The 12 laws of Karma

1. The Great Law

• “As you sow, so shall you reap.” Also known as the “Law of Cause and Effect.”
• To receive happiness, peace, love, and friendship, one must BE happy, peaceful, loving, and a true friend.
• Whatever one puts out into the Universe will come back to them.

2. The Law of Creation

• Life requires our participation to happen. It does not happen by itself.
• We are one with the Universe, both inside and out.
• Whatever surrounds us gives us clues to our inner state.
• Surround yourself with what you want to have in your life and be yourself.

3. The Law of Humility

• One must accept something in order to change it.
• If all one sees is an enemy or a negative character trait, then they are not and cannot be focused on a higher level of existence.

4. The Law of Growth

• “Wherever you go, there you are.”
• It is we who must change and not the people, places or things around us if we want to grow spiritually.
• All we are given is ourselves. That is the only thing we have control over.
• When we change who and what we are within our hearts, our lives follow suit and change too.

5. The Law of Responsibility

• If there is something wrong in one’s life, there is something wrong in them.
• We mirror what surrounds us, and what surrounds us mirrors us; this is a Universal Truth.
• One must take responsibility for what is in one’s life.

6. The Law of Connection

• The smallest or seemingly least important of things must be done because everything in the Universe is connected.
• Each step leads to the next step, and so forth and so on.
• Someone must do the initial work to get a job done.
• Neither the first step nor the last are of greater significance. They are both needed to accomplish the task.
• Past, Present, and Future are all connected.

7. The Law of Focus

• One cannot think of two things at the same time.
• If our focus is on Spiritual Values, it is not possible for us to have lower thoughts like greed or anger.

8. The Law of Giving and Hospitality

• If one believes something to be true, then sometime in their life they will be called upon to demonstrate that truth.
• Here is where one puts what they CLAIM to have learned into PRACTICE.

9. The Law of Here and Now

• One cannot be in the here and now if they are looking backward to examine what was or forward to worry about the future.
• Old thoughts, old patterns of behavior, and old dreams prevent us from having new ones.

10. The Law of Change

• History repeats itself until we learn the lessons that we need to change our path.

11. The Law of Patience and Reward

• All Rewards require initial toil.
• Rewards of lasting value require patient and persistent toil.
• True joy comes from doing what one is supposed to be doing, and knowing that the reward will come in its own time.

12. The Law of Significance and Inspiration

• One gets back from something whatever they put into it.
• The true value of something is a direct result of the energy and intent that is put into it.
• Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the Whole.
• Lesser contributions have no impact on the Whole, nor do they work to diminish it.
• Loving contributions bring life to and inspire the Whole.

Karma is a lifestyle that promotes positive thinking and actions. It also employs self-reflection to fix the problems in one’s life.

20 Habits Of Highly Authentic People

by Simona Rich
Meeting someone living a uniquely crafted life is a breath of fresh air. These people are rare – it takes courage and self-confidence to be who you really are despite reactions from skeptics and attempts to bring you back to conformity and a false exterior. If you’re ready to show to the world the real you, this post might just be the beginning of your journey to authenticity.
 
Here are the 20 things that authentic people do differently:


1. They aren't afraid to express their opinions even though those opinions might be different than the opinions of the majority.


2. They never apply advice given without firstly consulting the guide within.


3. They are driven to action by the inner-motor rather than external triggers.


4. They’re proud of their unique traits that make them stand out from the crowd.


5. They have unique daily rituals, like making coffee in a special way or meditating 
in candlelight before going to bed.


6. They allow their friends and people they meet to show their true selves.


7. They search in conversations for depth, and not for gossip or emotional news.


8.They’re perfectly happy in their own company and they’re great friends with their own selves.


9. They value experiences over things.


10. They make the most out of the situations they find themselves in, be the situation bad or good.


11. They don’t judge others because they look beyond the external facade of words and appearances.


12. They talk less because they conserve energy for wording things that matter.


13. They listen closely because they’re fascinated with exploring the depths of 
other beings.


14. They don’t complain as they take full responsibility of their lives.


15. They have high self-esteem and appear confident because they have nothing to hide.


16. They don’t get upset when someone obviously dislikes them. They allow others to form whatever opinions they wish to have.


17. They see beauty and perfection in things that other people dismiss.


18. They try to support others and sincerely wish for people to grow and reveal their unlimited selves.


19. They let go of critical and ill-wishing people, although they don’t hold any bad feelings towards them.


20. They see the unity and interconnectedness of all life, and hear the harmonious symphony of the world in all life’s situations.

3 Buddhist Beliefs that will make you happier

by Megan Bruneau

You don't have to practice yoga or follow an Ayurvedic diet to benefit from Buddhist ideas (but if you do, more power to you). 

