Reaction Time

Exploring meditation has allowed me to observe the infinitesimal changes it has made. After eight years of practice, sometimes sporadic, sometimes daily I can notice an increase in:

• patience

• self-awareness

• kindness

• gratefulness

• forgiveness

and a decrease in:

• judgement

• guilt

• vanity

• hurtful speech

These gains will probably not spring to mind if you were to ask my family for an assessment, because I have certainly not attained enlightenment, but I am content to do the work and fight the resistance to meditation that wells up.

What I'm also aware of is the gap that exists between stimulus and response. Frankl said "between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose". So we could choose our habitual reactions of defensiveness, blame, guilt or anger or we could realise we have the freedom to choose:

• self-awareness

• imagination

• conscience

• independent will

RESPONSIBILITY is the ability to choose your RESPONSE. And whether meditation is the way for you to do the hard inner work of having effortless control over every thought or you find a different way the benefits are manifest.