6 Underrated Benefits of Meditating Every Single Day

If you’ve been feeling stressed out lately, you’re not alone. Nearly half of the American population is feeling “increasingly anxious,” according to the American Psychiatric Association’s 2024 mental health poll. Between financial worries, work demands, health concerns, and keeping up with friends and family, it’s all too easy to let life’s pressures pile up. 

One practice that can significantly help you clear your head? Meditation. While it might seem like it’s easier said than done, it’s truly not that difficult to actually enjoy this activity. And if you need more convincing, the benefits of meditation go far beyond stress reduction. 

Ready to learn more? We chatted with a therapist and two meditation experts to break down the perks of the practice, plus tips on how to do it successfully. So sit down, relax, and get ready to find your calm. 

What is meditation, anyway? 

Meditation is “a way of training the brain to be aware and observe the present moment without judgment,” says meditation coach Josephine Atluri, founder of Mindful Wellbeing Pathways. It allows you to track your inner world in order to “show up more fully in the external world,” adds Valerie Oula, meditation teacher and founder of Modern Ritual NYC. 

As a behavioral therapist, Mitchell Hale, ACSW, teaches his clients at Sawtelle Psychotherapy Group that meditation is an exercise that builds your ability to live in the present and cultivates awareness of your thoughts. 

“I want my clients to live in the present as much as possible because we often reduce our quality of life by regretting the past, worrying about the future, or multitasking and not fully appreciating the present moment,” Hale says. “I want my clients to build more awareness of their thoughts because our thoughts influence our emotions and behaviors, and so often we can find ourselves spiraling about a thought without even noticing we’re doing it. 

But there isn't just one correct way to meditate. There are many different types of mediation, according to Atluri:

• Mantra-based meditation: Repeating a word, mantra, phrase, or set of syllables 
• Visualization meditation: Creating mental imagery to bring forth specific emotions and sensations
• Sound therapy meditation: Listening to music and/or other sounds to clear your head
• Aromatherapy meditation: Using calming scents to help relax your mind and release negative emotions 
• Breath-focused meditation: Breathing rhythmically to enter into a meditative state

So the most important thing is to find the practice that works best for you—and it's okay if that takes a little bit of trial-and-error.

6 benefits of daily meditation

We've all heard it before: Meditation can help you reduce stress. But that's not the only perk of meditating. Here are six reasons why developing a daily meditation practice can be good for your mind, body, and spirit.

1. It’s great for your mental health 

Too much stress can contribute to inflammation in your body through the release of cortisol (aka your stress hormone) and adrenaline, according to Oula. “Meditation can help to regulate our stress response and build more resilience for better mental and emotional health,” she says. 

Several studies have found that meditation can reduce stress and help manage symptoms of anxiety and depression.^1,2 “Meditation can help with these symptoms because it asks us to slow down, take deep breaths, and focus on the present moment instead of the future or the past,” Hale says. 

Think of it this way: We often increase our stress, depression, and/or anxiety levels by worrying about things that have happened in the past or might happen in the future, and meditation helps us get out of this headspace, Hale explains. 

2. It keeps your brain sharp

Meditation has been shown to lengthen telomeres in your brain, which strengthens cognitive function, Oula explains. FYI: Telomeres are structures on the ends of your chromosomes—packages of DNA containing your genetic material—that contain repeated DNA sequences that help protect them from deteriorating.

And, research backs this up too. A study published in the journal Mindfulness looked at the DNA of 20 meditation experts and 20 people who had never meditated before.³ The meditation experts had a longer median telomere length and a lower percentage of short telomeres in individual cells than those who didn't practice meditation. Long telomeres correspond to better thinking, learning, understanding, problem solving, planning, and paying attention, per a 2022 review in Ageing Research Reviews.⁴

Additionally, meditation can also be a great resource for effective decision making, especially when you’re in crisis mode, Hale explains. “Strong emotions can often lead to rash or impulsive decisions that can make life harder for us in the long run,” he says. “Meditating can calm us down and help us access the wisest parts of ourselves to make the best decisions possible.”

3. It prevents certain health conditions and boosts longevity 

Longer telomeres can also contribute to healthy aging, according to Oula. The longer your telomeres, the more often your cells can divide before dying, which boosts your longevity. 