So whether or not you think about balancing your dosha, here are three powerful elements of Buddhist philosophy, "The Noble Truths," and how you can incorporate them into every day. They might just change your life...
 
1. Dukkha: Life is painful and causes suffering.
Many people might say that Buddhism is pessimistic or negative. This is a common result of learning that one of the Noble Truths is translated as "Life is suffering." But there's more to this statement. It's not just telling us, "Life is tough, so deal with it." So what is it telling us?
We actually can create more suffering in our lives by trying to avoid or suppress difficult emotions. Yes, our lives are inevitably punctuated with various unpleasant feelings: loss, sadness, fatigue, boredom, anxiety appear and reappear during our lives.
But attaching or clinging to particular expectations, material items, and states of being is often a cause for acute frustration, disappointment, and other forms of pain. So rather than fear our suffering or seek an ultimate resolution to it (and become frustrated by our lack of finding one), we can learn simply to recognize our suffering.
 
How we can use this belief every day: Try not to buy into the idea that you're broken. Expect that death, aging, sickness, suffering, and loss are part of life. Practice acceptance in the face of strife. Stop attaching to the idea that life should be easy and pain free, both emotionally and physically. This is a misconception made popular by the fashion, beauty, and pharmaceutical industries.
Illness, heartbreak, loss, disappointment, and frustration are parts of life that can be mitigated by practicing "non-attachment." Try to embrace imperfection, to let go of this belief that life should be a certain way. Open your heart to uncertainty.
 
2. Anitya: Life is in constant flux.
Anitya or "impermanence" means that life as we know it is in constant flux. We can never access the moment that just passed, nor can we ever replicate it. As each day passes, our cells are different, our thoughts develop, the temperature and air quality shifts. Everything around us is different. Always.
When we are feeling especially uncomfortable, the concept of impermanence can be, paradoxically, comforting. In other words: if nothing is permanent, we know our pain will pass. But when we are experiencing joy, the idea of impermanence can be incredibly fear-inducing.
If we accept the idea of impermanence at face-value, it can be incredibly liberating. In the West, about 100 years after the Buddha expressed this idea, Greek philosopher Heraclitus mirrored the belief when he famously said, "You can never step in the same river twice." All we have is the present moment.
 
How we can use it in our everyday lives: Celebrate the idea of change. Accept that everything is constantly changing. It's kind of amazing, when you just think about it! And even when the idea of impermanence might feel scary, it helps us appreciate everything we are experiencing in the present: our relationships, body, mood, health, the weather, our favorite shoes, our jobs, our youth, our minds. So let's savor those moments we do enjoy and know that the ones we don't enjoy will pass.
 
3. Anatma: The self is always changing.
When I ask clients what they want to get out of therapy, they commonly answer, "I want to find myself." Our culture has led us to believe there's a concrete, constant "self" tucked away somewhere in us. Is it between our heart and liver? Or somewhere unknown in our brain? Who knows!
Buddhism, however, assumes there is no fixed, stable "self." In line with Anitya (impermanence), our cells, memories, thoughts, and personal narratives — all of the "matter" that ultimately comprises our identities — change over time.
Sure, we all have personalities (though they can change over time). We have names, and jobs, and other titles that we use to identify ourselves, to feel a sense of "self."
But the idea of a constant self is yet another story our culture has told us. It is a story we can change, and thereby accept the idea that we ourselves can change — at any time, in any place. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Thanks to impermanence, anything is possible."
 
How we can use it in our everyday life: Instead of focusing on "finding ourselves," we ought to focus on creating the self we wish to be at every moment. It's possible for us to be, and feel, different today than we were and felt yesterday. Being depressed today doesn't mean we'll be depressed forever. We can forgive others. We can forgive ourselves.
Once we let go of our attachment to the idea of the constant "self," we can rest more comfortably with the constant change present in all of life. In each new moment, we ourselves are new.

10 Steps For A Successful Lucid Dream

by Steven Bancarz 

Lucid dreaming is one of the most extraordinary experiences you could have as a human being.  Being awake within a dream, you are able to consciously interact with it just as you interact in the real world. Everything is saturated with colour and vibrantly alive, and it feels far more real than waking life does.

There are many practical benefits to lucid dreaming.  For me personally, it reminded be of how much life is like a dream and helped me appreciate the impermanence of reality.  It helped me cultivate more consciousness and awareness in waking life by reminding me that I don’t have to be a victim to my surroundings, and can instead become lucid and take control.  It also led to both of my out-of-body experiences.

