Is Meditation Even Working? + 11-Minute Meditation

Subtle evidence, feedback loops, and the art of dropping down

Click above for this week’s guided meditation

Hi -

Most meditators have probably wondered whether this bizarre habit of sitting with their eyes closed not really doing anything, is actually… doing anything.

Image Credit: Home Base Community Member Sheila Startup

Until we begin to kinda enjoy meditation for its own sake, that’s an inevitable question. Because there are so many other things we could be doing!

I have a couple of ways of thinking about this.

The first is to normalize the ups and downs of meditation. We can have a broad range of experiences when we meditate, from deeply absorbed to distracted, from vividly clear to muddy, from settled to destabilized, from visionary and thrilling to straight-up boring as all hell. Insert adjective here. The usual advice is not to get attached to any specific experience, since they can change so much from sit to sit and month to month and year to year. As we change, our practice changes, right?

From this perspective, the litmus test of whether or not meditation is “working” is not what’s happening when we meditate. It’s what’s happening in our lives.

Maybe we’re calmer and less reactive, maybe we’re more focused, maybe we’re more creative, or compassionate – whatever it is we’re after. Sometimes we’re not even the best person to ask about these changes. Often it’s the people in our lives who notice a difference in us when we meditate versus when we don’t.

Having said all that, I think there is evidence that meditation is working while we’re on the cushion. Most of that evidence is pretty ordinary and subtle, and can be hard to notice. But, as my teacher Shinzen used to say, “subtle is significant.” Awareness modestly expands, giving us a little more perspective. And equanimity modestly deepens, giving us a little more presence. One feels like moving out, the other like dropping down. And we can notice this. We can notice our nervous system learning in real time. Once we’re sensitized in this way, it can create a nice feedback loop that reinforces our commitment and accelerates the benefits of practice.

So here’s a simple meditation about all that.

Happy to be with you, friends.

Jeff

A few quick notes—

• New to Home Base? We have over 70 free guided meditations in our audio library, over 60 extended meditations, over 365 meditations on YouTube, and a growing number of community practice videos. New writing, new audio meditations, and new DNP live community practice sessions happen every week.

• Did you find me on Calm or Happier? While the meditations I recorded for the apps live on in perpetuity, I no longer record new meditations for them. My latest work happens here; becoming a paid subscriber is the best way to support that work. I give paid scholarships to anyone who asks (email info@jeffwarren.org). If you found this meditation and post helpful, but becoming a paid subscriber isn’t an option, you can also …

  Many thanks!

THIS WEEK ON THE MIND BOD ADVENTURE POD

This week we’re hanging with Ivan Bercholz, co-owner of Shambhala Publications, publisher of Bala Kids, and co-author (with illustrator Lasha Mutual) of My Fried Tara, a children’s book that introduces kids to Tara, the Buddhist archetype of compassion.