4 Unexpected Benefits To Meditation That Will Make You Want To Try It Today

Don’t you love it when you set out to do something in hopes of a certain outcome, but then what you end up receiving is nothing like what you thought it would be, it’s actually 10x better? Yeah, me too. 

For a little backstory, I initially started meditating because it was referenced by all of my favourite entrepreneurs as part of their morning routines. Being someone who always wanted to start their own business, share my message, help people, live well + so on, I was a super fan of these talented business minds, and began to realize that a little emulation in daily habits could serve me well. While my idea of living well means financial freedom, location independence, schedule autonomy, and lots of time spent outdoors, I know your may be different, which is the most beautiful part of it all. Meditation works to show you your deepest desires your truest soul, unique to you, tailor made, an endless supply of hope, belief, compassion, and love… it’s the practice of bringing yourself to all that you have been missing, the truth to everything you could ever need. 

Being overwhelmed by myself + everything I wanted to do + be in the world,  it was paralyzing in terms of making any sort of a move towards anywhere other than where I was… which was, stuck. Knowing that I wanted to achieve more in my life, and wanted to follow similar career paths as these entrepreneurs, I decided to take this small action, that they all referenced as a part of their morning routine… of course, it was meditation. 

Starting out, I figured that if they’re successful, I will be too, but what I gained was so much more as not only did I begin to feel successful in a way that I define completely different now, but also that I would be guided. I had no clue that I would begin this practice and that it would ultimately be the cause of me quitting my job a year and a half later, traveling to the other side of the world despite knowing nothing about the culture, and taking on the task of learning a brand new business + career path. 

When I say I had no clue, I had Z E R O ideas about what was about to unfold for me, and I could not have painted it more beautifully if I was [insert talented painter here]. 

So I started by committing myself to 21 days of daily meditation with hopes of becoming a millionaire on day 22. SO while that didn’t happen, here’s what did that has had me hooked for the past 3 years. Because as I said, I define success completely differently now. It’s about how connected I feel to my purpose, how much do I enjoy the way I spend my time. Do I feel supported? Do I feel creative? Do I feel excitement? Challenge? New-ness? Adventure? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes - that’s a success to me. 

QUOTE: Our life is a combination of all of our daily decisions. 

#1 - I Stopped Giving Up On Myself

This is #1, because this was the first “holy f*ck meditation is crazy” realization I had, and it happened in the first 14 days of practice. As a forever procrastinator: aka the kid in gym class sitting on the sidelines because I had “cramps,” the kid who submitted the same art project 3 years in a row to the same contest because, like, why re-invent the wheel, ya know? And on + and on (true stories). 

All to say that sticking with a commitment was somewhat foreign to me, and despite the fact that some of the first days of the practice were hard, (I mean don’t get me wrong somedays now are hard), not understanding what the goal was, what I was trying to achieve, I was constantly judging myself that I wasn’t doing it “right” (whatever the hell that means), or there were the days where I would break out of my seat as soon as the timer went, pull the pillow from under my bum and hardly get it up to my face in time to suffocate my scream of frustration that had been bubbling inside for the last torturous 8 minutes of the practice. Despite all of this, there were these moments of… I don’t even know how to properly convey… I could say overwhelming connection, or peace, understanding, freedom, love, acceptance, forgiveness, + on… and it was these moments that had me realize that there was more to this than I had originally thought, and I was hooked. 

All to say that the biggest realization was from this one moment and I’ll always remember this: it was somewhere around day 14 give or take, I was part way through a meditation when once again I had found myself on this ruminating hamster wheel of, “I don’t want to be doing this anymore… I want to jump out of my skin…how long has it been… why on earth did I think this mattered… I’m going to give up now… no now… no now!” And because I never did, give up that is, something inside of me woke up and said, “hey, you’ve been thinking that thought everyday for the last 14 days, and you haven’t given up or opened your eyes, and you’re certainly not going to do it today, so how about we just don’t think that thought anymore, k?” And this was…

KA - FREAKING - BOOM! 

And here’s the thing, the best part. I began to see this whole other side where I could choose before reacting. Places where I would battle myself, give in too quickly, or avoid trying altogether, I instead began a rational conversation with myself to continue through - and in place of assuming that giving up is inherently who I am, it officially became part of who I used to be. 

#2. I Began To Live a Brighter Life.

Meditation has this beautiful way of showing us more of who we are at the deepest level. In turn, it also allows for compassion of who we were pretending to be, and leads us down the path to discovering both truth and compassion. The more we can understand ourselves, and live through the truth of who we are instead of the facade we have built around our persona, or the depiction of what we think is “right”, the brighter we get. Literally, your smile gets bigger + lasts longer. Your hugs have a way of making people feel safe, and your presence is welcomed, warming, and most importantly impactful. 

“Allowing yourself to shine bright gives others permission to do the same” 

I had seen this quote so many times before and never truly got it until recently. It has taken time, but slowly over time I have stepped into an aligned space of being, and it resonates with people on a level that I could have never predicted nor even knew existed. 

Perspectives change from having to do things, to wanting to… we will want to work out our bodies because we know we feel good when we do that. We want to eat healthy (ahem* most of the time) because we want to fuel our bodies to support our new dreams. We are able to take chances, because we know that no matter what we can handle every outcome. That we have been through many challenges before and have lived to tell the tale, so why not now?