Lucid dreaming can propel you into a higher understanding of yourself and the reality you live in during your waking life.  On top of being exhilarating and fun, it’s also a very useful catalyst for spiritual expansion.


Here are 10 steps for having a successful lucid dream:

 

1) Dream Diaries

Spending at least 10 minutes in putting down and recording your dreams in the morning. Even if you wake up in the middle of the night, try to remember and write down what happened. This trains your brain to become used to retaining memories while you are dreaming and to bring awareness into the dream state.

 

2)  Reality Checks

Performing as many as 10 or more reality checks during the day, and these should be spaced out during the day. Does your reflection look normal in the mirror? Do the palms of your hands look normal close-up? How long do you stay in the air when you jump? Perhaps even make a marking on your hand and look at it throughout the day, and in your dream you will notice it missing.  When you notice it is no longer there, you will realize you are dreaming.

 

3) Manifest

Spending up to 20 minutes in the afternoon to incubate a lucid dream. The techniques to use here include meditation, self hypnosis, and visualization of what you wish to experience in your dream.  This is also helpful to do right before bed.  KNOW that you will lucid dream, and be thankful that you have already manifest a lucid dream.

 

4) Affirmation

Before you go to bed at night, repeat this to yourself: “I will remember to recognize that I’m dreaming”. Fall asleep repeating this in your head, and this awareness will subconsciously carry into your dreams. Know that in your dream, you will remember that you are dreaming.  Remove all doubt.  Affirmation is important.

 

5) Identifying Your Dream Signs

You may also have that nasty experience of always running out of fuel whenever you are on your way to write a final exam. Again, it may be that you always have that horrible experience of your teeth falling off from your mouth. The best and most reliable way of determining your personal dream signs is by keeping a dream journal. Whenever you check it, you can easily identify those dream signs that are regularly occurring.  When your future dreams contain them, you will realize it’s just a dream sign.

 

6) Imagination Of Desired Dream

Imagine yourself being back to a previous dream. But this time, you have to re-live the ending differently. Visualize the scene in the dream in such a way that the details are clearer than what is obtainable in the previous dream. Next, search for the dream signs. Of course, this should be some unusual characters,  locations and objects which should reveal the dream to be mere fantasy; something you wouldn’t see in real life.
Next, start telling yourself that you are dreaming. Although you are just day dreaming (and this is by no means a lucid dream) continue to experience an imagined lucid dream fantasy. Do whatever you would do if this were a real lucid dream.

 

7) Wake Up At Night

Research has shown that waking up during sleep can increase one’s chance of being lucid. So, in order to have more lucid dreams, you may want to wake yourself up in the night and bring yourself to full consciousness for a few minutes. You can spend those few minutes in reading about lucid dreams, meditating, visualizing, etc.  Maybe even set an alarm for 3 or 4 am.

 

8) Direct Your Half-Asleep State

At times, you may wake up in the middle of the night and found yourself in this dreamy state. If this occurs, there is no need for you panic for your body and mind are already relaxed. Just drift into the dream world and of course, this can easily be accomplished without the least effort.

 

9) Snap Out Of The Dream.  Fully Step Into Lucidity.

his step involves stepping into the lucid world and this means submerging your awareness fully into the lucid dream as well as stabilizing the dream to eradicate any chance of waking up.  Stay calm, don’t get over excited and wake yourself up.  Realize that you are dreaming, and keep your attention concentrated in the present moment within your lucid dream.

 

10) Have fun

It’s a wonderful experience to have, and there is nothing anyone or anything can do in a lucid dream to harm you.  If you find yourself scared when you become lucid, know that you are always being guided and protected, and that you can wake yourself up at any time you wish.  Talk with people, manipulate your surroundings, try to leave your body, appreciate the vividness of the world around you.

It’s important to remember that there is nothing to fear in a lucid dream.  Some figures you encounter may scare you, but remember that everything you encounter is a reflection of some aspect of yourself.  Love them and forgive them, and know that when you do so you are loving and forgiving a shadow aspect of you.

Lucid dreaming is not just for fun however.  It can also be used as a spiritual practice for self-healing and personal growth.  Here is an awesome TED talk video about nightmares and lucid dreaming as a medium for spiritual development:
Happy dreaming!

Holding space for someone

What it means to “hold space” for people, plus eight tips on how to do it well

By Heather Plett

When my mom was dying, my siblings and I gathered to be with her in her final days. None of us knew anything about supporting someone in her transition out of this life into the next, but we were pretty sure we wanted to keep her at home, so we did.

While we supported mom, we were, in turn, supported by a gifted palliative care nurse, Ann, who came every few days to care for mom and to talk to us about what we could expect in the coming days. She taught us how to inject Mom with morphine when she became restless, she offered to do the difficult tasks (like giving Mom a bath), and she gave us only as much information as we needed about what to do with Mom’s body after her spirit had passed.

