10 minutes a day that changed my life
And 10 ways it improved
Meditation (or maybe podcasts) is the most impactful thing that’s affected my life in the last 10 years. OK having kids was, but meditation is 2nd and I’ll make podcasts 3rd. I discovered the Headspace app circa 2015 when I heard someone talk about it on a podcast. It sounded quite compelling and easy to do. It’s 10 minutes a day, you sit somewhere quiet with your headphones on and then it’s done. I gave it a shot and it’s improved my work and personal life ever since in more ways than I could have imagined.
Benefits of meditation
Less arguing
A general benefit of meditation is that it helps you have control over your emotions. You become more aware of when an emotion is having an effect on you, notice when it’s happening and choose whether to engage with it or not. Related to this, I care less if I ‘win’ an argument or not. It doesn’t really matter. In a discussion I’ll say what I think or believe to be true, if the other person thinks something else then fine. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they’re wrong but either way I don’t really care.
Less stress
This is another emotional control benefit. I’m now more aware of when I’m stressed about something rather than being mindlessly stressed. I find it easier now to recognise the stress and figure out if it’s something I can change or not. If I can change it, I’ll make a plan to do something that’ll make me less stressed. If it’s something I can’t control then I’ll release the attachment to it. Stress is actually your body’s way of telling you to take action because something bad might happen. That’s fine if the bad thing can be mitigated against. If it’s something I can’t do anything about then there’s no need to worry and the stress will do much more harm than good.
Better sleep
Meditation practice ends up giving you more control of your thoughts. A main reason for not sleeping well is an overactive mind. My puzzler is generally less overactive now and I make a point of not thinking too much when I’m going to bed. From time to time my head is in overdrive thinking about whatever is going on at the time and I can mitigate this with a sleep exercise to calm the mind and drift off to sleep that works more often than not. Improved sleep is such a massive benefit. It’s when the body does it’s repair and maintenance. I was blown away by this amazing TED talk by Matthew Walker about the importance of good sleep.
Less anger
Another emotional control benefit. I basically don’t get road rage anymore. I still get offspring rage from time to time and I can usually get on top of it before I do too much damage.
Less bad thoughts
I notice when I’m thinking about potential negative outcomes and rationalise them away before I get carried away in a downward spiral of despair.
Compassion for everyone
This benefit was a wellbeing game changer in the workplace. There have been a few occasions when I’ve worked with some REALLY annoying people. For whatever reason our personalities clashed and we didn’t often see eye to eye. Being annoyed at these people was a waste of energy and I stopped it altogether when I discovered the ‘loving kindness’ exercise. This meditation is a sequence of imagining people you know looking content and really happy. You start with someone already close to you, then you move to someone you know quite well, then someone you know a little and finally you finish the exercise visualising someone you don’t get along with being content and happy. Then you realise you would actually like it if these annoying people were content and happy and the negative feeling towards them go away.
Improved focus
A general benefit of meditation is improved control over your thoughts. If you have shit to do, you can be more aware of your mind being distracted, particularly with the battle for your attention going on everywhere.
“Starve your distractions, feed your focus”
Daniel Goleman
A cool way to end a workshop
I discovered this benefit on the AJ&Smart Workshopper Master course. A key principle of running workshops is to start strong and end stronger - doing a short meditation at the end is a nice way to make the group end on a relaxed high. It does feel weird at first to do the meditation chat for everyone. At the time of writing I’ve now led two meditation sessions at the end of a workshop and it’s getting easier.
Improved communication
A tip I heard in the Calm meditation app is a nice way to control how to speak to people in certain scenarios. The advice is to ask 3 questions before you say something to somebody: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’ then perhaps don’t say it.
The best thing about meditation is that it is so quick to do. Literally 10 minutes a day can lead to all the benefits above. I’ve tried Headspace, Waking Up and Calm meditation apps and they’re all good. I’m currently using Calm.
For such a short time and attention investment meditation has a brilliant return.
“Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices when skilfully made lead to freedom.“
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Thanks for reading. If you’re not already meditating you should 100% try it.
Namaste
Iain
