Mental Health
3 Examples Where Meditation Was a Game Changer for Me
Feeling more alive, aggression & sleep
I used to associate meditation only with Buddhism.
I thought it was something esoteric that only guys in orange dresses with bald heads did.
But it is now clear that meditation is very beneficial for the body and mind. Many studies prove the positive effect in various areas.
Here are three positive experiences I had thanks to daily mediation.
A little more aliveness
Ending the meditation is, in my opinion, the most beautiful feeling.
Slowly you open your eyes, feel your body again, and stand up. It’s like waking up, but without the tiredness — on the contrary, you feel like you can hear, see and feel everything now.
It is like an expansion of consciousness. Often we live with routines throughout the day. We are a bit controlled, acting purely intuitively. Time flies, and at the end of the day, we don’t know what we have done.
Often I feel like a zombie. Meditation can change that. Ending meditation is like waking up from a trance. The world around me is still the same, but I am someone else.
I usually get back to work afterward — but everything feels more real now. I feel everything much more clearly. The way my hand guides the mouse—the click of the keyboard. How the coffee tastes and how the warmth feels in my mouth.
Feeling alive is great.
But it has another significant advantage:
It shows you what you’re already doing and the possibilities you actually have. Instead of routine, everything now feels much more like a decision.
Instead of time flying by, what you leave behind flies by. For me, meditation is a small escape from everyday life.
Self-reflection instead of anger
I have problems with my aggression. For my 8th birthday, my grandmother gave me a punching bag. My mother sometimes threw me out of the house because my outbursts were so bad.
Until a few months ago, I was just as aggressive. Smallest causes, and I started cursing and breaking things. Then I began to meditate daily, and something changed.
The first time I noticed it was in the morning.
I regularly drop blueberries while preparing my breakfast. Picking up all the little things and washing them is extremely annoying. I would usually curse loudly, bang on the table, or kick a door — maybe not an appropriate reaction, I know.
But with my last mishap, everything was different.
Inwardly, I felt the restlessness and the horror. But physically, I was much calmer. It wasn’t suppression — rather, I kept a clear head. Instead of randomly breaking something, I was angrier at myself.
It wasn’t “classic” anger, more a disappointment or a loving hint that I could have done something better.
Studies prove that regular meditation can inhibit aggressive reactions¹.
Really get to rest
Breathe in deeply, breathe out deeply — this is how meditation works in practice.
In the process, the heartbeat gradually decreases, the entire body calms down. But not only the body — also the mind comes to rest.
I like to use meditation in between — to get stress or anxiety under control. It can also have a positive effect on sleep. If you become calmer during the day, you can fall asleep better.
But also directly before going to bed, I use it.
Five minutes are usually enough — after that, I don’t touch my computer or my cell phone anymore. It’s much easier for me to fall asleep that way.