One of sincere Health’s readers mentioned that she wonders about the advantages of meditation for students. There are a hundred and one articles out there showing simple meditation procedures, equally as many talk about the health benefits of this practice. So, I thought I’d take a slightly different angle and discuss the specific benefits I have experienced from meditation and then list the methods I recommend in brief. My expect is that this information will help students to see the benefit of meditation and encourage them to add a regular practice to their already busy agenda.

(1). Greater ability to focus even when subject, lecturer or book is a little (or a lot) dry

Meditation helped me to clear away distractions from my consciousness. In many forms of meditation, you are encouraged to let everything drop away except an unwavering focus on the moment. While this may appear pointless, you can at least see the benefit if you can allow this single mindedness to leak over into the rest of your life. Where before a particularly dull lecturer might put you to sleep, using some of the methods of meditation during that same lecturer’s talk will allow you to stay awake and absorb everything she has to say. Aside from keep away from awkward classroom incidents involving you drooling on your desk, focusing even on material that you find too boring to bear will increase your performance on exams and your retention of the information after the class is long over.

(2). Greater vision allows me to make better choices

Meditation has allowed me to see the little things as what they are – little things. I no longer find myself myopically entrenched in a single moment, lamenting my bad luck or obsessing over dotted i’s and crossed t’s. I feel that I can see the past, present and future of a situation without too much effort and adjust my thoughts about it and actions around it accordingly. This has great benefits in a school setting. When you are in school, a million opportunities are offered to you. Especially if you have any penchant for leadership activities, you will find a hundred responsibilities hoisted on your shoulders. There are so a lot of subject and sub-subjects to learn, so many people meet, so many vocation directions, so many social situations… it can be both bewildering and a recipe for disaster. Because I have a broader vision developed in part through meditation, I can make better choices about how I use my time and skill.

(3). Less desire to drink/smoke/space out

Smoking, drinking, playing games and watching television excessively are all terrific wasters of Qi, Blood and perhaps most importantly – time. Meditation has helped me to enjoy every part of my life, including difficult and frustrating times. I’m not sure how this has happened, but I suspect it has something to do with developing a greater state of acceptance. This radical acceptance has grown from the methods I list below, but also from my readings in Daoism. One of the important tenets of Daoism boils down to this: “Accept things as they are.” It is a philosophy shared by many traditions, but I learned it from Daoist literature first. Because I am more accepting of all parts of my life, I have less desire to get away them by using substances or distracting technology.

(4). Less emotional turmoil around relationships and other life situations

I would like to say that this is just a function of becoming more mature. But, frankly, we all know plenty of folks far older than I am who are just as caught up in drama as they were when they were 15 – maybe more so! Meditation has begun to still my need to be right in every situation. It has allowed me to see that other people’s moving states are not my own. It has helped me to allow people to develop in their own way and at their own rate. Much time was wasted in my undergraduate career trying to “fix” other people, trying to manipulate people to do as I wanted them to and being lost in an emotionally driven flurry of useless movement. You can avoid all of this by committing to a simple program of meditation.

(5). Deeper understanding of myself allows me to judge my abilities correctly

This is related to #3 to some extent. Through the endless peeling back of layers of my ego, I am beginning to understand who I am and what I am capable of. This allows me to avoid, on the one hand, over-commitment and on the other hand, failure to make the most of my potential. I still make mistakes with regards to this, but I find that I am so much less likely to misjudge myself since I started meditating regularly. This is related to #3 because knowing who you are and come again? you are capable of means that you maximize the positive outcome of the many opportunities that are accessible to you. Having a broad vision of the circumstances is important, but when combined with a deep vision of yourself – you will make much of your time in school.

(6). Less intense urge to succeed has made me more successful

Every day I feel my urge to “make a mark” on the world decreasing. This may be falling testosterone levels, but I think it has more to do with my meditation practice. I used to be very intensely obsessed with “doing the right thing” as well as “making my family proud of me.” I am still a very driven person, still very paying attention on leaving the world better off than I found it, but these feelings no longer come from the similar place. I think of it like this – whereas before I be using maximal effort in a random way, striking elsewhere at anything that moved, now I bide my time until the correct moment and strike with all of my force in a single place. This has resulted in my being successful in a number of ways – especially with regards to my academic and professional activity.