A couple weeks ago I started my meditation challenge to answer the question: does meditation work? Specifically, I wanted to see if a small, but consistent amount of meditation would help me regain focus and calm. This is a short (2 minute) video that explains what meditation is and how it helps.
As you may remember, I am meditating with Muse, the brain sensing headband. I like Muse because it provides me with real-time data on each meditation session. I usually did 1 or 2 sessions that lasted 5-10 minutes. So, my total time commitment was minimal.
Does meditation work? Here are my observations:
- I do feel better overall.
- If you haven’t been meditating, 5 mins of silence is a long time!
- I actually started to crave meditation. It was different then looking forward to it; it really felt like my mind telling me I needed it.
- I have a frequently sore back muscle and it didn’t bother me at all during my meditation challenge.
- When I meditate at night, I tend to fall asleep.
- My results generally showed more calmness on weekends.
- Even a very small amount of meditation helps.
In this session, I got into a nice calm place pretty quickly. Towards the end I kept dozing off.
And on this one, I just struggled during most it. You can see my mind was very active, especially during the second half.
This short article explains how the brain changes with meditation – leading to more focus, calm, less anxiety and reactivity. Sound good? Give it a try. The key is to just keep practicing everyday and you will gradually strengthen the parts of the brain that regulate, plan, and think.
What an interesting app! I am intrigued. Thank you for sharing your results, especially the statement about not experiencing back pain, because I can see that being a reason not to try meditation for many people.
Thanks for sharing! I recommend meditation to anyone. Like you mentioned, the key is to start small and eventually you will “crave” the peace it brings afterwards.
Thanks for reading, David. Take care!