What happens to you when you meditate

Meditating? I was always too busy for that. And what on earth was I supposed to do with all those minutes? I was already thinking about my shopping list during a quarter of an hour of mindfulness. It wasn't for me, I thought. Until I couldn't calm my mind anymore and went from taking long walks to meditating for ten minutes. I just heard someone say: ‘Meditate for twenty minutes a day. Unless you're too busy, then meditate for an hour.’

Just sit and breathe
It doesn't always go well. Think of it like going to the gym: sometimes you go for weeks on end and then suddenly during vacation, you fall off the wagon. It helps me to do a sort of challenge, like this week’s from Gwen van Poorten. Every morning I tune in at seven to meditate together. Now don’t think I’m a pro, because when I enthusiastically plopped down in my jumpsuit in lotus position the other day, I just ripped it. My left ear sometimes itches so much that I can't concentrate. But that's not wasted time, because I still managed to sit and breathe for about fifteen minutes without a screen, and that really helps me.

The biggest misconception is that meditation makes your thoughts stop, because they never stop. By just sitting and breathing, you actually learn much more about those thoughts. Like that they pass by and that you can let them go if you want, but those thoughts also tell you how you feel about a situation or event. The annoying thing is that somewhere along the way, we stopped listening to what our thoughts say about our feelings.

What else does meditation do?

1. Your brain literally gets bigger or at least shrinks less quickly. The brain shrinks as you get older, and it has been scientifically proven that this happens more slowly in people who meditate.

2. It ensures that you are less intensely angry and that it lasts for a shorter time.

3. You learn to enjoy what is happening now much more instead of always thinking about the next thing you have to do.

4. Meditating every evening before you go to sleep can even help with insomnia.

For me, meditation made me finally listen to myself again. What did I really want and what makes me happy? Be careful, because it could very well be that you suddenly leave for a few months abroad when you start meditating.