How Meditation Helps With Discipline & How To Do It
Taken from a r/getdisciplined subreddit post written by Kolter Veras
I’ve been meditating on & off for over 9 years, and just recently (over the past year) I started meditating VERY consistently. At first all I knew was that I kept hearing about meditation being good for anxiety and depression, so I looked into it a bit and started trying it. When I didn’t notice any results, I kinda put it on the backburner and only did it here & there when I was feeling particularly stressed out.
It took a really long time for me to actually understand WHY meditation was important, the practical application/benefits of it, and how to actually do it. I want to share that with you today.
1 - THE PRACTICAL BENEFITS
The reason meditation is important is because it helps you with self-awareness and noticing the thoughts that come to you on a daily basis. If you can start noticing your thoughts and being aware of what’s going on in your brain, you can consciously decide if you agree/disagree with those thoughts, if you want to act on them, and if they’re even your own thoughts/opinions.
FOCUS AND QUALITY OF LIFE
If you’ve ever experienced reading something, watching something, or having a conversation with someone and then realizing that you have no idea wtf is being said and having to re-read/rewind/have that awkward moment where you ask what they were talking about, you should meditate. Meditation is the practice of noticing when your mind is elsewhere, and then bringing your attention back to whatever is happening in the present moment. After meditating consistently for a while, you’ll start to notice that its easier to read a whole paragraph or a whole page of a book without having to go back and re-read anything, or you’ll be able to have a conversation without getting sidetracked in your mind about what you have to do later or what you forgot to do earlier. The quality of your life goes way up, and the quality of the work you do/conversations you have also goes way up because you’re present and focused while you’re doing those things.
ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION GO WAY DOWN
Since I started meditating really regularly, my depression and anxiety have faded A TON. The reason for this is that anxiety and depression come from too much negative focus on the past or future. Anxiety is imagination in the wrong direction — anticipating something bad happening when it’s all in your head. Depression is dwelling too much on bad decisions you’ve made or bad experiences you’ve had, and in that case there’s nothing you can do about it except take action NOW so that you don’t make the same mistakes or have the same experiences going forward. Negatively dwelling on the past and making up worst case scenarios in the future is voluntary suffering, and meditation allows you to recognize when those thoughts are happening and cut them off. The longer you meditate, the quicker you’ll be to recognize and stop those thoughts, and the less you’ll feel anxious and depressed. Obviously there’s chemical imbalances, but if you DON’T have a chemical imbalance, this is probably where your anxiety and depression stem from.
CONTROL OVER YOUR DECISIONS
If you’ve ever told yourself “today I’m going to stick to my diet” and then somehow come to after eating a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and wondered how you managed to mess that up AGAIN, you should meditate. Consistent meditation helps a lot with, again, recognizing the thoughts that you’re having and being able to consciously ponder and dissect them. You’ll be able to notice when you’re having those urges and actually be present enough to break the habit loop and stop yourself from indulging in something you know you’ll regret afterwards. This is the most important part of why meditation has been so helpful for me because since I’m able to control my urges and notice when they’re happening, I can stop myself from making decisions I’ll regret and dwell on later (depression) and since I KNOW I’m capable of staying present enough to make the right decisions, I worry a lot less about where my decisions are leading me (anxiety).
None of this happens quickly — meditation is a very slow process of very slow progress, but eventually you’ll start to notice that you feel more focused, present, and aware of what’s going on inside your mind. So how do we actually meditate?
2 - HOW TO MEDITATE
I’ve tried a lot of different types of meditation, and the one that works best for me now is just basic mindfulness meditation. I set the timer on my phone — 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever you feel comfortable with — and focus on my breath. I sit and pay attention to each in breath and out breath, and eventually (usually every 2-5 seconds) I’ll catch my brain thinking about something. Maybe laundry, maybe dishes, maybe something for work, maybe something I regret from yesterday, doesn’t really matter what it is, but I’ll catch myself thinking about it. The MOMENT you catch yourself thinking about something that isn’t your breath, just bring yourself back to your breath. It’ll probably be another 2-5 seconds before you catch yourself thinking about something else. Keep doing this over and over and over until the timer goes off. In real life, you’ll be reading or having a conversation, notice yourself thinking about something else, and be able to bring your attention back to the book/conversation. THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE PRACTICING.
You can also do guided meditations which are great at the beginning when you have a lot of trouble reminding yourself to bring your attention back to the moment, a couple great apps for guided meditation are Medito and Headspace. Headspace gives you a lot of meditations about certain things (anxiety, money, fear, etc) and Medito is really basic and just reminds you every 1-3 minutes to bring your attention back to the breath. I prefer Medito, but whatever works for you is fine.
I hope this post helps you out and I REALLY hope you give it a shot. This isn’t something where you can do it once or do it for a week and expect to notice results. Again, this is a very SLOW PROCESS of very SLOW PROGRESS, but when you do start to notice the benefits in your day to day life you’ll realize why everyone always tells you to meditate.
If this post did help you out, I’d really appreciate if you checked out my YouTube channel where I talk about discipline & self-improvement and share what I’ve learned and what has worked for me. I appreciate you reading, good luck today.