I Meditated Every Day for 8 Years. Here's What I Learned.

The profound ways in which meditation has improved my life.

I’m writing this because I believe an ongoing meditation practice is one of the most powerful tools for improving one’s quality of life. From reducing anxiety to increasing focus, meditation has helped me in remarkable ways.

Before beginning any piece of work, I weigh whether its potential impact is greater than the time I invest. This post will take me ~4 hours. If from it just one person develops a meditation practice that enhances his decision making, the downstream ripple effects will be worth it.

Reasoning from first principles requires reducing things down to their essence until one has arrived at their root cause or the way they function. I credit poker for helping me adopt this framework and meditation for strengthening it. The ability to see the world from this vantage point is a superpower of sorts. It quickly allows one to understand something’s true character.

For example, I credit a first-principle understanding of money, exemplified by my series “The Future of Money”, as a product of my time spent playing poker (deductive reasoning) and my meditation (clarity of thought).

Overview:

1. How Meditation Works

2. The Benefits of Meditation

3. My Meditation Journey

4. How to Meditate

1. How Meditation Works

Although it seems esoteric from afar, meditation is up close quite simple. Sit comfortably and quietly, close your eyes, and breathe. Much of meditation is about following the inhale and exhale, using the breath as an anchor for one’s practice.

The purpose is to train the mind to stay present in what is happening right now. Perhaps the most common misunderstanding about meditation is that doing this will remove all thought from the mind and bring about an eternal state of bliss.

Quite the opposite is true. Although there are glimpses of such a state, as any meditator will attest, thoughts, emotions, and sensations flood the mind during meditation. The goal, I would later learn, isn’t to rid oneself of these thoughts, but to observe them casually and without judgment or attachment.

A common guided talking point is often, “If you get lost in thought, that’s okay. Observe the thought and come back to the breath.”

Imagine you are standing on a beach, distantly observing the ocean. Thoughts are like waves. They come and go. You can either get lost in them, captured by the wave and plunged into the ocean, or remain on the beach, watching the wave as it builds and breaks, acknowledging what it is, without attachment.

This is meditation at its essence. By practicing this simple yet incredibly challenging process over thousands of hours, one gains insight into the nature of thought, consciousness, self, and reality.

2. The Benefits of Meditation

I’ve received numerous benefits from regular meditation, and these benefits have compounded over time. As with learning a language or instrument, it feels in the beginning that nothing is happening. Then, suddenly, it all clicks.

1. More Presence.
   Although I naturally struggle with this, I’m more present in everyday life. What that means is my mind is actually focused on what’s happening now, instead of daydreaming about the future or reminiscing about the past.

2. More Enjoyment.
   When I’m fully present, I enjoy each moment more. I’ve noticed that it’s not so much about what is happening - anything can be interesting if you pay close enough attention - but the quality of my awareness. Meditation has taught me that simply following my breath can captivate my attention for hours, which means any waking activity can be interesting, too!

3. Less Reactive.
   Meditation helps train the mind that you are not your thoughts. As I mentioned, it’s as if I’m standing on the shore, observing a wave. When a life circumstance happens, I aim to maintain that distance, look at things objectively, and avoid judging the situation as good or bad. Instead, I accept what is. It’s a challenge, but a great life practice.

4. More Focus.
   I’ve worked hard on my mental game for poker. People often ask how I stay in the zone for hours on end. Meditation, along with diet, exercise, sleep, and more is a big part of my tool kit. By training my mind to stay focused on something as simple as the breath, I can then use the same approach to help me stay locked in while at the table. This is how I make time for all the activities I’m juggling. Again, meditating helps one focus. We all have the same amount of time. Meditating allows me to sift through the noise and channel my energy toward what is truly important.

5. More Awareness.
   One of my favorite improvements that came from meditating is my ability to better understand things from first principles, and to see reality from its essence. Meditating helps me distill what is really going on and question my relationship with reality and thought. I’ve evolved a deeper understanding of life, energy, and spirituality. It brings us a better grasp on the nature of things, as we are now constantly training our mind to see things as they truly are, not how we want them to be.

