5 Ways That Meditation Is Changing My Life

I had no expectations from my meditation. I started my practice 20 years ago after having moved from New Jersey to Virginia. We were living in an old farmhouse on a large farm when I happened to see a presentation by Deepak Chopra on PBS about meditation. I was very curious. When it aired again, I showed it to my husband.  He was intrigued as well. In New Jersey we had started to investigate health for ourselves. We both worked long hours, traveled for our jobs, and felt tired a lot of the time. Our first health venture was to start juicing.  We sure consumed a lot of vegetable and fruit and it can be expensive!  Then we added vitamins and other supplements. All good as it goes. However I had a hunch that there was more to becoming healthy – that I was missing something. It was the Chopra show on PBS that set me on a different path.

I remember that Deepak Chopra spoke about consciousness in his presentation. Perhaps he validated an experience I had at 18 while walking to a class at Tufts.  I was early morning on a beautiful, sunny fall day. All of a sudden I felt compelled to stop and at that moment I felt the unity of all things. I stood there for quite some time because I found the experience so compelling. I believe that experience was my first taste of the benefits of meditation.

Fifteen years ago as a result of Deepak Chopra’s program, I decided to learn Transcendental Meditation and have been practicing it ever since.  I have to say that I have noticed changes in myself along the way.

Meditation Helps With Connection

Some of the benefits are remarkable, but more often than not they are subtle. These are some of the benefits:

1. meditation helps expand you by putting you in touch with the universal field so that you become aware that there is more than you, your thoughts and experiences to be aware of. To some degree, we are all aware of others since we live in a world with lots of other people and creatures. But this is different. Meditation puts you in touch with the universe as a form of awareness and so enables you to see the universe as something intelligent.
2. meditation enables you to experience the universal field as a home, a place of rest, a benevolence which brings a comfort that that you cannot get from other kinds of security seeking: money, fame, position etc.
3. meditation aligns you with the universal field and helps you operate in what I call the  “constructive self”- in alignment with the positive intelligence of the universe. It is, therefore, a source of comfort to know that you are in a positive place vis-a-vis the rest of the living universe.
4. meditation helps you realize the positive in you is a natural state.  This was especially important to me since I grew up with a lot of negativity. In realizing the positive in yourself, you also realize that you are not unique in that regard so it helps you soften into daily life. This is one of its most important daily benefits. Meditation helps reduce the feeling of vulnerability that drives so much unhelpful behavior which then lets us help others reduce their fear which in turn creates a more peaceful world.
5. meditation takes you out of the fear which consumes so much of our lives. For that alone I am grateful.

I am immensely grateful for Transcendental Meditation. I would love to have everyone receive this precious gift.  I believe that we all deserve the experience of benevolence that meditation brings.