Meditation

I meditate on and off, but I think I am going to do it more regularly. It seems like meditation has remarkable benefits.

It's not religious meditation, it's just to sit down, close the eyes and breath in and out for about 5 minutes - where one only thinks about the breathing. It may sound easy, but it's not since the mind wanders around.

I think one of the core benefits of meditation is being better at focusing. Focus is really important, and you'll generally see that great people posses the ability to focus intensely. An example is Tiger Woods, here is a snippet from a 37 Signals post, Jason chats about Tiger:

Last weekend I went to the PGA Championship in Medina, IL.

Seeing Tiger Woods in person was incredible. The guy is *so* focused. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Hits the ball, crowd goes wild, head down, walks to the ball, takes his next swing, crowd goes wild, head down, walks. TOTAL AND COMPLETE FOCUS.

It was really an amazing thing to watch. He is so mentally tough. Only at the end (after he won) did he acknowledge the crowd. Said “I know I walk with my head down a lot, but that’s because I’m focused on the game. I do hear everyone and I thank you for your incredible support.”

That's focus :)

Research seems to show that there's something real about meditation, a snippet from a random article on meditation:

People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don't. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.

You should also check out a video lecture by Matthieu Ricard:

Matthieu holds a Ph.D. degree in molecular genetics and has been a Buddhist monk for the last 35 years. He talks about meditation's affect on happiness (a scientific research he and others have done).

Links on meditation

Life • 7. Apr 2007
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