Is Meditation Overrated? (Shocking)

The often acclaimed benefits meditation has are not for nothing. The mind, however, and every inner mechanism that keeps us from meditating will often give us reasons why we should stop meditating. 

But one of the factors that separate an advanced, happy meditation practitioner from a novice is their ability to stick through the practice, in spite of how hard it is. 

How you do one thing will generally be a good indicator of how you do other things, but when it comes down to meditation, it’s one of the hardest habits to master, but at the same time, can also be one of the easiest and most peaceful habits you can master. 

Persuasion is a powerful force, but it can also be used against us by the mind, because the mind knows our weak points, unlike anyone else. 

Many are likely to put a whole lot more weight on their own image of themselves as opposed to what someone else thinks. This is a double-edged sword since a lot of people could think highly of you but it does you no good if your mind tells you the opposite. 

So, if you think being unaffected by things while being able to be in a peaceful state, regardless of external circumstances out of your control, where you’re able to rely on your own internal happiness as a driving source is overrated, then you will feel meditation is as well. 

But if I put it like this, meditation will sound a whole lot more appealing to a lot of people. It all depends on how we see meditation. 

Meditation Is Underrated

That’s right, meditation is perhaps one of the most underrated practices we can do, but so widely available and known to almost everyone. 

But meditation can appear to be overrated for novices because they haven’t given the practice a chance to work for them. 

Either they meditate for too short, aren’t consistent with the practice, or set their expectations in the wrong place. 

Those who stick with it long enough, are gonna see through any tricks of the mind to keep us from finding our greatness. 

People don’t progress towards a better version of themselves because that implies stepping out of the range of comfort, but it’s the cost of growth. 

Whether the meditation or life outside meditation is the one that is hard for each individual will depend on person to person, but there will always be obstacles along the way, because no one lives the perfect life. 

But you can turn your odds in your favor to live a happier life, and one of the easiest paths is through meditation since you don’t even have to leave your home and it’s so accessible, unlike let’s say therapy or hypnosis where you usually depend on someone else. 

Meditation can have the same effect of the two, but of course, in no way am I saying it’s the replacement for everyone, since in many ways, meditation is a complementary tool to better help us manage whichever situation we are currently facing, and giving us means to solve it, rather than relying on meditation as an escape. 

The fact that meditation normalizes the concept of tranquility and brings it back as if we were younger, (when it was easier to live in the present because we lacked worry or had responsibilities ahead of us), and because it’s so easily accessible to everyone who wants to is strong enough reasons for meditation to be an underrated practice. 

Testimonies

While looking at things from a scientific point of view, the benefits of meditation need to be studied more, individuals in such fields have at times recommended meditation, such as physicians. There also are countless testimonies of individuals who’ve had their lives turned around thanks to meditation, and often in a positive sense. 

You rarely hear meditation being detrimental to someone, unless there are underlying psychological challenges in the way where the person wouldn’t benefit from the practice. 

But based on what you read from individuals that have meditated for years, such as myself, you get a rough idea of what meditation can do for you, even proving itself useful in areas you might not have thought of before. Of course, anything you hear about meditation isn’t likely to come along right away, at the very least it’s worth giving it a couple of months before anything has to happen. 

But that’s in most cases. Staying and learning focus, however, can take years, since it would be disrupting years, if not decades of subconscious programming where distractions were normal. 

And it doesn’t help that we’re often showered with distractions on a daily basis. For instance, the concept of multitasking has been popularized despite it having negative effects on us. 

Meditation and Effort

Meditation will only work for you if you allow it to work for you. If you deep down believe it’s overrated, you will be likely to abandon the practice. Meditation will indeed be overrated if you choose to see it that way, and don’t take any deliberate actions to level up. 

But you can’t make a strong case for meditation being overrated if you haven’t had the first-hand experience of thorough and consistent meditation to jump to that conclusion. Unless you have a predisposition to meditation and plan for it to not work. 

Meditation is more about letting things happen than trying to control things. Be it thoughts, emotions, sounds, or anything outside of your control. 

The impotence some feel towards what they can’t change makes them want to turn away from meditation, but such problems are rooted deep within from unsolved conflict, something meditation helps tackle, to begin with. 

However, that’s part of the journey, just like when we play a game, complete a quest, and at times, defeat foes to level up the character. In this case, you are the character. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing progress materialize itself in real life and being the beneficiaries of such rewards. 

Deep down, most, if not everyone wants to do it, but the willpower isn’t there. Fortunately, our discipline activates when we deliberately engage in replenishing ourselves, as we do with meditation. 

When You Stop Meditating

Picture this, you’ve convinced yourself meditation is overrated but you’ve still gotten your toes wet with meditation. 

However, you’ve stuck with it long enough to build the routine. At this point, you will have a sense of guilt when you don’t meditate. 

While you tell yourself it’s overrated, deep down, you feel like it’s something you can’t continue your day without. Much like some can’t start their day with a daily dose of coffee. 

The difference is that, unlike coffee, meditation is not addictive. But it can have similar effects in feeling a need to engage in something you know it’s good for you. 

Of course, there is the rare exception of those that have abandoned meditation completely, even after meditating for a while. 

But this isn’t a majority that has gotten past the initial stages, where the hardest part of meditation resides. Monks meditate for hours a day because they’ve understood something the average individual hasn’t. 

If you’re one of the small but winning percentiles that stays during meditation, you start noticing how things move more in your direction when you meditate consistently. Once you get a taste of this, you don’t want to stop. It’s exactly like going for a daily run. 

Any habit worth adopting is hard at first, but later on, it becomes pleasant, and with meditation, it can even be seen as leisure for some. They thus create a cycle that benefits their daily life. 

Final Thoughts

While meditation is unlikely to give you superpowers, it’s far from being overrated. But don’t expect the practice to be effortless. 

The effort is worth it and you will get a lot back from your meditation practice that you will start feeling like you can’t be without. 

Allow meditation to work for you and you will naturally gravitate to it, and leveling up yourself in various areas of your life will become effortless. 

Where you once might’ve struggled, you see a path forward, considering meditation removes all the fog that was getting in the way as an added bonus to every gain you get from the practice. 

If you are willing to stick with meditation for years, having a goal but not being attached to that goal and allowing for what’s to happen, you will already be ahead of most meditators who start, as a major part of the practice is the mindset. 

Adopting a mindset that favors the meditation practice is not easy, but your way of thinking changes over time after meditating, wiring you into a positive direction. Where anger once had been a natural response to situations you disliked, indifference and peace become your new normal. 

Lastly, meditation alone won’t work without additional action. Meditation is one part of the equation that helps you in whichever journey you are on. 

The rest of the journey is whichever purpose you had set for yourself. Looking back, you are unlikely to regret getting into meditation. 

It’s one of the things you can’t get wrong, and thus, while meditation is widely popular and some are merely curious about it, it’s more underrated than overrated. 

Or we’d see an influx of calm people across the globe preaching for meditation. Many, however, live as if stress is a normal part they’ve come to accept in their lifestyle with defeat. You don’t have to be one of them.