15 Reasons Why Meditation Will Make You Successful
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
As the world evolves and advances, scientists are able to provide more and more physical evidence that certain spiritual practices such as meditation bring tremendous benefit to our minds. Although meditation is often associated with religion (as it was first practiced by the great Hindu adepts and later integrated into Buddhism), meditation can be practiced free from religion, faith or dogma.
It is a misconception to think that only Buddhists or Hindus can meditate. Those who believe this do not understand the true meaning of meditation. Meditation is a method through which one can calm the mind and achieve a state of deepened consciousness. Everyone wants a peaceful and stress-free life, and the processes and principles of meditation have been scientifically-proven to yield these desired results. On top of that, there are many other benefits that one can achieve from engaging in meditation, resulting in greater productivity and happiness in both work and home life.
You may wonder, why is it important to achieve a state of deepened consciousness? Imagine that you are standing in the middle of a busy highway attempting to talk to your friend. Would you be able to have a decent conversation in the midst of all the noise and distractions? Now, imagine that you are standing in the middle of a quiet country road. See the difference?
While meditation in itself is free of labels, religions such as Buddhism have recognized its benefits and use this technique to delve deeper into the teachings of the Buddha. Through meditation, we are able to achieve a clearer and deeper understanding of the Buddha’s teachings, which we will know to be explicit and unequivocal if we study carefully and learn up.
Engaging in meditation will give us a deep sense of gratification and peace of mind. We will feel more calm, more relaxed and more focused. Countless people who meditate regularly have spoken about its benefits. The results you reap from engaging in meditational practices are indescribable; it is a powerful and much-needed tool for people that live in today’s busy world.
Do read this article. It is written in such a way that it is helpful for both first-timers as well as seasoned meditators. I hope those who have yet to engage in this practice will start incorporating short meditation sessions into their daily routine. You do not need to meditate for hours, just start with a simple 5-minute meditation daily, and you will see positive results.
Tsem Rinpoche
15 Reasons Why Meditation Will Make You Successful
What could be better than reaching your big goals? Well, it turns out that meditation – something you could be doing daily, at no cost and with little effort – offers benefits that success can’t bring.
Meditation as Mindfulness
The studies on meditation generally focus on a broad type of meditation that could be called mindfulness. Mindfulness simply means keeping one’s thoughts focused on a single thing. It could be your breath (a typical point of focus in meditation) or it could be a single image or word or emotion.
It sounds simple but when you try it, you realize how much your mind wants to jump around. But that’s okay: “When a “stray” thought arises, the practitioner must be quick to recognize it, and then turn back to the focus of their attention,” says George Dvorsky, writing about meditation. “And it doesn’t just have to be the breath; any single thought, like a mantra, will do.”
Here are 15 ways meditation can improve your life, whether or not you ever reach those big goals:
1. Meditation helps you handle stress better
According to the Mayo Clinic,
“When you meditate, you clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress.”
Much of our stress comes from too much input and a lack of time or tools in handling the input. We get information, emotions, and we get overloaded. Our brains don’t know what to handle first, so they just keep cycling through all the information. Talk about crazy-making.
Meditation helps your brain to let things slide away by simply giving it time to rest and meander through the information, bit by bit, letting go of what is unimportant.
2. Meditation can improve how your brain functions
A 2012 study showed a brain process called gyrification happening more in people who meditate. Gyrification is “the “folding” of the cerebral cortex as a result of growth, which in turn may allow the brain to process information faster. Though the research did not prove this directly, scientists suspect that gyrification is responsible for making the brain better at processing information, making decisions, forming memories, and improving attention.”
If that’s not enough, there is also evidence from MRI scans that meditation can reinforce connections between brain cells. Another study showed that meditation
“may be associated with structural changes in areas of the brain that are important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing. The data further suggest that meditation may impact age related declines in cortical structure.”
In other words, meditation may not only make your brain work better, it might also slow down the aging process within the brain.
