why Meditation?

Sitting just to sit.

What's super counter-intuitive about meditation is that out of all the habits in JERMs its by far the easiest to do, but most people treat it as though its the hardest. Meditation has some of the nastiest stigmas surrounding it. Its 'cringe', its 'for hippies', 'for monks'. "No normal person actually meditates". "I don't meditate, it's too weird for me."

Sadly, when we hear the term meditation, all these things come to mind. To be perfectly honest, even still I don't feel a hundred percent confident in myself talking about meditation in conversation. To most people, it seems too wishy-washy, too 'out-there' or 'spiritual' and so on and so on.

Unfortunately, the tragic truth for these people is that meditation is by far and beyond one of the most bang-for-your-buck activities you can practice to feel happy. During my high school years, I tried occasionally meditating, following along with some YouTube videos and giving it a go. It still felt pretty cringe and weird, but I couldn't lie and say I didn't notice a difference in my mood. I'm so glad I decided to continue with it to the point where it became a regular part of my day, and thus have been able to reap the positive benefits that come from a long-term habit of practicing mindfulness.

If I could describe meditation to a skeptic, I'd say it's like giving your brain a daily clean-out in the best possible sense. Mindfulness meditation (which literally just means sitting down and trying to focus only on the present moment) almost literally flushes out unwanted thoughts, allowing you to take back control of your mind and think about what you want to think about. Best of all, we need only sit down to do this for a few minutes a day to start noticing ourselves becoming more present during our daily lives. The movie of life can feel like going from an old box-TV to a brand new state-of-the-art flatscreen.

Meditation is probably the textbook example of an 'easy to learn, hard to master' skill. We at JERMs hope to host meditation and yoga classes for all to come learn and practice this invaluable habit. Moreover, we want to break the stigma that meditation is only for a certain type of person and that the average person shouldn't bother with it. We aren't going to try and make it look 'cool' or 'fun', but rather wish to treat it as a daily, neutral necessity, just as we would think of drinking water or sleeping. Meditation, although the most challenging sell, may just be the most valuable part of our society's name.