And something really cool happens… when you show up, you show up fully. If you don’t what I mean by this, think back to a time, any time, where you had to go somewhere you really didn’t want to but felt like you should. Often in a state of anxiety, discomfort, and straining to maintain a happy face and struggle through painfully awkward conversations… That actually sums up a lot of my life to be honest; scared to say no, scared to be by myself.  But I came to the conclusion that half-assing my way through a conversation is not how I want to be known: it does disservice to myself, but more so to the people who I am interacting with, and I just don’t feel like that is a proper representation of who I am. So now when I choose to show up (and a choice it most certainly is) I am present, engaged, and in general, all there.  And let me tell you, the brightness finds you. It just is. 

#3. I stopped living for a timeline. 

Now, something familiar for many women in their early 30’s - is an idea of where we should be. Should be married, should have a kid on the way. Should know exactly what career path we are made for and be making 6 figures doing it. Should have a bad ass house, with a huge open concept kitchen, greenhouse, fenced in yard in the city (I mean, if we’re should’ing sh*t, let’s go for the gold shall we). Don’t get me wrong - I still want these to be a part of my life at some point, but not because I should, and not immediately, or at any given specific date because I have survived to an age where society tells me I need to and thus feed my feelings of inadequacy and continue into the life of struggling to “keep up.” F that. 

Timelines are bullsh*t. Timelines and subsequent box checking is boring, and it’s so beautiful when we can take a turn off the hamster wheel for a second to realize maybe something else that is more in line with who YOU are, maybe discover a direction you are meant to be heading, with simply, something more, because it means more to Y O U!

The closer we get to knowing ourselves, the more we begin to create our own list of priorities, and it can be scary that may or may not line up with society’s ideas, or your parents, or even your past ideas… and I know, this can be SO uncomfortable. 

Now I have never been one to be a proponent of schedules, timing, or doing what I was supposed to, so of course it’s not surprising I would find myself here. But even for me it didn’t change the fact that it still felt awkward. Like how when everyone all at once decides to walk out of the ocean because there’s something ominous and scary dark mass, and I was running into it. 

It felt and still feels at times lonely, uncomfortable, and perhaps something akin to FOMO -  but meditation has helped me to realize that LIFE IS PRECIOUS & we are promised nothing, so all we can do is make the best decisions for ourselves from the point of reference of where we are right now.

WE ARE EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE MEANT TO BE. LIFE IS UNFOLDING JUST AS IT SHOULD. AND BEING HERE, BEING ALIVE,  BEING ALIGNED, AND LOVING + BEING LOVED IS ALL THAT IS NEEDED NOW.

If you were to die tomorrow would you be happy with the choices that you had made? I may not be able to check those societal boxes but I know with every fibre of my being that I feel great about where I am, and that that place, that place of knowing is different for all of us - and all we gotta do is live authentically you.  I will often say that I don’t understand why I am on this path vs any other, but in following my intuition and inner guide, I don’t need to constantly question it, I just need to follow it. And so far, so great. 

There is a reason why I couldn’t marry either of my last two great boyfriends, why I couldn’t stay in a great paying, amazing job, or why I feel that spending the last year to study and learn a new business is right - I just know it is. 

Ultimately I think that is the most beautiful thing of all - when we can set out in a direction with no clear picture, but a feeling. If we can feel the life we want: smell it, taste it, touch it - then it can appear in the way it was always organically meant to be || without the labels and expectations of pictures and achievements that we prefabricated in our minds of what success, or happiness, or fulfillment looked like, and just open up to possibility.

#4 - I learned the lost art of S E L F - T R U S T

And so this it, the most important lesson of all, the biggest question. Can you trust yourself? Do you listen to the feeling that turns in your gut, or the voice in your head? 

My best friend of 20+ years and the über emotionally intelligent Love Coach, Diana Eskander, always reminds me that our relationships are a mirror of what we need to work on, and despite the fact that trust was often an issue for me in my past relationships it was one of the greatest AH-HA moments I have experienced to date, that in fact where trust was missing was in myself. I was constantly bringing it into my relationships, looking for proof of trust, demanding something of my past partners that they could have never given to me because it was never about them, it was about me. 

I would recognize my gut feeling, feel that sensation, and subsequently stuff it deep down and ignore it because it didn’t fit in, it would mean change and that scared me too much, 

For me this was trust… but what are you (or have you) been thirsty for from your partner (or past partners), that you never feel like is enough… I encourage you to ask yourself if you are giving enough of that to yourself. 

Through meditation, once we develop the practice to listen to what our soul is trying to tell us & which direction it is pulling us toward,  we must then actually step outside + go. 

Blindly. With faith. With courage. With bravery. Life can be so scary, making decisions can be paralyzing, and doing anything that goes against the norm, is difficult. But we are here, for this one life, for this one shot, and we can guess, but never really know what comes next so why on earth would we waste any of it? Our time in this lifetime is finite, but our impact can be forever. Pass it on. Share. Live with trust + love in your heart, and make decisions

What world do you want to live in? Who do you want to be friends with? What life do you most want to have? What makes you excited? What do you want to learn more about? Spend time thinking about this and find out. Ask inside, and then L I S T E N. 

Live with a spark, live with intention, live on purpose and watch the world around you open up to everything you are asking for. 

TRY EVERYTHING. MAKE YOUR OWN RULES. SHINE BRIGHT. TRUST + FAITH.