Why Meditating Every Day Can Turn You into a Better Version of Yourself

Posted on Jul 11, 2023

tl;dr: 7 life-changing effects from habitually meditating since over four years ago.

Updated on 25 August 2023.

Introduction

I’ve been meditating twice or more daily for over four years.

Before that, my meditation was infrequent.

I would have spells lasting a maximum of three days where my heart leaps to meditate, usually after reading an insightful article or watching a video about meditation. Then I’d lose interest and not continue for months to years.

Fast forward to now, and meditating is a habit, like brushing my teeth before bed, brewing my coffee after waking or reading my email, and getting my shit together before I write or draw.

I only have good thoughts and feelings about my meditation habit, and it’s an activity I can’t do without.

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What is the point of this article

I’m sharing my experience on what daily meditation for over four years has done for me, and it’s a generally positive experience I want you to know about.

Meditation isn’t bullshit. It’s an ancient practice (experts say since 5000 B.C.) that can make the mind good.

There’s no reason not to meditate, but immersing yourself in this activity depends on whether you’re interested and convinced that this activity benefits you.

To fully understand meditation, you’d have to experience it directly.

But to me, it’s a:

timed,
challenging,
intimate,
solitary,
with iPhone headphones + Headspace app,
practice with my mind where I learn to stay relaxed with eyes closed,
lying down,
focused,
aware,
observing thoughts and or feelings that come up without judging them and understanding them better,
and helps me stay grounded.

Meditation is:

like learning to play a musical instrument, running, or weight lifting, where consistent practice is needed to get comfortably better at it;
training in resting yourself here and now, thoroughly engaging yourself with what you are doing;
a process that welcomes imperfection;
doable with a partner or group and with minimal equipment like a meditation cushion or mat;
a mental activity that anyone can learn if they’re willing to keep their mind healthy until they walk to the other side.

I’m not here to tell you that you should start practicing meditation. You decide.

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Are there cons to habitually meditating

Based on my experience and research, I learned that there are no cons to habitually meditating.

Overall, meditation is a safe and beneficial practice for most of us.

I’m aware of the benefits of meditation promoted in the media listed below:

Reduced anxiety and stress
Improved focus and concentration
Increased self-awareness and compassion
Enhanced emotional regulation
Improved sleep quality
Increased creativity and problem-solving skills

But, it’s possible to meditate too much (like drinking water too much or eating vegetables too much), which can lead to some possible unfavorable effects that are listed below:

Increased anxiety or panic attacks
Resurfacing of negative thoughts or memories
Feeling overwhelmed or detached from reality
Difficulty focusing or concentrating
Physical symptoms like headaches, dizziness, or nausea

Experts advise that if you experience any unfavorable effects, reducing the time you spend meditating and or consulting with a healthcare professional is essential.

Also, experts say meditation isn’t a cure-all for all mental health problems.

They advise that if you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues, seek professional help in addition to meditating.

With all that said, I hope I never stop meditating until I die. 🥳

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Which meditation type am I doing

With the Headspace app and an annual subscription, I use guided meditation, where my teacher, Andy Puddicombe, intros a concept related to meditation, leads with a meditation technique, and then recommends merging the meditation concept into my day.

I can choose to be guided by other meditation teachers, but I’m used to Andy’s voice and technique.

I can also choose how long I want to meditate; my time is 10 minutes.

I have no affiliation with Headspace or the teachers mentioned in this article.

Headspace’s colorful, cute animations lured me to them. I can easily navigate through their app’s user interface.

Their short videos with colorful cute animations contain insightful ideas about our mind’s nature and thoughts and how we can better our meditation practice and be better persons for ourselves and the world.

I’ve tried other meditation apps; only the Headspace app worked well.

I use a combination of calming and insight meditation.
I lie down because this position helps my body feel at peace.
I close my eyes, deeply inhale, and exhale 2 to 3 times, then breathe naturally.
I focus on my breathing, conscious of the natural rhythm, the beginning and end of my inhale and exhale.
Sooner or later, a positive or negative or constructive thought, a sound, an object, a lingering taste of a drink or food in my mouth, or an odor might distract me.
I’m aware of the sensation or that I’ve been lingering in it and return my attention to breathing.
Throughout the practice, I’m aware of sensations that come, note them without immersion as they occur, and anchor myself back to my breathing.

