Meditation has been scientifically proven to: 

Improve Your Health - better immune function, less pain & inflammation.

Increase Your Contentment - more positive thoughts & feelings, less stress & anxiety.

Boost Your Self-Confidence - easier to accel & do your best.

Boost Your Productivity - more focused & creative, easier to multi-task & problem-solve.

Then why don’t we take that time for ourselves to relax, let go, breathe more deeply and go within? Maybe the personality bit of us would rather lay on the couch and watch Netflix or HBO or anything.  If it's not a priority, if something hasn't happened in our lives that makes it imperative to make the change and find this quiet time for ourselves, we're likely to remain the same, even if we know it's 'good for us' or could lower our stress and cortisol levels. 

We need to ask ourselves:  Are we ready and willing to change? 

Sometimes, we know that something is bad for us, but we keep doing it anyway.  One example is smoking.  I had a friend, Evan.  He's a great guy, a vegetarian, a non-drinker.  Watches what kind of food he puts in his body.  And he hates pollution.  He talks on and on about pollution even though he's been polluting his own air and lungs for years. Evan, until quite recently was a smoker.  He smoked 1.5 packs of cigarettes a day. Knew it was bad for him. Knew it was going to kill him, but he didn't stop smoking.  He's been having respiratory conditions for years connected with cigarette smokers, and recently went to a Naturopath for some iridology.  The Naturopath told Evan that he had some spots on the lungs. Evan looked up spots on the lungs and decided to see a Western medical doctor.  He hadn't been to see one in 10 years.  The doctor found that Evan had the beginning stages of emphysema.  Evan quit smoking cold turkey and hasn't had a cigarette in over 6 months. 

What happened?  Evan not only knew in his head that cigarettes were going to kill him, he became aware that cigarettes were actually killing him, and he allowed change to move through him and become a non-smoker. 

What's the correlation? We may feel stressed, tired, overwhelmed, out of sorts and know that something needs to change in our lives, like having a meditation practice, and do nothing.  When it hits home that the stress, fatigue, and other physical ailments that we are experiencing with increasing frequency and intensity are not going away, are starting to control our lives, it's no longer a theory, and we allow change to move through us. We make changes in our lives to feel more calm, quiet, centered, balanced and peaceful. 

Why wait till our stress levels or physical symptom reach epic proportions?  Our society has some unrealistic ideas about meditation, like you must sit cross legged on the floor with your spine straight and eyes closed and chant or breathe deeply for hours to meditate. 

No, not true.  We can meditate in motion like chi gong or tai chi.  We can sit quietly and breathe and be for 5 minutes.  Some physical activities can be a meditative experience, like swimming, running, walking, hiking and skiing.  It's about being fully present in the moment and in our hearts, grounded in our bodies, experiencing calm assurance and serenity. 

There's not a one-size-fits-all for meditation, we can start small and build from there.  We can experience the benefits with our short, focused meditation time, our time to rest and rejuvenate, our time to relax and refuel.  It's important to be kind to ourselves and fill ourselves with the love of self-care; when we do so, we bring more of our best self to whatever else we do.