“Take your time,” she said. “You don’t need to call the funeral home until you’re ready. Gather the people who will want to say their final farewells. Sit with your mom as long as you need to. When you’re ready, call and they will come to pick her up.”

Ann gave us an incredible gift in those final days. Though it was an excruciating week, we knew that we were being held by someone who was only a phone call away.

In the two years since then, I’ve often thought about Ann and the important role she played in our lives. She was much more than what can fit in the title of “palliative care nurse”. She was facilitator, coach, and guide. By offering gentle, nonjudgmental support and guidance, she helped us walk one of the most difficult journeys of our lives.

The work that Ann did can be defined by a term that’s become common in some of the circles in which I work. She was holding space for us.
 
What does it mean to hold space for someone else? It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control.

Sometimes we find ourselves holding space for people while they hold space for others. In our situation, for example, Ann was holding space for us while we held space for Mom. Though I know nothing about her support system, I suspect that there are others holding space for Ann as she does this challenging and meaningful work. It’s virtually impossible to be a strong space holder unless we have others who will hold space for us. Even the strongest leaders, coaches, nurses, etc., need to know that there are some people with whom they can be vulnerable and weak without fear of being judged.

In my own roles as teacher, facilitator, coach, mother, wife, and friend, etc., I do my best to hold space for other people in the same way that Ann modeled it for me and my siblings. It’s not always easy, because I have a very human tendency to want to fix people, give them advice, or judge them for not being further along the path than they are, but I keep trying because I know that it’s important. At the same time, there are people in my life that I trust to hold space for me.

To truly support people in their own growth, transformation, grief, etc., we can’t do it by taking their power away (ie. trying to fix their problems), shaming them (ie. implying that they should know more than they do), or overwhelming them (ie. giving them more information than they’re ready for). We have to be prepared to step to the side so that they can make their own choices, offer them unconditional love and support, give gentle guidance when it’s needed, and make them feel safe even when they make mistakes.

Holding space is not something that’s exclusive to facilitators, coaches, or palliative care nurses. It is something that ALL of us can do for each other – for our partners, children, friends, neighbours, and even strangers who strike up conversations as we’re riding the bus to work.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned from Ann and others who have held space for me.

1. Give people permission to trust their own intuition and wisdom. When we were supporting Mom in her final days, we had no experience to rely on, and yet, intuitively, we knew what was needed. We knew how to carry her shrinking body to the washroom, we knew how to sit and sing hymns to her, and we knew how to love her. We even knew when it was time to inject the medication that would help ease her pain. In a very gentle way, Ann let us know that we didn’t need to do things according to some arbitrary health care protocol – we simply needed to trust our intuition and accumulated wisdom from the many years we’d loved Mom.
2. Give people only as much information as they can handle. Ann gave us some simple instructions and left us with a few handouts, but did not overwhelm us with far more than we could process in our tender time of grief. Too much information would have left us feeling incompetent and unworthy.
3. Don’t take their power away. When we take decision-making power out of people’s hands, we leave them feeling useless and incompetent. There may be some times when we need to step in and make hard decisions for other people (ie. when they’re dealing with an addiction and an intervention feels like the only thing that will save them), but in almost every other case, people need the autonomy to make their own choices (even our children). Ann knew that we needed to feel empowered in making decisions on our Mom’s behalf, and so she offered support but never tried to direct or control us.
4. Keep your own ego out of it. This is a big one. We all get caught in that trap now and then – when we begin to believe that someone else’s success is dependent on our intervention, or when we think that their failure reflects poorly on us, or when we’re convinced that whatever emotions they choose to unload on us are about us instead of them. It’s a trap I’ve occasionally found myself slipping into when I teach. I can become more concerned about my own success (Do the students like me? Do their marks reflect on my ability to teach? Etc.) than about the success of my students. But that doesn’t serve anyone – not even me. To truly support their growth, I need to keep my ego out of it and create the space where they have the opportunity to grow and learn.
5. Make them feel safe enough to fail. When people are learning, growing, or going through grief or transition, they are bound to make some mistakes along the way. When we, as their space holders, withhold judgement and shame, we offer them the opportunity to reach inside themselves to find the courage to take risks and the resilience to keep going even when they fail. When we let them know that failure is simply a part of the journey and not the end of the world, they’ll spend less time beating themselves up for it and more time learning from their mistakes.
6. Give guidance and help with humility and thoughtfulness. A wise space holder knows when to withhold guidance (ie. when it makes a person feel foolish and inadequate) and when to offer it gently (ie. when a person asks for it or is too lost to know what to ask for). Though Ann did not take our power or autonomy away, she did offer to come and give Mom baths and do some of the more challenging parts of caregiving. This was a relief to us, as we had no practice at it and didn’t want to place Mom in a position that might make her feel shame (ie. having her children see her naked). This is a careful dance that we all must do when we hold space for other people. Recognizing the areas in which they feel most vulnerable and incapable and offering the right kind of help without shaming them takes practice and humility.
7. Create a container for complex emotions, fear, trauma, etc. When people feel that they are held in a deeper way than they are used to, they feel safe enough to allow complex emotions to surface that might normally remain hidden. Someone who is practiced at holding space knows that this can happen and will be prepared to hold it in a gentle, supportive, and nonjudgmental way. In The Circle Way, we talk about “holding the rim” for people. The circle becomes the space where people feel safe enough to fall apart without fearing that this will leave them permanently broken or that they will be shamed by others in the room. Someone is always there to offer strength and courage. This is not easy work, and it is work that I continue to learn about as I host increasingly more challenging conversations. We cannot do it if we are overly emotional ourselves, if we haven’t done the hard work of looking into our own shadow, or if we don’t trust the people we are holding space for. In Ann’s case, she did this by showing up with tenderness, compassion, and confidence. If she had shown up in a way that didn’t offer us assurance that she could handle difficult situations or that she was afraid of death, we wouldn’t have been able to trust her as we did.
8. Allow them to make different decisions and to have different experiences than you would. Holding space is about respecting each person’s differences and recognizing that those differences may lead to them making choices that we would not make. Sometimes, for example, they make choices based on cultural norms that we can’t understand from within our own experience. When we hold space, we release control and we honour differences. This showed up, for example, in the way that Ann supported us in making decisions about what to do with Mom’s body after her spirit was no longer housed there. If there had been some ritual that we felt we needed to conduct before releasing her body, we were free to do that in the privacy of Mom’s home.