3. Meditation can help you get in touch with yourself
The busyness of modern life, along with the perpetual onslaught of media that tells us how we ought to look, feel, and behave, can leave us feeling detached from ourselves. It can be difficult to connect with our own values and emotions. We see standards put into place, and we want to meet those standards, so we pretend to be a certain way even when, perhaps, we are not.
Meditation can help us with that. According to researcher Erika Carlson,
“Mindfulness helps us to see our authentic selves in two ways: nonjudgmental observation, and attention. Nonjudgmental observation enables people to really get to know themselves without feeling any negative feelings.”
4. Meditation can improve your grades
Whether you’re a part-time student, a full-time student, or someone who just likes to take tests for fun, meditation can help you learn and retain what you learn.
One study showed that mindfulness training resulted in “improved accuracy on the GRE and higher working memory capacity.” The researchers concluded that “the improvement could be explained, at least in part, by reduced mind wandering during the task.”
The researchers estimated that mindfulness training resulted in the equivalent of a 16 percentile-point boost on the GRE, on average.”
5. Meditation can increase your productivity in high-performance situations
A study done in 2012 set participants up in a real-world multitasking situation. They had to do several activities that required various forms of input in a typical office setting. And they had to complete them all within 20 minutes. Some of the participants received mindfulness training, and some didn’t… and then, they tested them all again. “The only participants to show improvement,” reported the researchers, “were those who had received the mindfulness training.”
Another study, done in 2011, showed that
“daily meditation-like thought could shift frontal brain activity toward a pattern that is associated with what cognitive scientists call positive, approach-oriented emotional states — states that make us more likely to engage the world rather than to withdraw from it.”
Handling high-stress, high-performance situations like a pro could certainly be a handy skill to have, and it’s one that meditation can help you cultivate.
6. Meditation helps you to appreciate music more
Love music but find yourself drifting off and missing out in the middle of a concert or show? Meditation can help you to stay tuned in and aware, one study shows. The majority of the people in the “mindfulness groups” in the study said that the mindfulness task had
“modified their listening experience by increasing their ability to focus on the music without distraction.”
7. Meditation affects your brain positively even when you’re not meditating
Some research shows that the way meditation helps your brain to work better is consistent, staying with you not just when you’re sitting on a cushion with your eyes closed, but all the time. According to the research,
“the effects of meditation training on emotional processing might transfer to non-meditative states.”
The researchers point out that this may mean that the benefits of meditation are not specific to a task or certain stimulus (such as that cushion or a mantra) but are process-specific, meaning that they “may result in enduring changes in mental function.”
8. Meditation helps you reduce a sense of isolation and feel connected
It’s funny (not funny) that in the age of constant connectivity, isolation and loneliness can feel even more poignant. But it happens, and when that sense of isolation descends, it can be overwhelming.
However, meditation has been shown to reduce feelings of loneliness in one study on older adults, and those who have been practicing Transcendental Meditation, even for a very short time, say that the practice of meditation provides a feeling of being connected and whole, a “fundamental level of unity.”
9. Meditation reduces your symptoms of anxiety and depression
Sure, so meditation can help you feel connected, and handle some stress. But what about ongoing anxiety? What about overwhelming negative feelings or that debilitating sense of depression? A study done on high school students showed that a mindfulness program could help a lot with both: students who stuck with it
“exhibited decreased symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression both immediately after and six months after the program.”
10. Meditation can help you fight disease and stay healthier
According to the Mayo Clinic, meditation “might be useful if you have a medical condition, especially one that may be worsened by stress.” Being able to handle stress better can reduce its impact on your body, which can decrease symptoms and physical aggravation.
A researcher at one of Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals notes that
“The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.”
11. Meditation can calm you for a better night’s sleep
Let’s do a quick review: meditation can help you cope with stress better, help you know (and like) yourself more, help you lessen anxiety and depression.
With those benefits alone, it seems pretty likely that you’d be able to get a better night’s sleep. After all, if you can stop your brain from racing and your emotions from raging, you’ll be much more likely to drift off to sweet dreams. Research concurs:
“mindfulness is correlated not only with less moodiness, but also with improved sleep quality.”
