Have you ever tried to meditate before? Maybe you sat down with the best intentions, closed your eyes, and within seconds started thinking about your to-do list, whether you replied to that text message or even what you wanted to eat for dinner. So you gave up and told yourself meditation wasn’t for you. “If that was your experience, don’t worry: you are not alone. I was like that too,” says Cooper Chapman, author of ‘The 1% Good Club’. “But let me share with you why I think it’s worth trying again. And sticking with it.”
I read an article recently that stated the healthy human brain will generate, on average, 6.5 thoughts per minute, which adds up to over 6,000 thoughts per waking day (Tseng & Poppenk 2020). With that many thoughts, it isn’t surprising that many of them are negative and repetitive. Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time and is inherently biased towards negative thoughts as an evolutionary mechanism to survive.
Today, we have basically no threats to our daily survival (starvation, attack by lions, etc), so we don’t need to think negative thoughts as much as our brain does. So, if we have, on average, 6,000 thoughts a day, and imagine 50 per cent of those thoughts are negative, that’s 3,000 a day! No wonder we feel so mentally drained, stuck, anxious or depressed.
What if we could shift that number?
What if we could bring that 50 per cent down to 40 or 30 per cent negative thoughts? What if we could slow down the noise or choose to direct our thoughts to being more positive? What if we could recognise our negative patterns and relearn new ones? What if we could question our thoughts and recognise how unhelpful and untrue they can sometimes be?
Do you think life would be a little calmer? A little lighter? Do you think you would feel more in control? Do you think your daily life would be better?
One of the most effective and scientifically supported methods I have found for achieving this is through meditation. It helps us step back from the noise, notice it, build metacognition (the ability to witness our thoughts), and soften the intensity of those looping, unhelpful thoughts.
I was introduced to meditation in my late teens, but at the time, I completely dismissed it. It felt too spiritual, too slow, and too ‘woo woo’ for me. I didn’t get it. Why would I try to sit still and not think? It felt awkward. There was no intention behind it for me.
But as I grew older, I began to pay attention to the people in my life who seemed grounded, present, and truly there in the moment —people who were calm and almost looked unshakable, people who seemed at peace. And almost every one of them had something in common: they meditated daily.
So how do we meditate?
There are numerous techniques for meditation, including Vedic meditation, body scan meditation, guided meditations, walking meditations, and affirmation meditations.
For a long time, my personal ritual has been to practice a guided meditation each morning. I would find a YouTube video, sit up straight and close my eyes and just listen for 10 minutes. I feel guided is a great way to start your meditation journey, as it gives your mind something to follow.
A great way for beginners to start is to download a free meditation app, such as Headspace, Calm, or Smiling Minds, to try out different meditations.
As I advanced in my practice, I transitioned to a more focused Vedic meditation practice, incorporating a time limit. I just sit with my thoughts in silence or with an ambient sound. In my mind, I repeat a simple mantra (an anchor word) on the in-breath and on the out-breath. When my mind wanders, I come back to the mantra. For this, you can use a timer with a gentle alarm on your phone to set a time limit of your desired meditation length.
For me, meditation is about witnessing our thoughts come and go without judgement, and building the capacity to let go of unhelpful thoughts and replace them with more helpful ones.
If you are reading this right now and thinking, ‘Yeah, but I suck at meditating, I can’t quiet my mind, ’ let me reassure you: there is no such thing as a good or bad meditator. There are just those who meditate and those who don’t.
Human being, not human doing
A common misconception about meditation is that you need to empty your mind completely, but this is not what meditation is about. Nor do you need to sit perfectly still.
You don’t need to feel enlightened. You don’t need to do anything. You need to just be. Be a human being, not a human doing. You just need to sit, breathe and notice. The magic lies in repetition, not perfection.
So, whether you start with just a few minutes a day sitting in silence with your thoughts, going for a walk without any technology, listening to a guided meditation or attending a meditation school. Just start.
Edited extract from The 1% Good Club: The simple way to transform your mental health in just 14 minutes a day by Cooper Chapman.