Holding space is not something that we can master overnight, or that can be adequately addressed in a list of tips like the ones I’ve just given. It’s a complex practice that evolves as we practice it, and it is unique to each person and each situation.
It is my intention to be a life-long learning in what it means to hold space for other people, so if you have experience that’s different than mine and want to add anything to this post, please add that in the comments or send me a message.

Scientifically Meditation Benefits

26 Scientifically Proven Superhuman Benefits of Meditation

I’ve written posts on the myths of motivation in the past going into the science of what makes people tick, but what I didn’t mention is what I believe the ultimate motivator is: reasons to act.

Bombarding your brain with reasons to act makes motivation easy.

The Mind of a Meditator

In Social Psychologist Daniel Goleman’s book Destructive Emotions, he recounts his experience of performing the first scientific studies on the mind of a mediator. Among the scientists present were Richie Davidson, a neuroscientist, and Paul Ekman – one of the world’s leading researchers on emotions.

The Dalai Lama himself, who helped this meeting of the minds between East and West, said of it, “I want to put everything under scrutiny, what doesn’t work, even if it was there for thousands of years we’ll take out.” He gave the scientists his right hand man Lama Oser to study — a European monk with over 30 years of meditative experience.

They tested him on various parameters.

This is where our story of the superhuman benefits of meditation begins.

Breathe in.

1. Insane Equanimity and Wellbeing

The first thing they looked at was Lama Oser’s left-to-right prefrontal cortex activity ratio. People who are happier tend to have a higher left-to-right ratio in terms of brain activity, more neural pathways on the left side of the prefrontal cortex than on the right side.

The happier you are the larger that ratio is. Also, left-to-right ratios predicts how quickly you will recover from stresses both psychologically and physically.

Lama Oser’s ratio was measured with an MRI scanner and compared to a sample of 175 people. He was quite literally off the chart.

Lama Oser’s prefrontal cortex ratio 0.41

This off the chart prefrontal cortex activity ratio asymmetry suggests insane levels of equanimity, well-being and resilience to setbacks.

But this is not the only thing they looked at in Lama Oser…

2. Body Language Expertise

Paul Ekman has revolutionised the way we understand emotions and facial expressions. The lead character in the TV show ‘Lie To Me‘ was based on him and his research. Ekman was the first person to discover what he coined micro expressions — fleeting millisecond expressions that reveal our true emotions.

Paul Ekman’s facial action coding system (FACS)

Ekman has tested hundreds of people on their ability to detect these subtle expressions from FBI agents to clinical psychologists and college students. When they tested Lama Oser nobody could have predicted the results.

Lama Oser was the best at detecting these subtle expressions Ekman had ever recorded. Ever.