The techniques I use are awareness, being aware that a thought is distracting me, focused attention, focusing on my breath, and body scan, where I scan my body from head to toe and feel my body’s comfort or discomfort.

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The Influencers

Gil Fronsdal

My first influencer was Gil Fronsdal, whom I consider and recognize as my very first Buddhist teacher who helped me realize that mindfulness is essential to enhance my engagement with this world and that constant mindfulness benefits me in a way that it keeps me mentally and physically untroubled so that I can have an equal presence in the center of life’s changeable drama.

Back then, I struggled with my identity, finding my way to what I wanted from me and dealing with the trauma of my immediate family’s split.

I earnestly sought a no-bullshit someone to guide me gently, and Fronsdal emerged from nowhere.

The advantage of meditation is that sometimes you can see feel that which is not visible to other people the more subtle ways, and the things are operating.

― Gil Fronsdal

I was attracted to his easy-going, calm voice in his dharma talks about meditation and concepts of Buddhism that were relatable and easy to understand.

Eckhart Tolle

My second influencer and teacher was Eckhart Tolle, whose book, The Power of Now I’ve read a hundred times.

Tolle taught me to rest my awareness in the Now instead of losing myself in past and future events.

And what he taught made sense because I noticed when I get caught up in my past and future, I feel angry, depressed, regretful, anxious, and worrisome.

I see, listen, and feel better while I’m here now.

Andy Puddicombe

My third influencer and teacher was Andy Puddicombe.

Through his TED Talk, he taught me I could take 10 minutes to feel better by putting my mind and body in the present by meditating so that I can genuinely see, sense, know, my thoughts and feelings without getting too immersed with them.

His talk about this scientifically backed concept helped me decide to start regularly meditating.

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Are you here now?

Thank you to Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash whose lotus photo inspired my above illustration. 🙏🏼🤩

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7 Effects of my daily habit

My bad temper isn’t worse anymore

During my young adult years, my anger would explode like Volcán de Fuego.

I’d immediately yell and scream by myself or at the people closest to me, usually my brother and or then-boyfriend. I would dump my issues on them. I wasn’t careful about how they would feel, unwitting recipients of my lava blast.

I would display my anger to my family but not to my best friends.

Somehow, letting it all out during those years made me feel better. I didn’t know how to control my anger toward my family.

My anger was taking its toll on me and them. My forehead was almost always wrinkled. I smiled less. I wasn’t sleeping well. The people in my family were distancing themselves, and they became concerned.

As I write this, thinking about my past anger issues makes me puke. 🤮

Fortunately, moving forward, my daily journaling helped to control my anger.

Practicing meditation helped me see why I was almost always angry around my family.

I learned I had preserved my profound resentment towards my parents way down my head. I was cramming all my pent-up anger into my overflowing shit list box.

In the first weeks of forming my meditation habit, seeing my pent-up anger float by was so overwhelming that I wanted to hang up my meditation hat and walk away.

On Day One of starting my meditation habit, my meditation time was 1 minute.

I soon got used to the one-minute meditations because it felt like I blinked and barely acknowledged surfaced thoughts.

When I transitioned my meditation time to five minutes, I noticed many thoughts coming to me simultaneously, and the bad and negative ones were unbearable.

My five minutes of stepping back and seeing my thoughts made me question forming my meditation habit.

I had too many thoughts I was dealing with, like a million floating debris flying by me.

But I can be audacious and upped my meditation time to 10 minutes. This time length truly challenged me with not-so-good thoughts carpet-bombing my head.

But my mindful breathing helped me calm the fuck down, and the constant practice of not immersing myself in angry thought stories eventually made me see them as giant bubbles that float away and pop.

But those angry thoughts, which now have diminished in number, will always be around for me to see; they don’t affect me as much anymore.

I forgave my parents. It’s not like my feelings of resentment toward them are gone. The bitterness is still there, but I can tolerate it.

When I see and feel my anger, I look at them like I’m seeing them through a window; this time, I know I can choose to react or to respond from my calm and composed self, no matter how agitated I get.

I tolerate my stresses better

What exactly is stress?

