Since you’re asking for personal experience - I’m just happier and a better person with mindfulness. I’ve been doing it for 20 years and it’s changed my life fo

Since you’re asking for personal experience - I’m just happier and a better person with mindfulness. I’ve been doing it for 20 years and it’s changed my life for the better. It seems you might think it’s woo-woo / hand-wavey, which isn’t uncommon in the west. It’s also not for everyone. my partner has severe anxiety and has never been able to successfully get into meditation. She’s found some success with Metta (loving kindness) but can’t sit in a breathing meditation. That’s okay, it’s something I would never pressure her on. People are just different. For me, without meditation, my emotions and thoughts get out of control, like an animal’s. I jump to 10 things a minute. I get lost in thought and don’t even realize it. I have no emotional regulation if I feel anger or sadness, it’s like sadness just happens to me. I find it to be a very weird, out of control, and animalistic feeling. For my personal experience, meditation at its lowest description is like exercise for the mind, and at its highest description is a consistent way of accessing a higher state of being. Exercise - you’re working your muscles on a regular basis by walking, but without focus you make little progress. For me, if I don’t meditate regularly I find I lose control of my mind 5-10 times a minute. That means I can lose focus, am less happy, and have weak emotional regulation - it’s only when I don’t meditate or sleep that it’s even possible I’d be angry at someone or (horrible thought) consider yelling at my kids. If I’m mindful that kind of emotional reactivity is just not possible. Had a shitty father so that one is important to me. State of being - meditation can consistently offer the insights psychedelics give you a glimpse into, but on a sustained basis and in a more true form. Many people in the west get into meditation by way of psychedelics and a desire to understand their state of being. It can be as elevated as the annoying diatribe of a college freshman who just did shrooms for the first time, but reliable, consistent, and more true. Until meditation, I didn’t even realize emotions are physical embodiments (heart racing, shallow breath, pinched shoulders, etc) and last no more than 60 seconds. It’s my rumination and thought that creates moods, which can last for hours or even days. Mindfulness is a helpful way to ensure an emotions is felt fully but doesn’t last more than a minute, so you don’t make bad decisions. There are many benefits of meditation, ranging from the corporate co-opting of it as “stress relief” to the Buddhist idea that “the mind is everything. What you think you become.” It is very hard to describe without doing it, just like a runner’s high doesn’t make sense if all one does is walk. These are a few personal experiences that I hope are helpful. Sam Harris’s “Waking Up” app is a great place to start. Do the trial for 30 days. He’s brilliant and the best entry point I’ve found for westerners who think meditation is too woo-woo.