Why Meditation Should Be Your Brain’s ‘Scheduled Maintenance’

Sleep is already our brains’ regular scheduled maintenance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take other steps. Author Dan Harris suggests meditation is the maintenance key to improve your mental health, de-stress, and be more productive in all the right ways.

We’re fans of meditation around here. It’s not a panacea for every mental health issue, but it does have significant benefits when it comes to improving your focus, concentration and attention span, as well as alleviating stress and anxiety.

In this clip, Harris explains some of the research we’ve covered before about the scientific benefits of meditation. Harris also explains how he was sceptical of meditation at first as well.

Of course, once you’ve decided to meditate, you don’t have to sit lotus on a Zafu if that’t not your thing. Harris notes that the point of meditation isn’t necessarily a woo-woo connecting-yourself-with-the-cosmic-ether exercise. For him — and for many people — it’s more about learning how to clear your mind and be fully present in the moment for whatever you’re doing.

We have more detailed advice in our guide to meditation for the rest of us, and in this piece on turning everyday actions into meditative practice. Best of all, you really don’t need a lot of time to make this work for you, and to start seeing results. This is why Harris suggests that eventually we’ll look at meditation as a kind of “scheduled maintenance” you practise in your conscious hours.

Hit the link below to read the transcript at YouTube, or watch the video there.

Dan Harris: Hack Your Brain’s Default Mode with Meditation [YouTube via Swissmiss]