I found this collection of 92 reasons to meditate at the MeditationFest free recording website and it made me stop and think.

We tend to think of meditation as something we do when we want to relax. Perhaps we sit quietly, close our eyes, follow our breathing and hope the endless chatter in our heads will finally settle down.

Yet meditation can be much more interesting than simply “clearing your mind”.

One of the things I find fascinating about meditation is that getting distracted isn’t necessarily a sign that you are doing it badly. In focused attention meditation, researchers can actually describe a cycle of mind wandering, becoming aware that your attention has wandered, bringing your attention back and sustaining it again. That return is part of the exercise.

Think about that for a moment.

Every time you notice that you’ve drifted into yesterday, tomorrow, an old conversation, a worry or a completely unrelated thought and gently return to your chosen point of attention, you have practised bringing your attention back.

You haven’t failed at meditation.

You have just done the meditation.

Research into mindfulness and meditation is still developing and it doesn’t support every claim ever made about meditation. However, there is evidence that some forms of meditation and mindfulness can help with stress, anxiety and depression and may help with sleep and certain types of pain. The size and reliability of the benefit varies considerably depending on the practice and the problem being studied.

There is another reason I think meditation deserves more attention. We spend much of our lives responding to whatever happens next. A thought appears and we follow it. Someone says something and we react. A worry arrives and we give it another ten minutes of our attention.

Meditation gives us a small laboratory in which to practise something different.

Can I notice what is happening without immediately being carried away by it?

That is a surprisingly powerful skill to practise.

What happens when you practise?

The MeditationFest gave us an unusual opportunity to experience a series of professionally recorded meditations.

To be notified if another MeditationFest becomes available, add yourself to the Learning Strategies email list near the end of their (ad) Meditate with the Himalayan Masters web page. That collection includes an introduction CD with Paul Scheele interviewing Swami Veda Bharati, four CDs containing progressively deeper meditations, seven profound 3-minute meditations and a course manual.

If you are new to meditation, you don’t need to make it complicated. You could begin with one of the longer meditations each morning for a week and use one of the shorter practices during the day when you need to step out of the rush for a few minutes.

Some of the 92 reasons are supported by research, some are possibilities that have been studied to varying degrees and some reflect the spiritual traditions and claims that have long surrounded meditation.

Rather than accepting every claim as fact, I think the list is more interesting when you use it as a collection of questions.

What might meditation change for you?

Your body? Your attention? Your reactions? Your relationships? Your experience of an ordinary Tuesday afternoon?

I knew meditation could be good for me. I hadn’t realised how many different ways this simple practice might influence the way I experience my life.

Explore 92 reasons people meditate

A few of these claims are more firmly supported by research than others, so don’t treat the list as 92 medical promises. Instead, think of it as a fascinating snapshot of the many physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual benefits that have been associated with meditation.

There is good reason to be particularly interested in the effects on attention. Meditation trains you to notice when your attention has wandered and deliberately return it. Research has found changes in mind-wandering and attentional processes with mindfulness training, although results vary according to the type of meditation, the amount of training and the people being studied.

That may be one of meditation’s less obvious gifts. You are not merely learning how to sit quietly. You are practising what to do when your mind takes you somewhere you didn’t intend to go.

Download Making The Most Of Meditation

What meditation can really give you

After reading all 92 reasons, you may be wondering where to begin. You don’t need to try to achieve all of them.

In fact, you don’t even need to believe that meditation will produce a particular result.

Perhaps the more interesting question is what happens between one thought and your reaction to it.

A worry appears. You notice it.

A memory surfaces. You notice it.

You become irritated by something someone has said. You notice that too.

Instead of immediately following every thought or emotion wherever it wants to take you, meditation gives you practice in pausing long enough to recognise what is happening.

That tiny space can matter.

Researchers studying focused-attention meditation have found that the practice involves repeatedly moving between mind wandering, recognising that the mind has wandered, shifting attention and returning to sustained attention.

There is something rather poignant about that when you think about everyday life.

We can spend years trying to change our circumstances when sometimes what exhausts us most is the way our minds keep returning to the same old thoughts about those circumstances.

Meditation doesn’t necessarily remove the difficult parts of life. It may give you a different way of meeting them.

There is even research suggesting that mindfulness training can influence our social lives. In one randomised trial, a mindfulness programme that included acceptance training reduced daily life loneliness and increased social contact compared with control conditions.

So perhaps meditation isn’t simply about becoming calmer while sitting alone with your eyes closed.

Perhaps part of its value is what you carry away from that quiet period and into the next conversation, the next decision, the next disappointment and the next ordinary moment.

You may become a little better at noticing before reacting.

A little better at returning when your thoughts wander.

A little less completely at the mercy of every thought that happens to arrive.

Sometimes a small change in the way we meet a moment can change what happens next.

That’s why, after looking at these 92 reasons, it may be worth trying meditation for yourself rather than simply reading about it.

Explore the different ways you can meditate and find an approach that suits you.

If you’d like some gentle guidance while you begin, download the free Making The Most Of Meditation ebook.

Share this list or just the quote image above with someone you know who might benefit from a little more calm in their days.

Hi, I'm Thea Westra at Forward Steps (forwardstepsblog.com)

Since March 2003, I've been sharing practical, positive, thought provoking and inspiring self improvement content online. My aim is simple - to offer tips and resources that help us enhance our daily experience of life and to keep stepping forward. Perth, Western Australia is the place I call home and I'm the author of "Time For My Life: 365 Stepping Stones". You might also know me from the Forward Steps personal development blog and the daily series of "365 Forward Steps Notes", all designed to add wings to our unique life journeys.

CLICK HERE To Trigger More Of Those Forward Steps 'Aha' Light Bulb Moments!