What are the benefits of meditation?

Peace of mind, focus of mind, stillness of mind... Meditation creates a chemical in your body called serotonin. During meditation serotonin levels increase, and the serotonin is what keeps your neuro transmitters in balance in the brain which creates the sense of peace of mind. Your heart rate slows, blood pressure drops and one experiences a sense of peace and tranquility: the exact opposite of stress. Stress cannot live in a peaceful environment. You will be more healthful, you will gain insight to the challenges in your life as well as solutions, not because you were searching for them but because you let go of them. It all happens in the letting go.

Meditation Metaphor

Every day, you go to the same room, sit on the same meditation cushion, the same time of day, with your breath and the same music playing, and yet each time you do the meditation, your experience is totally different from the one before. This is because the meditation alters your consciousness, changes and expands your consciousness, it is as if you sit on your porch and see the view from your porch, which might be a park with a tree. All you can see from this vantage point is this little park with a tree. If you were to sit on the roof of your house, you could see the same park and the same tree that you could see from sitting on the porch, and you will also be able to see the house next to you and its roof on either side of your house. You'll also be able to see the tops of the trees perhaps. And more of the sky and clouds than from the porch. And yet, if you were in hang glider above your house, you'd have a whole different vantage point, and from here you'd be able to see the park and the tree, the houses on either side of you as well as most of the neighborhood and the other houses surrounding the park. And a real close view of the raven and the hawk flying by. And if you were in a plane you could see your town and a much larger view of this part of the world you live in. If you had binoculars from the plane, you could still see the park and the tree. So you can see how your state of consciousness parallels placing yourself where you can experience different vantage points. Being in the state of meditation, your breath will take you beyond your physical body, beyond your mental body, and beyond your emotional body where you will access your spiritual essence, nature, and being. It is as if you were sitting on the porch looking across the street and the next moment you have the view of looking out the plane and seeing everything. Each time one practices meditation, the faster, easier, more enjoyable, and more fulfilling your meditation becomes until the point where meditation becomes like food and you miss it if you don't get it. After experiencing this discipline and having a meditation practice, one's life will become a meditation in which you will have the ability to stay present in the "here and now." You will be able to have all the benefits of meditation and experience this level of consciousness as you live all the moments in your life.