Why meditate?
Does any of this feel familiar?
- You wish you were less defensive, less emotionally reactive, or less judgemental
- You feel tired but wired. Exhausted yet unable to fully rest
- You wish you could focus more on the present moment instead of regrets of the past, or anxiety about the future
- You wish the constant flood of “breaking news” didn't leave you on edge
- You wish your mind didn't keep pulling you somewhere else, replaying conversations, anticipating problems, or drifting into endless chatter
If so, you’re not alone.
For most of human history, the natural ”fight or flight” response was temporary and tied to real physical danger. Today, the same fight or flight response is triggered by emails, headlines, social media, and endless notifications. We shift from presence into reactivity dozens of times a day. The environment we live in is overstimulating by design and this continuous activation takes a severe toll on our well-being.
When the nervous system never fully settles, focus declines, sleep becomes fragmented, and mental clarity fades. Anxiety increases while emotional resilience drops. We become more reactive, less compassionate, and less connected to the people around us. Over time, this constant strain affects both physical health and our ability to experience meaning or joy.
How can meditation help?
Meditation is an effective tool for restoring and sustaining well-being.
Well-being is not a permanent state or a finish line you reach once and keep forever. It is the ongoing balance between the demands of life and the inner resources you have to meet them. When your resources are depleted, even small challenges feel overwhelming. When those resources are restored, you can meet life with clarity, steadiness, and perspective. Meditation strengthens those internal resources at the nervous system level, which is why its impact goes far deeper than surface relaxation.
Meditation restores the internal conditions that allow well-being to return.
By regularly allowing the nervous system to move out of high alert, meditation creates space for repair and recalibration. Over time, people notice they handle problems with more ease, react less impulsively, and feel more capable of meeting the demands of life. Not because life becomes simpler, but because their capacity to meet it expands.
With consistent practice, a deeper shift becomes possible.
A steadier awareness that is not pulled around by every external stimulus. Less fear and more emotional clarity. Greater creativity and intuition. A natural increase in empathy, connection, and presence in relationships. There is still emotion, still challenge, still complexity, but far less suffering inside it.
Meditation is not about escaping life. It is about supporting well-being so life can be met with clarity and intention. From there, well-being becomes something you actively cultivate, not something you chase.
Dive Deeper
Living in a state of continuous stress takes a toll on our well being and ability to respond to the demands of life. Chronic stress floods the body with cortisol and adrenaline, increasing health risks. Our minds are flooded with mental brain chatter that clouds our thinking.
- We are unable to focus and concentrate on priorities, including our own well being
- We increase the risks of high blood pressure, inflammation, and heart disease
- We lose sleep and miss the sufficient restorative effects on the body we depend on from a good nights sleep
- We are overwhelmed with mental exhaustion that contributes to depression, increases anxiety, and can result in emotional numbness
- We react emotionally with defensive behaviors and our judgement is clouded with negative thought distortions
- We lack compassion, empathy, and connection to others in our communities
Living in a constant state of nervous system activation limits our ability to be present in the current moment, effective in the things we do, make sound decisions and judgment, and experience joy and fulfillment.
Well being is not a one time goal or permanent state. It’s an ongoing process that balances our ability to meet life’s demands with the capabilities and resources we need to meet them While it’s easy to be skeptical of claims about meditation when research is often a) funded by meditation organizations and b) done on a variety of wildly varying meditation techniques or c) done using monks with years of many thousands of hours of practice.
However, 1 Giant Mind surveyed thousands of people using this particular meditation technique. The results of the “Personal Stress Survey” show that after the first 30 days of practice their users self-reported:
- Better at Handling Problems - 20% increase in their ability handle personal problems
- Less Irritable - 15% improvement in their ability to control irritations
- Feeling Better - 9% improvement in feelings that things were going their way
- Better Coping with Life's Demands - 8.7% improvement in coping with all the things they needed to do
- On Top of Things - 15% improvement in feeling on top of things
- Less Angry - 16.6% improvement in their ability to better react to things out of their control
- Ability to Overcome Difficulties - 22% improvement in their ability to overcome difficulties
Additional interviews and personal experiences suggest that with regular ongoing practice, these benefits exponentially increase and practitioners may:
- Experience a steady and stable awareness regardless of what demands are placed on us.
- See every situation as an opportunity to grow.
- Feel confident and enlivened as we step into the unknown.
- Although we feel emotional pain, we don't suffer in it.
- Notice a lot less fear in our lives.
- Feel a strong and steady stream of creativity
- Are naturally more interested in understanding the needs of others instead of putting ours first.
- Relationships become deeper and more meaningful because we are able to listen more and share from a deeper place.
Meditation itself doesn't solve all problems but when practiced regularly, evidence and experience shows it can create the conditions where you restore the internal capabilities and resources needed to thrive in modern life.
