On March 14th, in the notes app of my iPhone, I typed these four simple words: “Meditation is the key.” I had quickly typed this after feeling particularly inspired by watching some videos on YouTube about meditation.
I was familiar with the practice, but I had never actually tried to meditate. It always seemed too difficult and a practice that someone as fidgety as I am could never succeed in. But after watching and reading about meditation, I was ready to try it for myself.
At some point in the next day, I found 15 minutes in my day to meditate for the first time. To my surprise, it went well. Afterwards I felt pretty calm, and I thought that I was able to do a decent job of focusing on my breath and limiting my thoughts.
The next day went similar: I found a little bit of time in my day and meditated. It once again went well!
This is where the problem arose, though: As an 18-year old college student who lived in a dorm room with roommates, it was hard to find time in my day to actually meditate. Between school, hanging out with friends, and making sure my roommates didn’t catch me meditating and think I had gone crazy, it was very difficult to set aside some quiet time every day.
Sadly, my practice slowly fell off. If I could find the time, I still tried to meditate, but I simply was unable to keep up with some sort of daily regimen.
Fast forward to June. I am now done with my freshman year of college and suddenly have a lot more free time on my hands. Using this free time wisely, I decided to resume the practice of daily meditation.
But this time, I decided to turn it up a notch and challenge myself. For seven straight days, I was to meditate for an hour.
Prior to this challenge, I had only meditated more than 15 minutes in a row once. Needless to say, I was a bit intimidated by this self-imposed hour of meditation.
But in order to grow, you must step into the unknown, the scary, or uncomfortable. For me, meditating an hour each day for a week checked all of these boxes.
But now, seven days have passed, and I am happy to say that I completed this challenge. It definitely was not easy and there were a couple moments where I thought about quitting.
Here is what I learned from seven days of meditating for an hour each day:
Meditation is hard
This may sound obvious, but really, meditation is super difficult. For someone who had not meditated often prior to this seven-day stretch, the idea of simply sitting still for one hour a day sounded almost impossible.
However, sitting still with no distraction was not the most difficult part. The hardest part of meditation –for me — was making sure that my mind didn’t go crazy. It seemed as if every time I tried to just focus on my breath, my mind would be thinking of a million different things before I could even exhale.
I would be thinking about how much time was left, the cars passing by outside my window, how I was going to write this article, and many more endless thoughts.
As the days went on, I do feel that I got better at quieting the voice in my head. It never went away, though.
Sitting still with no stimulation is hard enough, but when you add the factor of not allowing yourself to focus on external thoughts, it becomes so much more difficult.
Meditation can make you more aware
One of the biggest benefits that I derived from this challenge was that I felt much more aware. I was more aware of my surroundings, what I was doing in the present moment, and most importantly, aware of my impulses and emotions.
We are all driven daily by our emotions. Most people act on their first impulses or emotion.
For example: A person is waiting in a line at the grocery store. They feel bored. They want to be entertained. So, they pull out their phone and scroll social media. Another example: Someone is driving home from work. A reckless driver speeds by them and then cuts them off. This person feels angry. This anger manifests itself in their actions as they honk and scream out the same four-letter words you would hear in a rated R movie.
After my seven days of meditation, I have found that in the split second before I would normally act upon my impulses or emotions, I now am able to stop and actually be aware of what I am feeling. In this case, I am the one in control. Not the first emotion that pops into my head.
Meditation can improve focus
After meditating for seven days straight, I found that I was much more focused. Instead of constantly scrolling Twitter or checking Email, I did a much better job of setting distraction aside and focusing on the task at hand.
It makes sense why meditation would improve focus or attention span. When meditating, the focus is supposed to be only on the sensation of the breath. This is almost impossible, though. As soon as you try to focus all of your attention on the breath, your mind will go crazy and bring up thousands of stray thoughts.
But this is the key: When you recognize the thoughts, you refocus attention on the breath. This is actually the whole point of meditation. The moment when you realize you are thinking is the “Aha Moment” of meditation.
Now, apply this to the idea of focus. When the thoughts of distraction arose in my mind, after meditating, I found that I was able to do a better job of refocusing my attention on what I was trying to complete.
Meditation made me more appreciative
Something about sitting still in my own thoughts for an hour a day allowed me to just appreciate everything more. Maybe it’s because I was more engaged in tasks instead of always focusing on distraction.
Simple things like food, conversation, positive interactions, nature, just about everything seems a little bit better.
Meditation helped me worry less
Worry and anxiety are more prevalent issues than ever before in today’s society, so much so that these times are often dubbed, ‘the age of anxiety.’ Part of the reason for this — I believe — is due to the constant stimulation this world provides us with. The news never ends, social media is always beckoning, and there always seems to be some crisis going on. Not to mention personal issues that one could be dealing with.
I wouldn’t classify myself as a worrier, per say. But, like anyone else, I do have days, or even weeks when I am particularly worried about a certain issue or topic. Meditation has helped me greatly in this regard.
When meditating, thoughts are constantly popping into your head. Meditation helps you realize that these thoughts are just thoughts. They are not reality. When you realize that your thoughts don’t always reflect reality, you are able to worry less.
The truth is that you don’t know the future. You have no idea what is going to happen. So why would you waste precious time worrying?
One of my favorite quotes from Seneca is this: “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Meditation has helped me get out of my own head and stop suffering imagined troubles.
I didn’t have a desire to meditate for any of the kooky reasons that most people think of when they first think of meditating. I didn’t start to meditate to align my chakras or balance my energy.
I simply wanted to challenge myself to do something unique and see what benefits I could find.
On the first day I sat down to meditate, the hour felt endless. But as the days went on, it became much easier. I think I got much better at the skill of meditating.
The actual act of meditating is still difficult and not the most enjoyable task, but the benefits are undeniable. I plan to continue the practice. Maybe not for an hour a day, that seems a bit excessive, but sprinkling in meditation in my daily life is something that I look forward to doing.