12. Meditation can increase your metabolism and help you lose weight
When a group of psychologists were asked to recommend a few strategies for reaching weight-loss goals, 7 out of 10 said meditation, or mindfulness training, would be beneficial.
Another study showed that meditation resulted in an increase in mitochondria. The mitochondria are what fitness expert Lisa Johns calls
“the energy centers of our cells. In layman’s terms, metabolism increased for people who meditated regularly and it was more pronounced in the more experienced group.”
13. Meditation can make you a better friend
It makes sense that being able to know and accept yourself better might help you to know and accept others, as well. Other studies have also shown that meditation increases the “mental expertise to cultivate positive emotion.”
In other words, people who meditate tend to respond with positive emotions more than negative ones. They have a stronger sense of empathy and compassion for others.
14. Meditation can increase your attention span
Are you still reading?
Or did you get distracted up there at point #10?
Meditation can help you stay focused.
Studies show that mindfulness training helps the brain to connect better. What that means for you is that your brain, after meditating, finds it easier to access and process information. Along with that, mindfulness trains your brain to release the information that’s not important, and quickly. So meditating regularly helps you get better at collecting information, processing it quickly, and discarding the stuff you don’t need.
Doing that well is what allows you to keep your attention focused on the information that you do need.
15. Meditation can help you come up with ideas
If you wish you could access the creative, crazy, idea-making part of your brain more easily, it’s time to quit stalling and start meditating. The “catch-and-release” nature of mindfulness, that ability to let a thought in and let it go, turns out to be really helpful for what one study calls “divergent thinking.”
The meditative practice helps your brain to be less judgmental and more accepting, while exercising less “top-down control and local competition.” Your brain opens up to new ideas and inputs, which, say the researchers,
“facilitates jumping from one thought to another – as required in divergent thinking.”
For more interesting information:
- The Mind, and How it Reincarnates
- Discovering Yourself: A Teaching on Karma & Mindstream
- I spoke about Death Meditation in more detail
- Supreme Contemplation
- The Rainbow People
- Kechara Visits Findhorn!
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
To my understanding the word meditation are more popular among middle age group of people. Usually after much struggle with their busy life with stressful working, traveling , financial burden and family, one seek to look for solution. As everyone around is promising the benefits of meditation and how good it is for life and health.
I also have read and heard from friends that through meditation they had achieved to become more conscious and aware. I always knew that meditation takes a lot of self-discipline, practice and persistence and naturally purify a person.
Thank you for you thoughtful sharing on the various benefits of meditation., A good article with a clear lesson moreover you created enthusiasm and interest towards it.
Buddhism had long incorporated meditation as part of its essential practices as meditation helps one to train the mind to focus, to be mindful, to heighten the awareness and to connect with our true nature of compassion. It is great that science is confirming the benefits of meditation and as such, those who are not religious will see the proof to take up meditation as something that will help them improve their lives. If meditation were to be implemented in our daily lives, then society will be more harmonious and accepting of each other to promote global peace. How wonderful that would be.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing with us so many different perspectives of meditation that everyone is able to accept regardless of religion or not.
Besides, mindfulness meditation appears as a technique in counselling field, especially in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This technique involves watching thoughts, emotions, and sensations, without reacting to them. It helps client to control negative thinking.
Meditation is a perfect practice for everyone from young children to elderly. Living in the world of stress and competition, we fed our minds with endless information since we were born. Most of the time we lost ourselves due to our deluded mind. We can’t even think and function properly. Meditation is a way to safe our mind from degenerating, which we can practice anytime anywhere with just a short time daily.
Everyone can start with just 10min to help yourselves towards a better and heathier life.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing with us on the various benefits of meditation. I have been attending meditation classes taught by Li Kheng and through her, I have learnt proper way in meditating. I, myself have found meditation very beneficial as it not only calms my mind, but also my emotions. The sense of tranquility felt after a meditation session is unexplainable. Now knowing that meditation has more benefits beyond calming the mind and emotions and has been shown to have positive effects through scientific research, I have no excuses to not spend even a minimum of 5 minutes a day to meditate. I am working towards benefiting from above 15 benefits of meditation.
