Isn’t it crazy to think that sitting still and doing nothing for 10-20 minutes has a never-ending list of benefits to your wellbeing? I’ll be the first to admit it; I was skeptical about the whole meditation thing before I tried it out. Something so simple and easy to do will bring you nothing but benefits, there’s no trade offs here! (I feel like an infomercial for meditation). I’ll list a few benefits below and you make the choice if you want to try it out.

Reduces Stress

Wouldn’t it be cool to go through your entire workday or school day without stressing out or contemplating if you have enough money in your savings account to leave your job on a Monday morning? Yeah that would be pretty cool… In today’s society stress is a nonstop encounter whether it being with regards to your schooling, work, or your social life, it’s a daily occurrence. One paper demonstrates how meditation decreases stress in individuals, especially individuals experiencing high levels of stress. With this knowledge now, maybe including a daily meditation practice will help you deal with that non-stop stress your in-laws bring you at every function.

Reducing the ‘Goldfish’ Brain

Anytime I’ve been in an interview and they’ve asked me the typical, ‘Bryan, what are your weaknesses?’ I always want to respond with that I have a mind like a goldfish depending on the type of work you give me. Am I the only one that thinks that? Yeah? No? Oh well, I said it. Meditation has helped me a lot with this goldfish brain of mine and who knows it could help your adult brain become even better. This study looked at the benefits of meditation with regards to an individual’s attention span. They found that even meditating for as short as four days can increase your attention span. That’s all it takes to have an impact, four days. Four days! I said it, only four days! (Another infomercial here)

Prevents the Trap of Multi-Tasking

Many people are under the impression that multi-tasking is a good character trait to have. It actually creates more stress for you. Think about the concept of multi-tasking… Essentially you’re really good at giving two tasks half your attention and expecting results with full attention. Have you ever tried to run in two different directions before? How far did you get? Probably the same distance I got trying to become an astronaut after seeing Interstellar. If you are working at a task or a project, 100% of you should be immersed in that rather than elsewhere. A study looked at the effects meditation has on multitasking performance and they found that those who meditated showed lower stress levels, better memory throughout the tasks they were given, remained focused on those tasks longer and switched tasks less often.

If you’re still intrigued at this point, maybe give meditation the ole college try or if you don’t believe what I’ve told you here, Google it for yourself. This simple task has life long benefits for yourself and can be quite helpful for those stressful times in your life.