Over the month of January, I had the privilege to attend a 10-day travel course to Shambhala Mountain Center (SMC) in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. SMC is an amazing, other-worldly place where people go to attend Tibetan Buddhist retreats. Chapman University's 10-day course is centered on meditation, self-discovery, and building a community - what Buddhists call sangha.
While I have been interested in meditation for several years, it wasn't really until I got to SMC that I experienced what meditation truly is. We practiced mindfulness meditation for the duration of our stay. Meditation, and mindfulness meditation in particular, has been getting a lot of attention in the health and medical fields lately. Meditation is no longer for the strictly religious or the New Age eccentric.
Science is finding that meditation is particularly good for the brain, and can actually work to restructure the way our brain is wired (thank you, neuroplasticity). With this in mind, here are my top 5 reasons why you should begin meditation while you are in college:
1. You only need 10-15 minutes per day.
You don't have to travel to the Himalayas, find a remote cave, and meditate like a hermit for the rest of your life. Even while that does sound appealing, in all practicality, you only need to sit for 10 to 15 minutes a day to start to notice a real effect. Mindfulness trains your brain and the benefits of this practice will be present in other parts of your life, too, even when you're not practicing.
2. It's like recharging your batteries.
Think of yourself like the lithium ion battery in your iPhone or Macbook, draining day in and day out. Now imagine if you hadn't charged your battery and you were trying to run on empty. This is, essentially, how most of us operate in college. When caffeine can't help us, meditation will be there: you can recharge your batteries by just sitting for 15 minutes a day in mindfulness meditation. That's the power of this practice - 100% battery, every time, in just 15 minutes.
3. It helps you to learn more about yourself.
Perhaps more esoteric than the other practical reasons, meditation actually helps you to learn about your brain and how your mind works. By sitting and observing your thought patterns each day, you learn to become deeply acquainted with yourself and how you relate to the world. This invariably carries over into the real world. Someone with a deep-rooted knowledge of themselves is bound to radiate that to the world.
4. It helps you focus and destress.
All-nighters, endless projects and papers, finals week. These all are taxing to our mental health, leaving us feeling stressed and completely unfocused. Luckily, meditation's got your back. Mindfulness meditation improves focus. This is actually what the practice consists of: deep awareness of one's breath and thoughts. A 10 minute sit-down can help melt away all that stress and get you back on board to finish that 10 page paper you've been procrastinating all week.
5. It's been associated with preventing dementia later on in life
You might be young and able to recover from weekend alcohol binges in a pinch right now, even if you don't remember what happened the night before. In forty years, you might not be so lucky, unless you start meditating now. That's because research has shown that meditation can help prevent disorders like dementia and Alzheimer's from developing when you grow old. So if you're like me and would like to look back fondly at those nights you can remember, starting meditation now is a great idea.
If this hasn't been convincing enough, then you should probably go ahead and give it a try yourself. Sit down, legs crossed, back straight, and begin to notice your breathing. If you're looking for a great guide to mindfulness meditation, check out Pema Chödrön's book "The Wisdom of No Escape." Happy meditating!