Along with body language expertise this tells us two further superhuman traits Lama Oser had.

3. Empathic Intelligence

The ability to recognise emotions in other people is associated with levels of empathy. If Lama Oser was the best at detecting these micro expressions they’ve ever tested, by default, he also had more empathy than any other person they’ve ever tested.

4. Super Fast Cognitive Functioning

Empathy alone wouldn’t have helped him notice these super fast micro expressions. They last sometimes hundredths of a second. Lama Oser’s mind must have been sharp, focused and fast to catch them and process them. Faster that anyone else’s they tested.

 5. No Startle Response

Paul Ekman has been studying the startle response in people for decades.  The startle response is what happens if something loud or surprising happens to us suddenly. I’m sure you’ve experienced it. We blink for a millisecond; it’s an innate reaction.

They find it in every single person. Even in policemen and women. They practice their shooting all the time, constantly, yet every time the gun goes off they blink slightly – they startle. Everyone has a startle response.

Or so they thought…

Lama Oser was the first person in recorded history to suppress his startle response. When he is meditating, he is so relaxed, so focused on whatever he’s meditating on that nothing startles him. Because there is a correlation between levels of anxiety and how easily somebody startles, the implications for this are huge.

6. Negotiation Expertise

Practicing meditation didn’t just affect Lama Oser, it also influenced everyone he interacted with. They did this experiment where they had him sit down with Western scientists and talk about controversial issues such as why scientists should give up science and become monks and reincarnation.

He interacted with two people. The first was a chilled out scientist. They both had a good chat and remained calm. Then they brought in the second scientist and they picked this scientist because he was extremely contentious, harsh and intolerant. I guess they were just curious what would happen.

Here is what that argumentative scientist had to say after the discussion:

“I couldn’t be confrontational. I was always met with reason and smiles. It’s overwhelming. I felt something like a shadow or aura and I couldn’t be aggressive.”

The scientist was calm and friendly, something totally unexpected. Lama Oser’s levels of equanimity rubbed off on him. Emotions are contagious.

But what does this prove? It’s fantastic and shocking but do we also have to meditate for 30 years to reap similar benefits?

Let’s find out.

7. Less Anxiety

There are a few problems with the Lama Oser studies. The sample size was very small. The study showed correlation not causation (perhaps it was genetics), and well, the guy was a monk. We don’t all have 30 years to spare.

This is where Jon Kabat-Zinn comes in.

Jon Kabat-Zinn came up with an experimental design that had a control group and an experimental group. The control group signed up to a mindfulness meditation program but remained on the waiting list. The experimental group, who were compared to the control group, did a meditation program.

The program was 8 weeks long. They meditated on average for 45 minutes a day, they did a little bit of yoga, mindful breathing, body scans and had workshops talking to them about meditation.

In this experiment Jon Kabat-Zinn showed that the benefits of meditation don’t just apply to monks. In just 8 weeks, those who meditated achieved significant changes, both mentally and physically.

The first was a significant decrease in anxiety levels during the program and after compared to the control group.

8. Better Mood

The scanned the participant’s brains in the Jon Kabat-Zinn study. Like Lama Oser their left-to-right prefrontal cortex activity ratio changed compared to the control group.

Their positive emotions increased and their negative emotions decreased.

9. Stronger Immune System

Jon Kabatt-Zinn also injected participants with a cold virus to see how their immune system would respond. Those who were in the program had a stronger immune response and recovered faster.

The benefits of meditation are not just psychological, but physical.

The Lama Oser experiments and the Jon Kabat-Zinn experiment made the world, and the science community, start to take notice. From here on out I’m going to list some really unexpected superhuman benefits of meditation.

10. Improved Decision-Making

Imagine you are betting money on a slot machine. You allow yourself to spend $50. Even though after an hour of betting you haven’t won a dime, you’ve repeatedly come close to winning the $10,000 jackpot. Problem is, you’ve just spent your fiftieth dollar.

Seen as you’ve already spend so much time and money, rather than let it all go to ‘waste’, perhaps you should spend another $10 to at least recoup your losses. Somebody has to win, right?

This type of thinking is irrational (easy to say that when it’s not you) and known to the critical thinking crowd as the sunk-cost fallacy. It’s a subtle form of cognitive distortion that negatively affects our decision-making. Whether it’s putting more money into a failing business or simply deciding to endure a film you’re not enjoying because you’ve paid for it.

But we can get around it.

