The Five Benefits of Meditation Nobody’s Talking About

You’ve tried it and felt some benefits right? You wish you could be bothered doing it more consistently but never seem to find the time? Well I understand, because like you, it took me a very long time to commit to a daily meditation practice. In fact it was ten years between doing a Buddhist meditation course at 25 and then firmly making myself sit down every day for 30 minutes when I was 35 and living the stay-at-home mum life.

Nowadays I tend to do one seated meditation of ten or fifteen minutes in the evening, and a moving meditation in the morning, of around ten minutes as well. When you’re at home with two little kids all day, trust me, you need 30 straight minutes, (I was lucky, they had a two hour afternoon nap).

We’ve all heard how much calmer, healthier, more productive and happy we can become if we meditate but I’m telling you, there’s so many other benefits to enjoy.

Here’s my top five that no one else is talking about:

One: Increased patience for yourself and the people around you. Meditation encourages us to slow the heck down and put less pressure on ourselves and those we love to be ready already! How many of you mums out there lose it daily (even if internally) at kids taking way too long to get ready to go places. I remember those days well but once I began meditating regularly, my fuse got longer and I was able to be more realistic with how much time things can take with young kids.

Two: Intuitive hits galore. Oh my gosh, this is the best gift ever! I should put this one in sparkly highlight effects… Listen up, when you meditate, you become so darn clear and insightful, some may even say, psychic. Here’s what happens: your wise inner voice speaks softly, so when you create enough moments of stillness and silence, you begin hearing it. Suddenly you feel and know stuff that your busy mind can definitely not help you with. This is a higher mind job and if life is too full of noise and motion, you won’t hear it.

Three: Confidence and courage improve. Okay, so this is how it works: when you slow down and check-in with yourself often, you feel more connected to who you really are. You discover desires and the inspiration to do things that were previously hidden from view. Then you begin experimenting with following your inspiration and when it flows and feels good, you do it some more. This makes you more daring, because you suddenly feel the world has your back and there’s nothing to fear. More healthy risk-taking leads to more success and positive experiences and away you go!

Four: Better relationships are just around the corner when you meditate. We touched on this in the patience point but there’s so much more meditation can do for your relationships. This is because we develop greater self-intimacy and understanding of ourselves. When you get better at listening to your own inner voice, you get better at listening to others. Also, eye contact. That’s important, and when we move slower, we take the time to look at people properly during conversations. The final relationship gift I’ll mention (although I’ll bet there’s others), is this: when you make space to be kinder to yourself, you get way better at taking responsibility for your own stuff and your own happiness. Get my drift? Good.

Five: You come alive and feel things more fully. I know, maybe that sounds a little scary but don’t you want to have more enjoyment, adoration and fun in your life? The sad thing is, we were all taught to suppress our feelings as kids, especially the yucky ones like sadness and anger. Problem is, when you push away the unpleasant ones, you push away all emotions. The healthiest way to live is to feel things as they arise and not be afraid of any emotion. Feel sad, have a cry. Feel angry, move your body vigorously or go into the bush and shout or shout into a pillow. Do some journaling. Phone a friend and share how you feel.

Meditation brings us into harmony with life and shows us that feelings are a wonderful blessing to experience rather than judge or hide away.

There are so many more benefits I could share with you, but isn’t that enough encouragement for you to give it another try? If you’d like some support with learning how to meditate in a way that’s natural and effortless and includes music and movement, join me in one of my Meditate + Move to Heal courses. Subscribe to my page to find out when the next one starts.