When I first joined meditation retreat, after few days I was award that my mind actually have few thoughts in one second and some even too fast and cannot catch it but I aware was a thought. That is our mind, scary, some meditation masters call it monkey mind. The most important is Meditation really need a guru to guide you. Why? When we meditate till certain level we may attached to a level which was so comfortable and each time you will practice to get that level where you are not aware this will bring more suffering to you because it is an attachment. Only the real meditation guru will asked you “let go” because it is an attachment. There are lots of meditation causes out there and some do not have the guru guide you all the way and the danger part of this you may facing the problem mentioned above. Meditation is one of the best way to train our mind, at least it can train us to be more mindful and mindfulness will bring us less suffering
In this modern time, many people will engage doing meditation practice to relief the stress of daily life, calming mind to stay focus to solve problem faster.
I find interesting scienties discover by doing meditation can help people have a medical condition, especially one that may be worsened by stress.” Being able to handle stress better can reduce its impact on your body, which can decrease symptoms and physical aggravation. I have friend have cancer, doing meditation and suscessful overcome sickness and told me that, meditation help overcome her fear and stress many year while she frïghting with sickness. Which stable her emotion and challage daily survive and live healthy until now.
Meditation really does helps us in many ways. The main thing that meditation helps us is to train our mind. Our mind is the main thing that control everything on our body, including actions. We can’t imagine how powerful one’s mind can be, until one’s mind can actually lead the body to harm someone. Thus through meditation, it can help us to train our mind. Train our mind to be more mindful, and train our mind to be more focus. Only with these two mind transformation, it’ll affect a lot in our daily life. Another thing that through meditation can help us is, we never really sit down quietly and breathe properly in our daily busy life. I mean breathe properly is really full breath in, and full breath out by using our stomach. With this slow and full breathing method in meditation, it can calm our mind. As long as with our mind calm, it can be more focus. There are more pro than cons in meditation, but people now are just getting busier and busier with their worldly activities, until they never thought of sitting down, quietly, breathe calmly, and start relaxing their mind. Hope that more people knows the benefit and method of meditation and start meditating.
I’ve never done the “common” meditation which is to sit in a quite & comfortable place to focus on the breath at the beginning & increase the details later.
But I’ve my own little way to “meditate” which is observe my own mind, emotions & thoughts can pop up anytime & anywhere. It’s just amazing to have all of them but if we let them roam free, troubles will come. I’ve kind of train myself to observe myself when any emotion/thought arises, & I would straight away go deeper & analyse why such emotion/thought will appear at that specific moment. If it’s positive, I’ll keep & if it’s causing harm to others or myself, I’ll remember & control it the next time it arises & remove it. This is how I keep in touch with myself.
We can start to stabilize our mind with spiritual practice. By taking some time each day for the practice of meditative, we can gain awareness of how our mind function and in the process we can discover how our mind scattered around all this while. Once we recognize this, we may start to explore the potential of the human mind that become apparent only when the awareness is still.
In Buddhist practice the benefit from meditation is clearly defined. As the result of the practice, one eventually experience natural awareness and the duration of this experience gradually increases. The beginning of the practice require effort and consistency. As we progress gradually the meditation can becomes effortless.
It is amazing how a mind can be so powerful that could control ourselves on the whole. Untamed mind like monkey will eventually results of a person personality and attitude. Meditation is what should we practice, calming, controlling and focusing.
Though I have been practicing meditation for more than 10 years, I still find hard to fully control my mind during meditation. Hence, I try listening to mantras and it helps abit. Overall, consistency is the key of every practices.
I believe meditation can help us in many ways just that not many people will want to meditate because to them it is boring or it is only for Buddhists. They do not know the many benefits of meditation. When a mind is stable and focus, it is able to do many things simultaneously and with good results. Hence, I think it is good if we can spare 5 minutes everyday to do a simple breathing meditation just to relax and calm our mind after a hectic day.
