The biggest problem with meditation is that you can have the best intentions, but it just doesn’t get done. Most people’s minds are going at a hectic pace, and they honestly don’t believe meditation will work for them. Another problem is that after meditating for a few weeks, it might not seem like it’s made any difference at all and so you quit. Meditation works. The fact that you’re not meditating is stealing success that could be flowing into your life.

Here are five reasons why not having a meditation practice is holding you back from more successes:

1. You’re Spending Too Much Time Getting Caught Up In Your Feelings and Emotions

Meditation helps emotions move through you rather than becoming trapped. Many people don’t know how to deal with their feelings effectively, and as a result, their emotions often control them. Negative emotions can seem to generate even more negativity until the effect is like a spiral heading toward depression. The practice of meditation helps you notice and identify your emotions, accept them, and then choose how you want to deal with them.

“Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divine within you.” – Amit Ray

2. You’re Not As Focused As You’d Like To Be

People who don’t meditate are less focused and less centered than those who do. Meditation increases your ability to hone in specifically on one task and create the best possible outcome. If you need to multitask (and we all do at times), meditation vastly improves your ability to perform more than one task at a time.

Do you ever deliver presentations or speeches? Meditators are much better at thinking on their feet and in front of groups. People who meditate develop a demeanor which helps them stay calm at any given time.

3. You Feel Stressed Out Too Much Of The Time

Reports state that people think as many as eighty thousand thoughts a day. Many of these thoughts are the same, repeated hundreds of times an hour. Meditation offers your brain a much-needed rest from the hectic pace of processing this massive mix-up of thoughts. Stress itself is not necessarily a bad thing.

We all experience stress at times, but the important aspect of stress is how we deal with it. Meditation helps us maintain a sense of calmness so that a situation which would have been an eight on your personal stress meter moves down to a 2 or no stress.

4. Your Breathing is Consistently Shallow

Meditation places attention on the breath resulting in deeper, fuller breathing. Focusing on the breath during meditation helps you become more centered and grounded. A person who is more centered, experiences a sense of contentment, a feeling of being in control and a level of confidence that tells them that everything is going to be fine. Increasing the amount of deep breathing you do is one of the most effective ways to improve overall body health.

5. You Are Frequently Fighting Colds, Flu, and Rashes

The immune system requires the body and mind to experience periods of rest in order to stay strong. You know it’s important to get enough sleep, but the brain requires a different kind of rest. I’m talking about the kind of rest which will result from a daily meditation practice. In most people, the left frontal area of the brain controls the immune system, and when you meditate, electrical activity increases in this region.

A study at the University of Wisconsin evaluated volunteer subjects who meditated by measuring antibodies in the blood that fight infections. After only two months of meditating, participants had significantly higher levels of infection-fighting antibodies in their blood.

“Silence is not an absence but a presence.” – Anne D. LeClaire

Decide to add meditation to your daily routine. Make an assertive decision to stick to it and be determined to keep the practice going for six months no matter what your negative self-talk says to you. From my experience, your inner voice will tell you that your brain is too busy for meditation or you don’t have time in your busy schedule, ignore those messages. Maintain your meditation practice, and in six months time, the benefits will make you want to keep going.

Start with only two minutes of meditation. Sit comfortably with your back straight and focus on your breath. Close your eyes if you want to reduce the visual interference. Do this every morning just after you wake up and gradually increase the time to five, ten, and then fifteen minutes. I find that twenty minutes a day works well for me.

Decide right now to allow your missing successes to flow into your life by starting a daily meditation practice.  

Do you practice meditation? If so, what has been the most rewarding part so far?

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