Stress is the following:

A natural and normal prompt
A state that humans and animals experience
The body’s reaction to new, challenging, scary, threatening, or petty events
We might feel irritable, angry, impatient, overwhelmed, anxious

Sweating the small stuff is my major stress.

Seeing unwashed dishes in the sink stresses me; it only takes seconds to minutes to wash a plate, so I don’t understand why people can’t just fucking wash it right away! 😡

Or when I’m googling something important I want to know about now, my wifi suddenly disconnects. How fucking annoying is that? 🤬

My brows bunch together, my heart pumps faster, my breathing is shallow, and my mug looks like a snarling dog’s.

I worry about imaginary stupid shit, like when my upstairs neighbor uses anything that involves water like the toilet or faucet, and what-if thoughts like, what if the tube connecting the water source to the faucet breaks and the water leaks? 😟

My regular meditation helps me see my thoughts about the unwashed dishes. I automatically breathe deeply to ground myself, and then I see my thoughts and feelings of annoyance. I breathe deeply some more and continue with whatever I’m doing. Then, I adult up and remind the doer to wash their dishes.

My getting caught up in the stress stories in my head is less; they now look like bubbles that eventually pop.

I’m more cheerful

I feel more cheerful because I can control my anger and tolerate my stress.

Resting my attention on my breathing relaxes my mind and body, and knowing that my passing thoughts are temporary eases me.

My conscious breathing makes me feel alive and grounded and clears my head.

Consciously staying mindful, present, and aware makes me praise the gods that I’m alive and well.

I’m more mindful of internal and external events

I swear nothing compares to mindfulness of the here and now.

I feel calm, centered, and neutral.

I’m almost always aware of my thoughts and feelings and am not as judgmental. I see them, I acknowledge them, and I let them go.

When I injure myself, like accidentally bumping my toe underneath a table, I cuss aloud, but I ride the pain without judging it and me much, and my pain goes away faster.

The noise from my neighbors’ air conditioner or the gardener’s trimmer becomes tolerable background noise that has become unnoticeable.

My focus and concentration increased tenfold

Internal and external distractions look like Bokeh.

I’m more productive while writing or illustrating because I can focus and concentrate better, like wearing horse blinkers and noise-canceling headphones for hours.

It benefits my sleep

I meditate before I sleep, so I fall asleep faster, mostly within 10 to 15 minutes.

But sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night, so I use guided meditation.

I stay lying down, and I close my eyes
I take a couple of deep inhales and exhales
I relax my body
I breathe naturally
When thoughts come up, I stay with my breathing and slowly count backward, starting with 10,000

I understand people better

My sympathy, empathy, and compassion toward them increased.

I listen with more patience and understanding, like when my friend talks about her experience after her angry sister abruptly hangs up on their phone conversation. Because I know what it feels like to experience what she experienced, I say something like I can see why a phone hang-up hurts their feelings.

I see what they’re going through, sense their emotions, and I want to stay with them until they feel better.

Limitations

But regular meditation hasn’t changed my thoughts and feelings for people I dislike: murderers, thieves, or bitches or dicks at the workplace. They deserve what’s coming to them. 😈

And there are a lot of dumbasses I still don’t feel sympathy, empathy, and compassion for.

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Conclusion

My meditation habit has done me a lot of good, and habitually meditating has no disadvantages.

Meditation is a safe and beneficial practice for most of us.

But if you’re starting a meditation habit and experiencing unfavorable effects, see if expert advice can help.

What’s great about my habit is that it’s helped me see why I was almost always angry and choose a response from my calm and composed self. I tolerate my stresses better, and I’m more cheerful and mindful of internal and external events; focus and concentration have increased tenfold, I fall asleep faster, and I understand most people better.

My good and bad thoughts are like movie trailers.

Regardless of regular meditation, I’m still imperfect. I still get angry, stressed, and lost in my thoughts, my focus and concentration dwindle, and I still don’t understand why some people do things I don’t like.

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Helpful Links

History of Meditation

10 Pros and Cons of Meditation

Meditation Might Not Be For You: 3 Pros and 3 Cons

7 surprising ways meditating could be hurting you

What Is Vipassana Meditation and How Do You Practice It?

Headspace (company)

Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress

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