Sitting Around Doing Nothing but Breathing...

I enjoy meditating. Personally I wonder what would have become of my life if I hadn’t discovered it at the time I did. Lots of people use meditation for a variety of reasons, as an alternative to getting high is among them....

From what I could tell, the two main reasons to meditate can be loosely categorized as:

1. Health
2. Happiness

And with good reason; meditation is well and truly proven to be excellent at improving your health and helping you to feel happier. I myself have more than once used meditation to help me to focus become aware of the many shortcomings in my health, and when the occasional depressive thought rears its head. 

Now – health and happiness are two ducky categories for the reasons people meditate, but they are not very specific. I want to know in closer detail, why people “sit and do nothing”.

Here are some of my guesses, maybe you have some more, if so please add them to the comments section:

Reasons To Meditate

• Mental Clarity
• Improves Physiological Health
• Facilitates Healing
• Decreased (effects of) Stress and Anxiety
• Increased Happiness and General Feelings of Well-Being
• Lowers High Blood Pressure
• Increases Energy and Vigor
• Increased Creativity
• Increased Ability to Focus
• Supports efficient post-operative recovery
• Increases serotonin production, which affects your mood (low-levels can cause depression)
• Helpful for those suffering from insomnia
• Helps Eliminate Headaches
• Can Help You Overcome Addictions
• Can bring on blissful “Cosmic High” type experiences
• Helps manage symptoms of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
• Greater Self-Knowledge
• Can help you identify your life purpose or ‘calling’
• Sharper Intuition
• Spiritual insight and enlightenment

A couple of these really speak to me, not the least of which is the spiritual insight and enlightenment. That doesn't mean moving off to some exotic spiritual place where you will never feel pain, have lots of money and everything will be hunky dory...

it means that you start to recognize that life is here, and life is now. And to recognize along with the here and how, the wisdom of living today in a way you find satisfying and enjoyable. Why is that so hard for some people? Apparently that is the subject for another post...