If you have ever looked into self-improvement habits, meditation will have cropped up before. It’s famous as a relaxation exercise or a practice which claims to ‘clear the mind’.

Yet, this was never compelling enough for me to include it in my daily routine.

Like many, I thought meditation was simply an exercise prescribed to those with anxiety. A practice that stressed mums used to find their ‘inner peace’. I thought it was a tool that Buddhist monks claimed would lead them to enlightenment — whatever that meant.

I thought meditation was useless. I could never see it being practical in my life.

As an aspiring entrepreneur, 10 minutes of breathing every day seemed more wasteful than helpful. After all, I could have spent those 10 minutes working on my business. But as I would later discover, meditating was one of the highest ROI activities I did for its growth.

Now, when people ask me for advice, I’m surprised by the amount of times meditation seems to be my recommendation. I’m also surprised by the amount of times it works.

It’s important to note that over the past 2 years, I have been doing ‘focussed meditation’. It involves intensely focussing on your inhales and exhales for extended periods. This is one of the most popular forms of meditation.

The information in this post is specific to ‘focussed meditation’ — I can’t speak for all the other methods.

Presence

if you ask me, this is the most profound benefit of meditating. It’s the reason I find meditation helping so many people.

What does ‘presence’ mean? It’s the capacity to stay grounded in the current moment. To maintain control over your actions and not succumb to distractions. Simply put, presence is the ability to not get lost in your head

Not convinced? Preserving control of your actions is critical in a world that is trying to capitalize on our impulses — the modern world profits when humans indulge in their desires.

Think junk food, porn, social media, video games.

If you can be present, you become far less vulnerable to temptation. Constructing a fulfilling life (instead of a desire-driven one) becomes frictionless.

See, most of the time, indulging in destructive behaviors isn’t due to lack of discipline. Often it’s due to deep-rooted habits and subconscious impulses. When you aren’t fully present you are living on ‘autopilot’. You surrender control to muscle memory — behaviors ingrained after years and years of practicing them.

During meditation, the aim is to keep your focus on your breath. By bringing your attention back each time you notice your mind has wandered, you build the capacity to focus for longer periods.

Repeating this intense observation of your breath is like reps in the gym; training your mind to become aware of its senses.

As you become more advanced in meditation, you will notice more moments during the day when you are aware. Where you are present.

As well as allowing you to ‘enjoy life in the moment’, this gives you immense control over your actions.

With this, you can override your habits and replace them with the ones you want.

In ‘The Charisma Myth’ by Olivia Fox Cabane, she talks about the importance of presence when building charisma. So important that she makes it one of the 3 fundamental principles of charisma in her book. Cabane also explains that teaching her clients to be present is vital for building their charisma. Her clients are CEOs and directors of multi-million dollar corporations. If becoming present is worth their time, it’s probably worth yours as well.

So there you have it. Meditation will make you more charismatic.

Some people also define ‘enlightenment’ as a state of permanent presence. If permanent presence means you are always in control over your mind and body, maybe becoming ‘enlightened’ isn’t a bad goal to strive for.

Attention Span

Focussing on your breath for 10 minutes doesn’t seem difficult. But to say that I struggled at the beginning is an understatement. Even though it hurt my ego, I had to start with just 3 minutes!

My guess is that my inability to sit still for more than 3 minutes was because of my use of modern social media such as TikTok and Instagram. These apps will destroy your attention span. Most of the media on these apps is ‘short-form content’. This type of content bombards you with new information every few seconds, frying your dopamine receptors.

The good news is that, as I increased the time I meditated, my attention span slowly started to come back.

Meditation is the act of remaining focused in the absence of stimulation. This definition is also applicable to ‘attention span’. So it makes sense that there is a correlation between meditation and attention span.

With a longer attention span, you can be more productive. Whether that be business or school work, you can stay focussed for longer.

With a longer attention span, you can absorb information without being distracted. This means you can learn faster because you remember what you have learned.

Reduced Cortisol

Initially, I ignored meditation for its reputation as a relaxation exercise. Yet its effectiveness in reducing stress shouldn’t be overlooked.

In our current age, we are hyperstimulated by the surplus of activity and information around us. Technology is mostly responsible for this.

While this can certainly be a good thing, it can also be a very stressful experience. A period of doing nothing but breathing can do wonders.

The reason it’s important to avoid (chronic) stress is that it is detrimental to health. When you are stressed, the hormone ‘cortisol’ becomes elevated. Consequently, other vital hormones including testosterone, estrogen, and growth hormone are suppressed.

The downstream effects of this are many: muscle loss, reduced libido, and stunted growth, to name a few.

Apart from its effect on other hormones, cortisol brings its own harmful changes. High blood pressure and depleted immune function are often a result of excess stress.

So while a stress reduction may not have convinced me to begin meditating, it’s one of the biggest reasons I’m glad I started.