One study found that healthy centenarians (people who live to be at least 100 years old) had significantly longer telomeres than unhealthy centenarians.⁵ And a review published in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care found that older adults with shorter telomeres are three times more likely to die from heart disease and eight times more likely to die from infectious diseases. “The rate of telomere shortening is therefore critical to an individual’s health and pace of aging,” the review states.⁶

Additional research also shows that meditation has been shown to lower blood pressure,⁷ reduce pain,⁸ and strengthen immune function.⁹

4. It helps you sleep better

Unable to get a restful night’s sleep? Meditation can help you get those zzzs in, according to Atluri. First off, there's evidence that meditation can limit intrusive thoughts, which can help you hit the hay faster. But meditating can also improve the quality of your sleep and reduce interruptions while you're in bed, leaving you rejuvenated when you actually wake up for the day.¹⁰

Experts also recommend meditation if you experience insomnia. One study published in Sleep states that “mindfulness meditation appears to be a viable treatment option for adults with chronic insomnia and could provide an alternative to traditional treatments for insomnia.”¹¹

5. It increases focus and productivity

If you're having trouble focusing and feeling productive, Atluri recommends adding meditation into the mix. A review published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that short stints of meditation positively affect attention span even in people new to the practice.¹² 

Further research also concludes that because meditation can improve focus, it may also make you more productive at work. “Mindfulness meditation has been found to improve concentration, cognitive flexibility, job satisfaction, work engagement, and reduce absenteeism,” the study authors note.¹³ 

6. It enhances your relationships with others

Meditation has benefits that extend beyond yourself as an individual. That’s right, this calming practice can strengthen the bond with those around you, Atluri says. 

For instance, mindful meditation has been shown to boost relationship satisfaction in romantic partners.¹⁴ One meta-analysis also found that meditation can even help you become more empathetic toward others, which helps you understand where people are coming from and connect more deeply with them.¹⁵ 

Tips to make your meditation practice easier

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the thought of quieting your mind—or wondering if you'll even be able to—you're not alone. Meditation can feel intimidating at first, but like all things, practice and time can help make it easier for you. We asked our experts on how you can simplify your meditation practice, and here's the advice they shared.

Go in with no expectations

Begin your practice with the readiness to shower yourself with grace and kindness, for however the session ends up unfolding, according to Atluri. “Not every session will be perfect, nor will they be all the same, but the most important thing is to try and meditate and be present and open to what happens,” she says. 

Start small

All you need to begin with is just two to three minutes per day, Atluri says. It can be a meditation session where you simply pay attention to your breath, repeat a mantra, or listen to a guided session on an app. You can gradually increase the length of your meditation sessions as you build your skills, Hale adds. 

“You still reap the benefits of meditation in these small increments of time, especially if you practice consistently every day,” Atluri says. “The more you practice, the more you rewire your brain to create new neural pathways to access calmness.”

Know that it can be tough to clear your mind, and that’s okay

“A common misconception people have about meditating is that they have too many thoughts and won’t be able to sit still, stay present, and thus, will not do it correctly,” Atluri says. “The reality is that we have between 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day, so the idea of turning our minds off completely, even for a few minutes, isn’t realistic.” 

Instead, Atluri encourages you to practice navigating through the mix of thoughts or distractions. “The beauty of meditation is that every time we sit and meditate, we’re training our brain to learn how to respond to interruptions in everyday life,” she says. 

Hale agrees: ”Expect your mind to wander when meditating, and don’t beat yourself up when it happens,” he says. “Even folks who have been meditating for years can still lose focus from time to time." To make it easier to focus, Oula recommends following a guided meditation instead of meditating in silence—they’re helpful in reminding you to return to your breath when your mind inevitably wanders. 

Be easy on yourself

“I think it’s important to approach any practice with a whole lot of compassion and patience,” Oula says. “It’s important to remember that when we’re distracted in our practice and when we can notice that, we’re building that meditation muscle and inviting ourselves back to focus. We can only learn by doing.” 

The bottom line

Meditation is a great activity for your overall health and well-being. You can do it anywhere and anytime— like when you’re brushing your teeth or sitting in traffic. Anything can turn into a meditation practice when you begin noticing the workings of your mind, Oula says. 

“However, like nearly all things in life that are worthwhile, you probably won’t experience all the benefits of meditation after a few sessions. Stay consistent and don't give up,” Hale says. “Over time, you’ll experience a gradual, yet profound shift in how you navigate life and find inner peace.”