3. My Meditation Journey

I began meditating in 2013 after hearing and reading reports of its life-changing benefits. I have a rule about book recommendations: in order for a book to make my reading list, it requires at least two. Meditation was recommended by my peers and people I followed more than any book, so I dove in.

I downloaded HeadSpace, opened the first lesson, and started with 10 minutes a day. Nothing, in particular, happened, which I would later learn was sort of the point. (More on that in a minute.) It wasn’t immediately profound, I didn’t experience a breakthrough, I wasn’t left empowered for the rest of the day. At best, it was merely 10 minutes of stillness.

Nevertheless, I promised myself I’d complete the entire program in sequence, a 30-day commitment. As with any new habit or skill, things build gradually, then suddenly. By the end of the month, I was still very much at the gradual stage but could feel something was there.

I was experiencing extremely brief glimpses of what it means to be fully present, simply aware of my breath, following the inhale and exhale, where my mind was free of thought. I wanted more.

After completing every program on HeadSpace, I experimented with several other apps. Each one had something to offer, a new technique or approach.

Mental Game Coach for Poker

I worked with a mental game coach for poker who specialized in hypnosis and used it to train race car drivers and golfers. After my time with him, I crushed the games on Poker Night in America and felt completely in the zone in a way I hadn’t before. I’ve been iterating on the lessons I’ve learned ever since. These are the foundational principles of my mental training for poker, and what I teach to clients.

I found Waking Up by Sam Harris shortly after it launched, and still use it to this day. I increased my daily practice to 20 minutes, which had a noticeable impact. I hadn’t realized it when I’d first started, but 10 minutes isn’t enough to get ‘in the zone’.

Meditation is similar to exercise in that one finds a ‘Goldilocks zone’ or ‘runner’s high’ of sorts. 10 minutes is a good starting point, but hardly enough to get warmed up.

When I increased my practice to 20 minutes, I found myself getting in the flow, and letting my mind truly relax. I hadn’t quite experienced this before, as what one experiences during meditation is quite different from other experiences in life. Usually, I’m constantly plugged in, and aside from when I’m asleep, I operate my life in 5th gear. Meditating 20 minutes a day first thing in the morning is the perfect counterbalance to my natural driven energy.

Occasionally I will add another 20 minutes in the afternoon, usually after my workday has finished, to transition to the relaxing part of the day. Sometimes I’d do this at night before bed, but that is my least favorite time to meditate as I’m often tired and would sometimes fall asleep. While this may be desirable for some, I have no trouble sleeping and want to be alert while meditating so I can practice the process itself.

Peak Experiences from Meditating

A few years into my practice, I committed to an hour a day for several months. This was yet another game changer, as I had several ‘peak experiences’, a term coined by Maslow, and which he describes as “rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and [that] are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter."

In short, one feels a brief shift in the way he perceives reality, characterized by awe and wonder. It feels like magic, but typically only lasts a few seconds to a minute, just enough time for the mind to start wandering again, as it does best.

Meditation Breaks

I began using meditation as a tool throughout the day. Instead of compulsively checking my phone when I had five extra minutes, I simply closed my eyes, relaxed, and followed my breath. I do this everywhere from the waiting room at the doctor’s office to in between Zoom calls.

Another profound shift occurred when I began to use meditation as a tool to solve problems.

As an entrepreneur, I make my own schedule. Deciding what to focus on and how to spend my time is an ongoing challenge. If my day gets moved around, or I finish work early and have a few extra hours, instead of rushing to the next activity (being busy for the sake of being busy), I sit with my eyes closed for as long as it takes for a decision to come to me.

Some of my best ideas and moments of most clarity have arisen through these impromptu meditation sessions. I’ve learned first-hand that it’s not about doing more. It’s about focusing on what is truly important. Meditation, at its essence, is the art of flexing that muscle.

Transcendental Meditation

I studied Transcendental Meditation with a teacher in SoCal. TD is a process that involves repeating a custom mantra throughout the meditation. My mantra was given to me by my teacher and has no dictionary meaning.

