As busy people, we might think that the very last thing we have time for is stillness. Developing a meditation practice requires an investment of time that can seem impossible when we are feeling time poor with calendars marked full of commitments drawing us one way and another.
Why take the time to meditate?
Peace and quiet, when the whole world seems noisy and there are constant pleas for our attention, is a refuge.
Meditation is a non-striving way of being which creates and strengthens pathways in regions of the brain, an exquisitely malleable organ which interacts and responds to our chosen pastimes, activities and daily habits.
What an exciting prospect, we can guide the evolution of our brain through a regular meditation practice and more thus more readily draw on our strengthened capacity to focus, pause, remember and mindfully choose our response.
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Key Takeaways
1/ Retrain & Respond
Lessening the inflammatory response, meditative practices dampen activity in the amygdala (primal scanning for threats and sounding the alarm) and bolster connection between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (regulates the stress response and decision making). Regularly coming to a state of being awake, aware and restful decreases our reactivity to external stressors. Whilst becoming more aware of our looping internal narratives, we can better manage our stress triggers. Crucially, we can choose our response rather than being hijacked by our knee-jerk reactions.
2/ Better Sleep, Focus & More Joy
Learning and re-learning how to regularly draw our attention to the here and now helps enormously by shifting from an often preoccupied mind state to a regularly present and purposeful one. We can relax into sleep better, appreciate and open up to joyful experiences and tap into more focus and productivity at work. Over time, through meditation, we can increase learning, cognition and memory by increasing gray matter and the left hippocampus.
3/ Relax & Recover
Meditation provides a setting to breathe deeply, activate our parasympathetic nervous system (a state of relaxation and recovery) and deactivate our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight, releasing stress hormones). With dedication, we can strengthen our capacity to be at rest and to switch between states (which is something of a superpower if you ask me). We might find we are able to be more compassionate to ourselves and others.
Not bad for a few minutes of stillness.
Start small and be patient with yourself. It’s worth it.
There is no good or bad meditation — there is simply awareness or non-awareness. To begin with, we get distracted a lot. Over time, we get distracted less. Be gentle with your approach, be patient with the mind, and be kind to yourself along the way.
Andy Puddicombe, Headspace co-founder