On Meditation, Meaning, and Science

In our world, meditation is still seen as something only spiritual people or hippies do. But in many cases, people use meditation to manage chronic stress, lower inflammation, heal the body, and uncover all the things that keep us from growing in a life full of distractions.

In more ancient times, the great leaders and rulers, like Marcus Aurelius, ruler of the Roman Empire, would sit in meditation to observe what was happening inside and around them, and to find a way not to compromise themselves as people in this world.

I started practicing meditation a decade ago because I understood it could lower levels of inflammation, and that was something I needed for many years with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory disease I suffered from through most of my twenties. And I can say that the process of meditation was a fundamental part of my healing. So I can say with certainty that meditation improved my health, but beyond that, I'll tell you that meditation changed my life.

I felt stuck and confused through most of my adult life. For most of my life I waited and hoped that something would change, but I didn't know what was supposed to change, what I was supposed to want, or how I was supposed to do it.

Why does this even happen, that we're confused about the meaning of life and our role within it?

Broadly speaking, none of us is what we were meant to be.

Society, culture, education, parents, they all influence innocent children who only wanted to discover themselves. But the power is in the hands of the adults.

Their whole desire is to turn the child into a tool that will serve the interests of society. Because heaven forbid the child fail to fit into our oh-so-wonderful culture.

So they start shaping the child into something society needs, and in a sense, that's how we kill the child's soul and dress them in a false identity. And the child doesn't even know they're wearing a false identity, missing out on their own identity and uniqueness.

So we grow up with a false identity, built only on the needs of society, which leaves us dependent on constant approval from the outside. And when we're alone, everything gets strange, because who's going to validate who I am?

Most people are afraid to be with themselves. They'll always make plans: breakfast with a friend, work during the day, going out at night. Even if I'm exhausted from the week and all I want is to rest, I'll drive to the other side of the country and spend most of the weekend on the road just to avoid staying home and doing nothing.

Did you know that most disasters happen on weekends? Suicides, accidents, harm tied to drugs and alcohol, overeating, more murders, thefts. This is what happens when people don't know what to do without the distraction of working Monday through Friday.

The moment you're alone, the lie starts to fall apart, and the real self raises its head and asks: who am I, really? And that's frightening, so I immediately want to make more plans, or watch something to distract myself.

Nobody wants to be alone, and everybody wants to belong to something: a football team, a political party, a community, a nation, and so on.

Because the identity that was built can't survive without support. Who am I without the identity that was built on society's needs? The moment I'm alone, I start to feel a strange sensation.

For years you believe you're someone, and then, in a moment of solitude, you start to feel that this isn't you.

And even if you want to let your real self express itself, it'll take time after years of repression and suppression.

Everyone needs to understand that everything they do in this life stems from the false personality that was created. All our doing, over so many years, comes from it. It's an old habit, and old habits run deep.

But habits can be changed. Meditation is one way. It's more than a tool, it's an opportunity to change your life.

I haven't yet found anything as effective as meditation. The other methods let the false personality keep running the way you think.

Meditation is just another name for a state in which you're alone, quiet, waiting for the real self to reveal itself.

It's not a doing, it's a quiet relaxation.

Slowly, as you meditate, you start to feel a new quality within you, a new aliveness, a new beauty, a new intelligence that doesn't belong to anyone, that grows inside you.

And if you're not afraid, it will bear fruit you never even knew existed.

It will be you.

Back to health

Stress can be a good thing.

But ongoing, unmanaged stress can destroy our health and our lives.

Stress makes us sicker, dumber, and slower. It weakens the immune system, harms the thyroid, creates bad cholesterol, damages metabolism and the balance and function of the body's hormones, and harms our sleep and our energy levels.

Stress is also responsible for our hair weakening.

Everyone knows that stress harms the immune system, and when the immune system is harmed, so is every organ in the body. Inflammation levels rise and our functioning is impaired.

Stress accelerates aging and harms our sleep, our digestion, and our state of mind.

And who doesn't experience stress in the reality we live in?

So if stress creates illness, what's the opposite of stress?

In recent decades, meditation has become a tool studied by science.

And there's no doubt, from my own experience, from the testimonies of people around the world, and from research results, that meditation has the ability to lower levels of tension and anxiety, and in doing so allow the body to do its work faithfully, to calm down, to recover, to rest, and to heal itself.

Meditation is a whole world to discover. In my course on change, I teach an hour-long chapter on different types of meditation, how to practice on your own with no aids at all, how to know which meditation to practice and when, plus an hour-long chapter on writing, with various techniques and exercises.

I recommend starting or staying consistent with the practice if you want to get unstuck, discover yourself, or simply bring something new into your life that can change it for the better, and maybe even create a life you never imagined. Meditation will change your life.

The science of epigenetics proves that we can change our genetic expression and even reverse our DNA.

Our genetics are influenced by our choices, and genes can change their shape based on how they respond to the environment.

I really do understand, more and more, that managing stress and intrusive thoughts through meditation and other tools like writing makes a real physiological change in the body. They slow the aging process and at the same time improve the body's ability to heal.

A few things meditation does:

• Lowers stress and anxiety
• Raises dopamine (an antidepressant)
• Lowers inflammation in the body
• Improves sleep and energy levels
• Strengthens the immune system (T cells)