Scientists over the recent decades have recognised the benefits of meditation what those great practitioners of the past hundreds, if not thousands of years ago have known. There is no denying what the benefits are for those who regularly meditate as mentioned here. It costs practically nothing and does not take hours to do.
When I first tried simple breathing meditation, I found it extremely hard because my mind was running wild. But then that was the whole point of meditating. To be able to control and focus my mind. It’s slightly ‘easier’ now because every time when my mind ‘run’, I immediately catch it and refocus. I find myself fidgeting a lot during quiet moments because of backache but at times, I try to hold it as long as I can.
I watched a documentary of great meditators practicing tummo meditation and I am absolutely amazed with their abilities to meditate to such a level. Tummo is a part of tantric meditation cycles for yogic heat. One of them who practiced and wrote a book on it was Alexandra David-Néel https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/alexandra-david-neel.html
From my observation, there are people out there who can really do a lot of things at one go while there are some people who couldn’t even focus on something and forgotten about what was it all about after just a few minutes of understanding it. The point is the mind is of many levels and definitely can be trained up and improved on. As to how to make it better then it would be only via meditation.
I was once told by a learned Monk to stop talking to myself. I blinked and wondered for a fact if I really talk to myself. Is this a form of craziness.
So taking into consideration what he told me and the exercise to practise in order to realise how much we do not concentrate with mindfulness but rather in our own world of private conversation, I started to meditate by concentrating on my breathing.
During the short period of practising meditation, I realised that there was not one split of a second that I was not talking to myself. I went from this is very uncomfortable to my body feels cramped and then what do I do next.
My mind was on a crazy overdrive and thoughts of all frivolous “things” floated through.
Since that fateful day with the Learned Monk, I meditate and began to realise that I actually listen to what the other members of the group say during discussions and conversations.
The results are that I have learnt to listen, register and surprising have no thoughts of judgement, until asked of my opinion, of which seems to be more acceptable and amicably agreed upon.
Meditation helps to calm our minds to live in the moment whereby we are not disturbed by the duality of our minds.
Thank you Rinpoche and Kechara blog team for gathering the useful information and sharing us the benefits of engaging in meditation consistently. Through meditation practice, we can observe our mind will be less heavy, less pressured, less attached, more relax and most importantly, able to absorb the meaning or commentary of Dharma text or any reading materials easier so that we can progress further in our Dharma practice. I have been working in a 24/7 operating semiconductor factory for 14 years and I am very thankful to Rinpoche for teaching and guiding us on meditation or mindfulness. Meditation practice can help me to handle the stress better by recognizing the stress built up is mainly due to our selfish mind that not willingly to let go of our comfort zone and attachment. When we do more for others and not calculative whether in spiritual or secular aspects, our mind will be more forgiving and relaxing because our mind is not being influenced or controlled by outer factors but within our effort to tame our mind.
Further, through meditation practice, I can calm down my mind and emotions to look at things positively with more focus, and continue to be open-minded for other alternatives in resolving daily product quality issues rather than following the old book rules in my hectic working environment. I also learnt that everything that is started from our mind, has to be ended in our mind too. Improving from our inner self through meditation practice can lead us to positive results on the outside. It is our mind to tells us whether we are happy or unhappy and not the outside factors that determine our happiness.
May the meditation practice will be adopted by many people regardless of any religion or personal background as there are many successful stories being made known to us in meditation practice.
Thank you with folded hands,
kin hoe
There are so many research that shown meditation bring so many benefits to oneself in life, even to lose weight besides to stay focus and relieve stress. Thanks for the article.
Meditation is a method that will help us to deepen the consciousness and gain calmness of our mind. Meditation brings tremendous benefit to our mind which ultimately affect the way we live. When our mind is clear we can have better focus, able to have an open mind and accepting new ideas.
However, many perceive and associated it with religion practise especially related to Buddhism and Hinduism. Therefore those who are not from those religion will not want to engage in meditation. I hope more people will find out the origins before making a decision and not accepting this mind calming method.