With just one 15-minute focused-breathing meditation we can de-bias our brains and make smarter decisions. By bringing our attention into the present moment we can think clearly about our decisions and avoid ruminating on past events, which can distort our thinking.¹⁾

11. Slowdown Neurodegenerative Diseases

A pilot study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests that the brain changes associated with meditation and stress reduction may play an important role in slowing the progression of age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

After an 8 week mindfulness based stress reduction program the Alzheimer’s patients who took part showed less cognitive decline than the control group.²⁾

They also reported higher levels of wellbeing, which in turn also improves recovery.

12. Enhanced Creativity

The two main ingredients of creativity are divergent thinking — coming up with lots of ideas — and convergent thinking, solidifying those ideas into a single ‘aha moment‘.

Cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and her fellow researchers at Leiden University performed a study looking at the effects of two different types of meditation practices on divergent and convergent thinking.

Meditation improved convergent and divergent thinking. Interestingly, the type of meditation had an impact on which type of creative thinking was most improved. Free association meditation improved divergent thinking more that focused attention meditation.³⁾

13. Accelerated Learning

George Mason University professor Robert Youmans and University of Illinois doctoral student Jared Ramsburg asked a selection of students to meditate before a lecture and compared their test results with a control group who didn’t meditate.

They found that not only did the short meditation help students focus and retain the lecture information better, it also served as a good predictor of who would pass and who would fail.⁴⁾

Meditation helps you learn faster.

14. Lower High Blood Pressure

Roughly 1 in 3 Americans have high blood pressure. Having high blood pressure increases one’s chances of developing heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.

A meta-analysis of nine randomised trials conducted at the University of Kentucky showed that Transcendental Meditation (repeating a mantra) was the equivalent of adding a second anti-hypertension agent to one’s routine but without the side effects.

They compared Transcendental Meditation to other relaxation techniques but found that Transcendental Meditation was the only intervention that significantly lowered high blood pressure. I suspect that other forms of meditation will yield similar results but we need more research to really find out.

15. Increase Attention Span

Anyone who has ever meditated knows that focusing on one thing for any amount of time is harder than it seems. From the outside, sitting in a quiet room and placing one’s attention on the breath seems easy. There is a reason why buddhists refer to meditation as ‘training the mind.’

In one of the most comprehensive meditation studies to date, a group of researchers took 60 participants and split them in half — one became the control group, the other went on a three-month meditation retreat. The ones who went on the retreat showed continuous improvements on a difficult 30 minute attention test compared to the non-meditators and the results lasted for five months after the retreat.⁵⁾

Meditation improves your ability to concentrate and hold your attention on boring stimulus. This ties into accelerated learning and productivity.

16. Less Loneliness

Feelings of loneliness and social isolation are damaging to our physical and mental health, especially in older adults.

In a study at Carnegie Mellon University’s J. David Creswell, looking at 40 older adults, they found that just 30 minutes of meditation a day for eight weeks not only decreased feelings of loneliness but also reduced the risk of inflammatory diseases.⁶⁾

Creswell added “It’s important to train your mind like you train your biceps in the gym.”

17. Combat Cravings and Addictions

My philosophy when it comes to changing habits is to approach them side-on. For example, if one wants to become more productive, instead of trying to force yourself to work longer and harder hours, strategic breaks might help them more.

If someone wants to lose weight, before giving them a diet and workout plan I ask them to simply start weighing themselves every morning and recording the results. Every wave starts as a ripple.

Researchers at the University of Oregon put this ripple philosophy to the test. They sought volunteers interested in reducing stress and improving their performance. In actuality, the experiment was designed to explore how meditation would impact smoking behaviour. Unbeknownst to the participants, it did — they curtailed their smoking by 60%.⁷⁾

The meditation didn’t force participants to give up smoking; it simply improved their levels of self-control and emotional regulation. It changed their habits side-on.

18. Higher Pain Threshold

A study conducted at the University of Montreal compared 13 Zen meditators, all of who had at least 1,000 hours of practice, with a control group of non-meditators to see whether regular meditation practice would effect the perception of pain.

They tested the subject’s pain response using a calibrated heated rod on their calfs. The zen meditators experienced overall 18% less pain.⁸⁾

An extreme example of the insane equanimity meditation can provide in the face of extreme pain can be found in this shocking image of a Vietnamese monk who, historically, didn’t move or scream out once during his self-immolation.

This Vietnamese monk remained completely motionless throughout.

But you don’t have to meditate for thousands of hours to reduce the sensation of pain. A brief intervention of 20 minutes of meditation for three days has been shown to have lasting pain-reducing effects.

19. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Our brain’s plasticity is a gift that allows us to continuously improve and expand our horizons. The flip side is that under certain conditions our brains can change in an instant, and for the worse. This is essentially what post traumatic stress disorder — a stress so significant, our psyche literally and instantly rewires our neural pathways into a disempowering configuration. Meditation can help reverse this.

