Unlocking the Hidden Power: Discover the Astonishing Truth About Meditation and Transform Your Life

Meditation and mindfulness have been thrown around a lot over the past couple of years. Although, I must admit, when I first heard of the term, I thought of a monk sitting “crisscrossed apple sauce” counting beads off in the Himalayas Mountains somewhere.

I never saw it as a tool to enhance my daily life. I really saw it as a practice that took me away from life, and that was tied to religious traditions that I didn’t grow up in. I was wrong.

This all changed when I began seeking tools to increase my life experience. I didn’t know what I wanted; I just knew a change needed to occur. This was when I went down the rabbit hole of meditation.

I read every book I could on personal development and realized almost every self-help author discussed the importance of a meditation practice.

I read Jack Canfield’s Success Principles, U.S. Andersen’s Three Magic Words, You Are the Placebo by Joe Dispenza, Super Genes and The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire by Deepak Chopra, Life Visioning by Michael Bernard Beckwith, and The Power of Awareness by Neville Goddard.

Even the Bible mentions the word meditate or meditation 23 times.

I also researched the practices of Oprah, 50 Cent, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Russell Simmons, and American Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio. They all discussed the benefits and credited their extraordinary success to their meditation practice.

50 Cent says he learned meditation from Deepak Chopra. “I try to meditate but I’m still not good at it,” he says but still continues with the mantra he learned from Chopra when his mind drifts.

Dalio, who advises entire countries on how to invest billions of dollars, says he meditates almost every day and credits his success to his daily meditation practice.

This was when I thought, well if I wanted results like these people had, I needed to dig a little deeper here and adopt a practice.

Because I’m naturally a scientist by trade, and I’m well aware of the misinformation on the web, I rarely take things at face value anymore. So this is when I researched the science behind it.

I was amazed to find out that neuroscience is proving that meditation can help you reduce stress, strengthen resilience, improve focus, boost productivity, extend your life expectancy, and enhance overall well-being.

The scientific rigor in these studies was compelling and made me want to implement a practice.

Western science was proving the benefits of meditation that Eastern spiritual traditions have known for hundreds of years that can improve the quality of human lives.

Instead of seeing meditation as a practice that took me away from life, it helped me realize it was a practice that could enable me to live life fully.

What is meditation?

It’s a practice in which you focus your mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train your attention and awareness. In this practice, eventually, your mind becomes mentally clear and emotionally calm.

Training your mind to focus on your breath or a particular object overflows into every aspect of your life, whether on the job, in your relationships, or in sleep.

Our brains are constantly chattering – regretting the past and worrying about the future – that it almost seems impossible to focus on the present moment.

But when you focus on the present moment, your mind gives way to surprising benefits such as creativity, joy, focus, and tranquility—you are able to accept everything and not resist anything. Not this is a powerful state to live in!

When I started my practice using apps like Calm or Headspace, it was tough initially, but I was hooked once I began to see the benefits manifest in my life.

I felt like I could manage my emotional state better, synchroneities happened more often, productivity increased at work, I experienced more empathy and patience for myself and others, and even better, I found myself joyful even on my way to work in D.C. traffic at 8 am.

Life became a graceful and enjoyable journey, even during stress and adversities.

Daily meditation does require a small investment of your time, but the payoff is exponential.

As Emily Fletcher, author of Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance would say, investing just 2 percent of your day to dramatically improve the other 98 percent is worth it!

So how do you meditate? Here’s an exercise taken from my book Success Starts Within:

1. Find somewhere comfortable to sit that is quiet and peaceful. It could be on a chair, pillow, somewhere outdoors, in a closet, or on a bedroom floor.

Note: To effectively implement a meditation practice, it’s best to pick a location and stick with it. Over time your body and subconscious mind will begin to recognize or associate a particular place with “this is where I meditate.” Similar to your bed. Your body knows that when you lay down on your bed, it says to itself, “It’s time to go to sleep.”

 2. Now that you’re comfortable, set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and close your eyes, if you wish. You can even meditate with your eyes open by focusing on a particular object.

3. Once you feel settled with your eyes closed or open, focus on your breath. You can bring your awareness to the tip of your nostrils as air comes in and out. If you’ve never focused on your breath before, it may feel uncomfortable at first, but you will become accustomed to breathing naturally as you practice. Don’t force your breathing into a certain rhythm.

4. Now, as you focus on your breath, you will notice a heap of distractions, thoughts, emotions, or even that darn email you forgot to respond to. As thoughts arise, gently bring your focus back to your breath, going in and out of your nose. Every time you recognize your thoughts straying away from your breath and bring it back, you are building a muscle of focus, awareness, resilience, and willpower. Don’t get discouraged if it feels challenging at first. Just as you go to the gym to build your muscles, refocusing your awareness back to your breath is the same. The more you do it, the stronger you become.

5. Continue to follow your breath for the period you’ve set on your timer or phone. When you are done, sit for a moment after your practice. Refrain from jumping up and getting active immediately. Gently ease your way back into your day.

You can also download apps like Calm or Headspace. Both provide guided meditation sessions that you can listen to with your headphones. There are also a ton of YouTube videos of guided mediation sessions. Just search “guided meditation” on YouTube.

If you enjoyed this blog and are looking for more mindset tools to achieve more & stress less, I’d like to give you 3 free e-books. Check them out by clicking here.

To Your Success & Well-Being,

- Chazz Scott, Mindset & Resilience Coach, founder of Supra Mentem