I started meditating recently after having been carpet-bombed by its potential benefits for years across various media and platforms, and now, after a few weeks of regular practice, I must say this -- I was pleasantly surprised by how much my outlook toward life changed since I started practicing 'mindfulness' -- a type of meditation involving focusing on the present moment with the understanding that buzzing thoughts are super fleeting.
It was hard at the beginning, very hard in fact; but once I made a habit of doing it every day no matter how busy (I think) I got, it really started making a difference -- it started paying off.
I'm now measurable more focused, less distracted by outside stimuli (screens, people, news) and have gotten more adept at observing my thoughts and feelings before they snowball into something more neurotic -- very good attributes to have in our ever more distracted world. In short, I have more CONTROL over my attention, which has immensely added to how I experience life.[0]
I was about to post the same. Guided meditation has improved my life drastically. 10 minutes on the mornings, helps me to stop rushing it. 10 minutes at the end of the day, refresh me for the next 2-3 hours.
Currently, using the Headspace app. And it is not cheap, where I live it cost roughly (about 1/4 of a monthly college degree job salary), it was worth every penny.
Trying to get my girlfriend to use it. No luck so far.
I've noticed that even doing it one or two times a week can have a sizable impact on my day to day. I probably should do it every day, like you, but it's fascinating how much our brains will rationalize how "busy" we think we are.
I initially started off with Headspace, and once I became comfortable enough, I started using a countdown timer on my mobile device for arbitrary number of minutes (swings between 5-15 depending on my capacity for the day) and started doing it by myself.
I look at Headspace like more of a water-wing for beginners than a tool for serious meditation.
I really like Andrew's voice, and gamify the experience of meditation. However what I found to be the most valuable were acquiring multiple techniques learn from the different packages, and the stoic insights you learn along the way.
It was hard at the beginning, very hard in fact; but once I made a habit of doing it every day no matter how busy (I think) I got, it really started making a difference -- it started paying off.
I'm now measurable more focused, less distracted by outside stimuli (screens, people, news) and have gotten more adept at observing my thoughts and feelings before they snowball into something more neurotic -- very good attributes to have in our ever more distracted world. In short, I have more CONTROL over my attention, which has immensely added to how I experience life.[0]
Highly recommend it.
[0] https://hbr.org/2018/03/to-control-your-life-control-what-yo...