Why I Meditate

I’m a very active athlete however never really took the time to stay quiet and simply meditate. You know – just sit still and do nothing. Or sit and focus on the here and now in a peaceful sense. I am a very active person and always need to be on the move. I can sit still for a few hours on an airplane and do nothing. Don’t misunderstand me here. And thankfully I don’t have ADD or AD/HD, but I like being on the move and getting things done. It’s just me. I’m always like “Come on – let’s get going.”
It wasn’t till roughly two years ago that I began incorporating actual meditation techniques into my morning routine. Not only that, but I now take moments throughout my day to grab my focus again.

Here a short example:

The other day I took the dogs to the park and Athos our older Beagle was on a hyperactive barking spree. Barking at every dog from the moment we entered the park. Now I know my way around with dogs, but that specific moment just wasn’t mine. He came close to me and a similar size dog approached us slowly to sniff him out and out of nowhere his lips were up and he was in mid-air snapping. I caught him by his harness and down he went. I was aggressive because I was annoyed, but at that same moment knowing I needed to be calm in order for Athos to feed of my calm energy, so I went into a meditative state. We both relaxed and I stood up, closed my eyes and enjoyed the nature around us. After a few minutes I glimpsed out the corner of my eyes after feeling extremely relaxed and positive both in mind and the “here and now”, I looked and both Athos and Yara (our other beagle) and both were laying a few meters away relaxing. As if they were meditating with me. The other dog sat roughly 15 meters away and just stared as if nothing had happened.

I can genuinely say that meditating has changed my life for the better. I’m not a guru nor an expert and have not seen or been enlightened in any form, however, I have learned to be mindful through meditation. This is also something we teach Jayden.
This is also something we teach Jayden. There are times when he eats where we may be a bit off track with our overall schedule, and he becomes grumpy because he is tired. So what does he do? He takes a bite and spits it back out on his plate and thinks it’s funny. We tell him it isn’t so and if he wants to continue eating or not. At times he’ll start shaking his head wildly and what we do is really easy. We say “Jayden, let’s meditate.” In 9 out of the 10 cases, he’ll immediately stop and he will watch us and join in while we take a deep breath in and a deep breathe out. We do that three times and he finishes up and then Mr. Grumpy can go off to bed. Its amazing.

Through it, I have learned to be more thoughtful on myself in regards to inner focus, the effects on the exterior me, and focus on the moment.

Frankly, meditation has taught me a lot and I do believe it can have a positive effect on your life as well. For most, as it was for me, it was an odd experience. Why would I want to do that? Why sit still and focus? And focus on what, for goodness sake?
That all has changed. Meditation is now becoming one with myself, my mind and learning about me. You would be surprised at what you can learn about who you are through meditation. That is actually a great topic to podcast about.

Here a few reasons why I think you too should begin incorporating meditation into your daily workout routine:

1. Decreases unnecessary stress
   Everyone has stress. Too much stress is unhealthful – period. I don’t care what studies say about stress not affecting us. I know from personal experience that stress plays a gigantic role in our mental and physical health.
   Meditation is quiet time dedicated to you. It won’t necessarily remove the stress, but you’ll be surprised at how much it can transform you to handle stress in a new way.

2. Make better decisions
   The more you meditate, the more your thoughts and actions along with emotions and ideas are brought into focus. You gain awareness and rather than reacting to adverse situations you obtain a better comprehension of what is going on in your mind and the current moment to make better choices.
   This comprehension arms you with the skills to think before you act and therefore make purposeful decisions.

3. Slow down life
   In today’s world, we are fast paced. Everything changes so rapidly. New over-hyped phones coming out every month. The Internet at our fingertips. Information overload on every corner. You’re here, right now, soaking in new information on meditation. Just like I mentioned above. I love doing things and getting them done however meditation has taught me to slow down. Enjoy life.

It has enabled me to take life gradually. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I don’t want to miss anything so I want to be here and I want to be in the now. If you slow your mind, everything else will just follow suit.

Overall I could continue on and on about how meditation has brought calmness into me as a person. My wife and her yoga are a major contribution to me actually jumping my shadow and taking the time to incorporate meditation into what I now call my medogaletics sessions (Medogaletics = Meditation, Yoga, Freeletics).

Give it a shot. Take 10min right now. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in, hold it and then a nice long exhale. Focus on yourself. Free your mind. And see how this short simple exercise will give you clarity. Be honest with yourself after having done it.

How do you feel?

So, that being said – what can I learn from you? Let me know in the comments below!