The mantra is meant to keep one in flow during his or her meditation and is used as a cue anytime the meditator becomes lost in thought. Simply repeating the mantra helps one get back on track.

I enjoy TD and feel it’s a hack for going deep. The approach is extremely simple, and I wish I’d found it earlier in my practice.

My Current Daily Practice

I estimate that since I began practicing a decade ago, I’ve meditated 350 days or more per year, almost always in the morning, and some of the time again later in the day.

It’s the first thing I do when I get up before I check my phone or allow the challenges and problems of the day to get to me. On the rare occasions I miss my morning session, I feel less calm and more rushed throughout the day, as if things are being forced upon me.

Put another way, there’s a direct correlation between the length and quality of my morning routine and the enjoyment and nature of my day.

My morning practice is usually 25 minutes and involves 20 minutes of classic meditation, followed by affirmations through self-hypnosis and visualization.

I like to begin by meditating to get in the zone and allowing myself to be present with my thoughts. It’s my way of checking in, and sometimes processing the events of the previous day, a mental cleanse of sorts.

Once I’m in the flow, I’ll count myself down from 10 to 1 to get into self-hypnosis. Then I repeat several affirmations, as well as goals of sorts I have for the direction of my life and my focus for the day.

I visualize how I want my life to look in the future and wait until I can feel the emotions associated with that. I’ll sometimes focus on a specific problem, see the necessary steps to fix it, picture the solution to that problem, and experience the emotions associated with feeling as though the problem is solved exactly how I want.

I then count myself out from one to five and begin my day. I immediately hit the ground running, usually with some writing, checking in with my team, and intensive work. I’ll do this for an hour or until I come to a natural stopping point, then take a break. This is my favorite, most focused part of the day.

4. How To Meditate - A Beginner’s Guide

I hope by now you have a better idea of meditation’s benefits and how it works, and that you are eager to give it a try. Before we get into the specifics of how to meditate, I’d like to emphasize that the most important thing isn’t how you meditate, but that you do it consistently.

Commit to 30 days. Otherwise, don’t bother starting. Just as exercise compounds, it takes time to see the benefits of meditation and to get over the hump.

For beginners, I recommend starting with Waking Up. You can get a free month here. They have a 21-day guided program meant for people who have never meditated. From there, they have a ton of lectures and other guided meditations, along with unique daily meditations. Start with 10 minutes a day and work your way up to 20.

You may want to experiment with other apps. I recommend FitMind and HeadSpace. These apps can suffice for a year.

If you prefer to go at it on your own, here’s a simple process to get you started.

1. Sit in a comfortable position. Cross your legs, put your hands on your knees, and try not to move.

2. Close your eyes and breathe freely. Follow your inhale and exhale.

3. When you get lost in thought, come back to your breath. This is awakening, like being snapped out of a dream. This is the muscle you’re trying to flex - staying present and focused on the here and now.

4. Observe your thoughts. Watch them from afar, like a surfer on the sand observing a wave. Try to keep from getting swept away. Avoid judgment.

5. If you notice an emotion or sensation arise, from frustration to fear, from joy to sorrow, simply observe it. Realize that the very fact it wasn’t there before and that it suddenly came about means it will soon pass. Watch how quickly this process happens. Use this as a tool the next time you feel a challenging emotion or encounter a challenging situation.

6. Start with 10 minutes a day, ideally first thing in the morning. Then move to 10 minutes twice a day, with the second session being after work or before bed. Then move to 20 minutes a day, followed by 20 minutes twice a day.

7. After you’re noticing improvements and getting the hang of it (perhaps in months nos. 3-6), experiment with a 30-day challenge in which you meditate for 60 minutes a day right when you wake up. Notice if you have any peak experiences.

8. Of course, everything is easier with an instructor you trust. If you can work with someone in the beginning, I’m sure it will make the process a lot easier. There are tons of resources for this.

I hope you enjoyed this guide to meditation, and that you’ll consider taking up a practice. I’m confident that if you stick with it, it can have a profound impact on your quality of life. There’s really no other experience like it, and that alone makes it worth trying.

Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck!
Alec