I remember when I first started meditating. Years ago when it was considered more of a discipline than a practice. Consistently teachers would stress the notion of staying no matter what. Not scratching your nose or moving your leg when it goes to sleep. I remember bristling at the loss of freedom, though I also came from a tradition of dance classes where you never talked or left class for any reason. Even a bathroom emergency warranted a second thought. So I was no stranger to staying.
It was only much later that I realized the benefits of overcoming our inclination to avoid discomfort in our decision-making. Children are all about immediate gratification, but as we get older, we learn that we can't afford to satisfy our urges every moment- that we have to think ahead for a higher purpose. Like considering our health and the consequences in what we consume, how we drive, the money we spend, the things we say. As a matter of fact, "studies show that delayed gratification is one of the most effective personal traits of successful people. People who learn how to manage their need to be satisfied in the moment thrive more in their careers, relationships, health, and finances than people who give in to it (psychologytoday.com).
Unfortunately, we don't come by this naturally. Postponing satisfaction. The instinctual seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain in order to satisfy biological and psychological needs, the pleasure principle is, according to Sigmund Freud the driving force guiding the id, the most basic part of ourselves. Simple strategies when raising our children like giving them an allowance for doing jobs around the house and requiring that they save a portion of it for longer term goals or not giving in with a treat every time they are upset about something, are important to help them to learn to delay gratification at an early age.
There's a famous study done at Stanford University in the 1960's where they took a group of children and gave them each a marshmallow and told them they could either eat their one marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes when they would receive two marshmallows. The researchers found that the children who were able to wait for the second marshmallow without eating the first one later scored higher on standardized tests, had better health, and were less likely to have behavior problems (psychologytoday.com). That's when the conversation really started about the benefits of delayed gratification.
We only have to look at credit card debt in our country to see that we aren't, as a nation, that good at not having what we want when we want it. Americans paid banks $113 billion in credit card interest in 2018, up 12% from the $101 billion in interest paid in 2017, and up 49% over the last five years. In 2019 we are looking at $122 billion in credit card interest alone. That's not even considering the principle (magnifymoney.com). And many people have no way of ever eliminating their debt but instead just keep adding to it. Holy moly, we're hocked to the hilt!
Another indicator of our inability (or unwillingness) to put off pleasure is the high incidence of obesity in the U.S. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) the prevalence of obesity was 39.8% and affected about 93.3 million US adults in 2015~2016. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer that are some of the leading causes of preventable, premature death. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight (cdc.gov).
But what does all of this have to do with meditation? Actually, quite a lot. The National Institute for Health has found that stress is one environmental factor that may contribute to the development of obesity. Also chronic over-spending is related to psychosocial factors like stress that has gradually increased over the past decades. And there has been nothing found that overrides the stress response in the bodymind like meditation. Through the incredible power of neuroplasticity, meditation helps you actually change behavior and reprogram your brain. From exercising more, to eating better, to kicking addiction, to learning new skills, to achieving your dream(s), meditation's "inner-strength" magnification improves your life on all levels (ecoinstitute.org).
Just a simple disciplined practice of doing a breathing meditation (Ready, Set...) once or twice a day for a few minutes (10-15) can help replace being ruled by our urges with the ability to create space enough to make different choices. The breath acts as a grounding element whereby we focus on the mechanics of the breath in the body and each time the mind wanders, we gently come back to the breath without judgment or recrimination. The longer we practice this, the more we are able to interrupt the mental chatter of rumination and the fight/flight response from the fear trigger. We learn to make healthier choices in all areas of life rather than being in habitual reactivity-mode (Response Ability) in our eating, spending, relationships and other decisions we make that dictate the quality of our lives. It helps put us in the driver's seat rather than our cravings, many of which we haven't consciously chosen.
The evidence is irrefutable that meditation, choosing to Sit and Stay with the breath, can re-train the brain to make healthier, happier, more productive choices in our lives. There's no better time to start than now. The excuse that we are too old or this is just the way we are is not a good one. Studies have shown that we can gain willpower at any age due to the brain's ability to change throughout our lifetime (neuroplasticity). But the responsibility is ours. As you Mind Your Body in pursuit of your best self, choose to learn to better delay gratification for the optimal benefits in the long run.
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