Thank you Rinpoche for giving this clear explanation and advising us the many benefits of meditation.
Thank you very much Rinpoche for sharing these 15 reasons benefits of meditation. I always believe that practicing meditation can help us to calm the mind and relieve stress. I will try to find the time do start practicing meditation and share these article to benefit others too.
Wow …there is so many benefits when we meditate…..It is very helpful to me and i am sure the rest too. Meditation can calm our mind and achieve a state of deepened consciousness… i only knew this but now i learned more.Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this post.I have shared it with my friends and relatives as so they could learn to meditate to be successful,
Meditation can really help one to keep focus and mindfulness of the surrounding. It does keep me to be calm and patient and not be agitated easily.
To start of with a 5 minutes meditation everyday helps me to perform better. I like the 5D4N Inner Reflection meditation at Kechara Forest Retreat. This really makes me find my inner self andall thoughts just surfaced during the meditation.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.
By meditating, one learns to gradually reduce and weed out the distractions of the outside and the never-ending confetti of our own thoughts. This increases our ability to direct our attention to the areas that need it most. It is such increased focus and ability to think with a sense of clarity that leads to improved decision-making which in turn contribute to the successes of what we seek to achieve. And this is regardless of whether the meditation is done with religious aspiration or otherwise. The benefits will accrue to the person meditating.
On a more religious point of view, meditation is very much in tune with the Buddha’s logic that the mental states we experience essentially dictates everything in our lives. When we are engulfed in our craving or aversion, we will experience the world very differently from the way we will experience it if we are overflowing with generosity and kindness. Hence, the objective of meditation which is to stop the mind rushing about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts. When you see things clearly, you are able to catch things early and because you see the things which leads to negative or harmful state of body and mind, you are able to do something about them.
As someone who is learning and meditating for a better state of mind, I really like this article. To me, this article is a reminder of the benefits meditation can do for be as a person, and how these benefits to me and become benefits for other people. 🙂 Thank you, Rinpoche, for this article. 🙂 _/|\_
Your student,
Keng Hwa.
There are so many benefits of meditation as spoken in this article. Many thanks to Rinpoche and the team who bring us such nuggets from the vast seas of information.
Meditation has been applied in schools to improve attention span and attendance rates. In schools where meditation has become a part of the children’s daily routine, school administrations have seen a drop in behavioural issues (for example http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/nov/24/san-franciscos-toughest-schools-transformed-meditation).
Meditation has also been applied in prisons where the administration has seen a decline in violent behaviour inside the prisons (for example https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/external-article/doing-time-doing-vipassana).
Meditation has become a booming multi-million dollar industry and large companies like Google have started to make meditation programmes available for their employees, in a bid to help them cope with stress, develop a wholesome attitude to life, and increase their alertness and awareness. Happier employees means better employee retention, lower staff turnover rates and fewer employees calling in sick days.
Meditation has been coopted by health food brands, by yoga clothing chains, by juice companies to sell a healthier lifestyle.
Throughout all of this, there’s not one single mention of religion and yet, meditation just works for everyone. Meditation as a method works for everyone because it addresses a universal phenomena which is the mind, and the mind is the same for all sentient beings. All sentient beings want to be happy and all of us have the same mind and capacity which is up to us to harness.
If people approach such a technique with such a mundane / secular motivation, can you imagine the power of meditation to unlock the potential in our minds if we approach it with a higher motivation i.e. to become enlightened?
Was introduced to meditation yesterday. Can’t wait to practice it and be a better person. Thank you for sharing, Tsem Rinpoche.
A lot people may think that they have to practice intensively and for a long time before they can enjoy the benefit of meditation. Of course, the more effort invested, the more significant the benefit we can enjoy.
However, from a moderate practice for beginners, people who practice 10 minutes a day for a week can experience increased sense of calm and clarity.
I witness this from participants who joined the Inner Peace Retreat in Kechara Forest Retreat.