I’ve tried many types of meditation. But from mindfulness to loving-kindness, from Stoic visualizations to single pointed concentration, meditation is, at its most basic, mental training.

Specifically, it trains your mind from being swept away by the fickleness of emotions.

Let's say you have a bad day.

The causal result of a bad situation is getting down. That's normal - and it's encoded in almost everyone's actions and all throughout media. Car cut you off? You’re going to honk angrily. Someone yell at you? You might snap back or get sad.

Meditation Improves Mental Control

But meditation gives you more control over that. You’ll reach calmer states, even joyous ones, at will irrespective of the situation you're in.

That's a crazy, almost logic-defying ability, and I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it described and demonstrated, and practiced it myself.

If free will is a sliding scale, then the vast majority of us are slaves to our previous upbringing and experiences, or the situations we currently find ourselves in. Meditation is the slow nudging of that meter towards greater freedom in an unfair, unjust world.

This capacity can effect everything from countering depression and anxiety, making clearer decisions, managing physical pain, fighting through fear and uncomfortable situations, to just feeling good. At the very least, it trains us to maintain grace in the many mundane moments life loves to provide, like long lines, annoying computer issues, or traffic.

Meditation Helps Manage Depression, Anxiety, and Fear

Personally, I suffer from massive depression and anxiety. Meditation has helped that significantly. I no longer feel like I'm in a prison with the cell locked. Some days, it's bad, and sometimes I don't feel like doing the mental exercises. But I know I always have that option of walking out. The jail cell is unlocked and hanging open. I’m not trapped, and that makes a huge, fundamental difference in my life.

Meditation has greatly helped me navigate (and sometimes actually enjoy!) my many fears - fear of new situations, fear of heights, fear of horror shows, even fear of roller coasters.

Meditation Eases Physical Pain and Breaks Bad Habits

I've managed physical pain with meditation, and it's helped me with addiction and breaking habits. I've been able to wade through those mundane annoyances with aplomb. I can better recognize, welcome, and rise above common patterns where I get nervous and frustrated, greeting them as old friends who will inevitably leave.

Meditation Improves Relationships

But most importantly, I've been able to have incredibly uncomfortable and awkward conversations with those that I'm close to, like my parents. This has significantly deepened my relationships and in some cases turned them around completely.

It isn't perfect for me. It wasn't like magically flipping on a switch and still isn't. I still struggle with situations. And I'm still gunning for the ultimate end goal, which is to make that state of equanimity last permanently.

But as far as I may be from that peak of mental perfection, I look back to when I first started consistently meditating, and it's hard to see the parts of my life that HAVEN’T benefited.