A new collaborative study from the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System shows that veterans with PTSD who completed an 8-week mindfulness-based group had significant PTSD improvements compared to the control group. 73 percent of patients in the mindfulness group displayed meaningful improvement compared to 33 percent in the treatment-as- usual groups.⁹⁾

Another soldier focused study looking exclusively at the preparation and recovery of war situations corroborated the benefits of meditation on PTSD, anxiety and depression.

20. Deeper Sleep

In a study done on 11 insomnia patients aged 25-45, relaxation techniques performed in the day were shown to improve the quality of their sleep at night.

Sleep latency, total sleep time, total wake time, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, sleep quality and depression improved in patients who used meditation.

21. Improved Hearing

In a study conducted at the University of Oregon music students were given a 15 minute guided meditation before listening to a 10 minute excerpt of Giacomo Puccini’s opera ‘La Boheme’. Their peak experiences and ‘flow’ were measured and compared to a control group who didn’t receive the meditation.

Overall, 97 percent of the participants who meditated had either one or several moments of flow or aesthetic response. Of the 69 subjects who engaged in mindfulness, 64 percent thought the technique had enhanced their listening experience.

Attention is manipulable. By training our mind to be present we can listen to what is actually there instead of listening to what we expect to be there.

22. Visuospatial Memory

When we glance at an object our mind can only retain the image for a few seconds. That’s why artists constantly look back and forth every few seconds when they draw. There are, however, stories of monks who are said to be able to hold complex images in their minds for minutes at a time.

In 2009 a study looking at whether visuospatial memory can be improved was carried out. Those practicing Deity Yoga, where they hold an image in their mind, where shown to have ‘significant’ improvements in their visuospatial memory following their meditation practice.¹⁰⁾ More research needs to carried out to see how other forms of meditation effect visuospatial processing.

If the enhanced creativity, decision making and attention span wasn’t enough to get artists and engineers meditating, hopefully this will.

23. Compassionate Mind

No superhuman would be complete without improved compassion.

When the Dalai Lama first visited the Western world he was shocked to find that our understanding of the word ‘compassion’ tends to refer to acts of kindness only towards others. The buddhist word for compassion, karuṇā, means compassion both for yourself and to others. The Dalai Lama thought it was ridiculous that someone could hope to be truly compassionate towards others if they didn’t first feel compassionate towards themselves.

Books like The Compassionate Mind by Prof. Paul Gilbert go into detail on how compassion is an essential component of happiness, self-esteem and a fulfilling life.

The good news is that we can all become more compassionate. In a study performed at Northeastern University College of Science showed that even a brief meditation intervention made their participants 50% more compassionate.

24. Turn Down Distractions

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report that meditation helps increase alpha waves in the brain — a wave that turns down the volume on distracting information.¹¹⁾

If you find yourself easily distracted by trivial things, meditation practice will help you focus your attention and zone out competing stimuli.

25. Autonomic Nervous System Control

Your autonomic nervous system is out of your conscious control — it’s involuntary. You can’t tell your immune system how much it should respond to a particular threat any more than you can consciously digest your food. But then again not all of us have spent years of our lives meditating like Wim Hof, aka The Iceman.

Wim Hof meditating

Wim Hof can withstand cold temperatures that would kill an ordinary person. To find out how, Dr. Peter Pickkers and his team at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre measured Hof’s immune response after being injected with bacteria during his meditation. He was able to suppress his immune response by 50% compared to the other 240 participants studied. He also had hardly any flu-like symptoms and had decreased inflammation.

Wim Hof really is a superhuman. He claims its due to his meditation practice.

26. Clearer Skin 

New research is coming to out that shows stress might have more of a hand in skin conditions such as acne and psoriasis than previously thought. We know that meditation is one of the best ways of reducing stress, therefore it can indirectly help reduce inflammation in the skin.

I’ve written an article on the science of becoming more attractive. It probably won’t surprise you, meditation is in there.

Superhuman Benefits of Meditation Conclusion

I’ve listed 26 superhuman benefits of meditation but the truth is I could have listed a 100. There are new studies constantly coming out showing how meditation can improve our lives and the people we come into contact with.

Meditation has been around for 2,500 years but was never taken seriously until a small group of positive psychologists had the courage to break the mould and put the ancient ideas to the test.

Even though I write about a variety of topics here at Comfort Pit, I class this site primarily as a positive psychology site because at the heart of positive psychology is the idea that we can look at the most incredible individuals in the world in hopes to incorporate a little bit of that incredibleness into our own lives.

With meditation you can do this. Start today.

Breathe out.