose. And this is what you do in meditation.

So I missed one day. Oh well. It hasn’t bothered me and I’m back on to building up my streak again. I’ve set myself a high standard in terms of consistency which only motivates me more.

If you like the sound of the benefits of meditation and want to try it out, great! If you want to take things further and like going to the gym like me then check out my other article on meditation.

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