Meditation for Dummies

Why Meditate?

Meditation is not an esoteric practice. It’s really pretty simple. When you meditate, you focus your attention on one thing, such as your breathing, or a word or phrase called a mantra. You do it regularly and, ideally, for the long term. That’s what makes meditation a practice or discipline. The longer you do it, the more you experience its benefits: “calm, peace, well-being, wholeness, clarity and compassion.” Meditation can change the quality of your life experience by helping you to connect with yourself and others, and aligning you with deep spiritual realities.

Meditation has spiritual roots: Monks, mystics and shamans have meditated throughout history. However, even if you don’t belong to any particular spiritual tradition, you can still meditate. You can focus on any number of things and have any number of goals. You can seek spiritual awakening and contemplate the nature of the divine, or you can seek better health and visualize T-cells attacking an infection. Both are meditation, because both involve training your attention and building your ability to concentrate.

Life has always been difficult and stressful, and the ability to stay calm...