The Benefits of Using Meditation Daily

Do you frequently feel stressed out and overwhelmed with you're daily responsibilities? If you answered, "yes" then doing meditation everyday might just be the thing to help you. To help understand the benefits of using meditation daily and what a typical meditation experience would be like, I interviewed psychotherapist Kellyjoy Kanaley, MS.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
"I am a mental health therapist in private practice located in Portland, Oregon. I work with individuals and couples in an in-depth psychotherapeutic way. I have been practicing meditation for over 16 years."

What are the benefits of using meditation daily?
"Tremendous! There have been multiple studies over the years proving the vast benefits of a daily meditation, or mindfulness practice and its effect on mental, physical and emotional health. It is very clear to me this is true from experiences reported to me by my clients, my friends and colleagues, and from my own experience. When there is a set time for daily mindfulness practice, life can be easier and more fulfilling.

Have you ever been angry and reacted out of that anger? Then hours or days later, you wished you had reacted differently? I think we all have. What I have found is that with a daily meditation practice, we are essentially speeding up that process. Hours and days get less and less until suddenly, we're in the moment of anger, and have the opportunity to react as if it were days later and our minds had more relaxation and time to breathe, rather than rage, hit, scream, slam, walk away. This is a dramatic example, but I think it illustrates the benefit a daily practice can bring.

We experience suffering very quickly at times. Instantly, we are catapulted from a happy state, or neutral state of being, into a hurt, or angry, or embarrassed state. Whatever the experience of suffering is, that state is triggered quickly. It could arise from an outside experience (ie. We are cut off in traffic, or we were misunderstood by our partner) or from an internal process from the past (ie. We see a child being reprimanded by a parent and that brings up our own memory of being either a parent or a child in a painful situation) and suddenly we are caught in cyclic thinking that creates quite a bit of suffering. Sometimes we react self-deprecating, or we are angry towards others.

So daily meditation, even if it is only for 5 minutes a day, can and does start to create some space around whatever triggers we are sensitive to. With more space, we don't tense up as quickly, or we're more aware of our tension in the moment and can then choose to relax a bit, breathe deeper and react as we would hours or days after the event.

In couples work, daily practice can be extremely beneficial to reduce reactions that are eroding the relationship. Whether it is flooding each other with emotions and fighting words, or stonewalling each other and growing apart."

What would a typical meditation experience be like?
"The actual experience differs from one sit to another because we are different from one moment to another. I prefer to sit in a chair versus the floor because I was raised in a chair, and I am much more comfortable in a chair. I have reached very deep, peaceful and interesting places in a chair and my knees stopped having issues once I made that decision. Everyone is different and has different needs. I invite people to experiment with what feels right for them. Having a dedicated place in my home to meditate has also been extremely helpful.

Sometimes my meditation experiences are like rock concerts, other times, they're like being lost in a grocery store, and other times they are so beautiful and serene, like being on a warm beach. When we enter into mind training, it is exciting, boring, exhausting, frustrating, thrilling, peaceful -- depending on the day! And when that space happens in our interactions, and we react from a place of deep awareness and compassion, rather than impassioned self-centeredness, our lives change! It's very exciting."

Where can someone find more information about meditation?
"There are wonderful resources on-line and in book stores. Meditating with other people is truly a great way to go. Because you all are in it together, and even though you aren't engaging with each other, you feel supported knowing others are around you struggling or enjoying just as you are. I was very intimidated going to my first group, thinking that I was so inexperienced and an awful meditator, and then, I talked with some of the people afterwards and they felt the same way! It was relieving. A wonderful way to immerse yourself is going to a retreat center. Because I'm in the NW, I love going to Cloud Mountain, but there are places in every region of the country to do anywhere from 1 day to 3 day to 30 day retreats.

Books I highly recommend are: Tara Brach, PhD. Radical Acceptance, and, John Kabat-Zinn Wherever You Go There You Are. To listen to led meditations and talks about meditation, I highly recommend www.dharmaseed.org which has free recordings you can listen to online."

Thank you Kellyjoy for doing the interview on the benefits of using meditation daily. For more information on Kellyjoy Kanaley or her work you can check out her website on www.kellyjoykanaley.com .

Recommended Readings:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5716136/the_benefits_of_meditation_in_psychotherapy.html?cat=5">The Benefits of Meditation in Psychotherapy

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