What Meditation Can Do

Many of my fellow skeptics/rationalists/atheists/etc. look at me askance when I mention that I meditate. They seem to feel that because meditation is a major part of some religions, that it must be inextricably linked with superstition and irrationality. It's a hard sell to convince them that you can meditate and not really believe that you are controlling mystical energies or visiting a higher dimension.

The funny thing is, I first learned to meditate during my martial arts training, from some very hard-headed, practical (and sometimes a little scary) people who never once

mentioned any of that fluffy metaphysical crap. They told us to do it because it would focus your mind and help you to ignore mental distractions when your attention needed to be on defending yourself. Years later, when I started practicing yoga, meditation was an integral part. There was occasional mention of the metaphysical stuff, but it was always presented in the form of a mental visualization, and while I dismissed the fluffy magical bits, I found that allowing myself to accept those visualizations allowed me greater control of my meditative practice.

I have always found meditation to help me think more clearly, control my emotions better, and even control my body better (lessening pain, enduring longer workouts, etc..). Science backs me up, too. Lots of research has been done confirming that regular practitioners of meditation can endure more pain, control their breathing and heartrate, have lower blood pressure and anxiety levels, and have better concentration skills.

I think the hardest part of getting folks to try meditation is that these studies always involve people who've put in years of effort to build their meditative practices, and the average person isn't willing to expend that much time and effort before they see benefits. Recently, however, a study was done on the benefits of meditation for new practitioners.

The study, performed by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, and William Patterson University, found that:

brief meditation training reduced fatigue, anxiety, and increased mindfulness. Moreover, brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning. Our findings suggest that 4 days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.

So now, with evidence that even a brief attempt can confer benefits, even the most skeptical of skeptics can afford to give it a try. Who can't use better memory and decision making abilities? They could be only a few days away! Come on, you know you want to.....

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810010000681