Meditation is Useless: 7 of Your Doubts, Answered

There are a number of ways to meditate, and many of them don’t involve chanting or even sitting cross-legged. Millions of ordinary people meditate every day sitting in a chair, focusing on their breath or using similar simple concentration exercises. Think of it as taking your brain to the gym. And, like going to the gym regularly, meditation has measurable benefits. A famous 2012 Harvard study demonstrated that just meditating like this for 20 minutes a day over a period of  eight weeks resulted in improvements in brain health, reduction in stress levels, improved concentration and lowering of anxiety.

It is true that many of the first people in the West to adopt meditation did so at the height of the hippy era, primarily because The Beatles adopted meditation in 1968 and introduced that generation to the practice. I count this as the PR coup of all time.

But that hippy image of meditation is way out of date. Nowadays, your typical meditator could come from any sector of society. You can find meditation programs in schools, prisons, the military, corporations, even the British Parliament. Meditation is promoted as one of the keys to success by the heads of major corporations including Linked-In, Ford Motors, Salesforce, The Huffington Post, Aetna Insurance and many more.

Because it works. Meditation has been repeatedly shown to enhance focus, productivity, engagement, creativity and innovation, and employee retention. From 2010 – 2012, Aetna Health Insurance conducted a two-year study amongst their own staff and concluded that their new voluntary wellness program, consisting of meditation, yoga and dietary advice, reduced negative stress outcomes and increased productivity, saving the company an estimated $63,000,000.

And they didn’t even have to give up un-reformed coffee.

The cool thing about placebos is that the science demonstrates that they actually work. The unresolved question is why. But meditation is not a placebo. It does not depend on your believing in it in order for it to have an effect. Modern brain monitoring technology has enabled researchers to measure the effects of meditation and now the jury is in. More than 1500 peer-reviewed studies support the long held claim that meditation has many lasting and beneficial effect on the brain, mind and body.

It’s super boring to meditate. 

It is hard to think of a less likely scenario. Meditation has been with us for 7000 years at least, and right now its popularity is rising rapidly, not falling. The reason it is now becoming more widespread is because of the scientific research confirming it’s benefits. ABC news reader Dan Harris, author of10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story, started out as an extreme meditation skeptic. But his personal problems drove him to seek advice and his psychologist advised him to try meditation. The effect was so dramatic that Harris now predicts that within 5 – 10 years meditation will be recognized as an important part of a daily healthy routine, just like exercising and brushing your teeth.

Meditation is not going away any time soon.

When I was a kid I wanted to learn to play the piano. But even at four years old I understood that it would probably take more than five minutes to achieve mastery. The same applies to learning a language, a sport or anything new. Like any discipline, meditation takes practice. Anyone who practices meditation regularly for long enough experiences a slowing down of their over-busy mind and a growing sense of inner peace. How long is long enough? As long as a piece of string. But in the Harvard study I mentioned earlier, benefits could be measured within eight weeks.

I am not aware of any study on the effect of 5 minutes of meditation.

Using this reasoning you would have to agree that physical exercise, or spending time with your family, or listening to music, is also a waste of time. But these are the things that help us to remain healthy, happy and fulfilled. Meditation is an important part of a healthy routine. It helps to increase emotional intelligence, concentration and has actually been shown to gradually raise your baseline of happiness, something that was considered by psychologists to be impossible until recently. That sounds pretty productive to me.

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