What is Meditation?
A Clear Path to Resilience, Focus, Better Relationships, and Enhanced Creativity
Page Last Updated: November 21st 2025
Page Author: Simon Jones DipBSoM, Meditation Teacher
You've likely heard the term 'meditation' in various contexts, from wellness trends to high-performance strategies. But what exactly is meditation?
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Put very simply, meditation is a practical technique for training your attention and awareness. It’s not necessarily about emptying your mind, achieving spiritual enlightenment, or abandoning your ambition.
Instead, it's about developing a skill that can profoundly impact how you navigate your daily life . The practice is centered on helping you cultivate new, more positive ways of being.
An Important Note on Your Wellbeing
Meditation can be a powerful tool for building resilience and managing stress, and it is a complementary therapy. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, depression, or any other health concern, you should always consult your doctor or a qualified healthcare provider. See our full Medical Disclaimer for more information.
Beyond the Myths: What Meditation Isn't
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To remove the obstacles that often stop beginners from starting, it is helpful to clarify what meditation actually involves, and respectfully address what it does not.
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It isn't a method of stopping thoughts
We cannot stop the thoughts that flow into our minds; it is impossible. Instead of silencing the mind, meditation teaches you to focus your attention, on a mantra, the breath, or an object, and simply acknowledge thoughts when they arise before letting them go.
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It isn't exclusively a religious practice
While most world religions, including Buddhism and Christianity, have deep contemplative or meditative traditions , meditation can be practised as an entirely secular discipline. It can be part of a spiritual life or a purely practical mental training programme; it is open to everyone.
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It isn't merely relaxation or daydreaming
Meditation is an active process, unlike daydreaming where thoughts are allowed to wander freely. It involves actively focusing your attention on a specific anchor and consciously bringing that focus back whenever it drifts.
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It doesn't require huge amounts of time
You do not need to spend hours sitting to see a change. Scientific evidence points towards a 20-minute daily session bringing real benefits. It is the regularity of the daily practice that delivers results, rather than the duration of a single session.
What are the Evidence-Based Benefits of Meditation?
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For driven individuals, the benefits of a regular meditation practice are significant and increasingly backed by science. It is not just about feeling better; it is about performing better.
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Resilience & Stress Management
Meditation helps to calm the sympathetic nervous system (stress response) and activate the parasympathetic system (rest and relax). This triggers the "relaxation response," which reduces heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension. Stress hormones like cortisol can be reduced by around 30-40% through practice.
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Focus & Cognitive Function
Practice strengthens the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for logical thinking, planning, and cognitive functioning. It strengthens the hippocampus (memory/emotional regulation) and weakens the default mode network (DMN), the brain network responsible for mind-wandering and distraction.
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Leadership & Influence
Effective leadership relies on the ability to influence through trust. Meditation builds empathic accuracy, the ability to correctly read others' mental states. Crucially, specific training can shift neural activity from "empathic distress" (which causes burnout) to "compassion" (a resilient, positive state), protecting leaders from emotional exhaustion.
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Creativity & Innovation
Meditation is a tool for cognitive enhancement, specifically for divergent thinking (generating novel ideas). Open Monitoring meditation induces a state of "distributed" cognitive control, priming the brain for brainstorming and breaking through mental blocks (insight problem solving). It enhances cognitive flexibility, the ability to disengage from habitual patterns and shift perspectives.
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Sleep & Physical Health
A regular practice improves sleep quality by altering brain waves and impacting melatonin levels. It has also been linked to a stronger immune system (fewer sick days) and positive changes in telomerase activity, which relates to cellular ageing.
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What are the Core Styles of Meditation?
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There are many styles of meditation, each with a unique approach to training attention and awareness . klarosity provides a variety of different meditation types as well as various techniques to help our clients find their best fit.
For ambitious individuals, the research consistently points to four primary categories of practice that build the core cognitive and emotional skills necessary for high performance and resilience:
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Focused Attention Meditation (FA)
Focused Attention meditation is a core practice for building laser-like concentration and sustained attention. It involves the voluntary and sustained focusing of attention on a chosen object, such as the sensation of the breath.
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How it works:
This practice teaches a recursive loop of cognitive skills: continually bringing your attention back to the object when your mind wanders. This is a direct exercise in strengthening your mind’s executive control networks.
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Performance Benefit:
FA is essentially attention training. It enhances sustained attention, reduces the time spent mind-wandering, and strengthens the brain's ability to monitor and resolve cognitive conflicts.
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Open Awareness Meditation / Open Monitoring (OM)
Open Monitoring meditation cultivates cognitive flexibility and is a potent catalyst for creative insight. This practice typically follows a period of Focused Attention training to stabilise the mind.
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How it works:
It involves non-reactive monitoring of the full content of experience from moment to moment, without focusing on a single object. You cultivate an open, receptive awareness of any thought, feeling, or sensation that arises, observing it without judgment.
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Performance Benefit:
OM is specifically linked to enhancing divergent thinking, the ability to generate multiple, novel solutions to a problem. It achieves this by creating a cognitive state of reduced top-down control, which is ideal for "out-of-the-box" thinking.
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Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the state of being present that results from consistent practice. It is simply knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.
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How it works:
Mindfulness involves observing your body, thoughts, emotions, and environment without judgement. This practice helps you detach from internal chatter, reducing reactivity and allowing you to accept things that are not in your control.
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Performance Benefit:
Peace comes from the acceptance of 'what is'. By developing non-judgement and non-striving, you build resilience by creating the psychological space to choose a skilled response rather than reacting emotionally.
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Metta / Loving-Kindness (LKM)
Loving-Kindness Meditation is a powerful constructive practice focused on cultivating empathy, social connection, and compassion, skills vital for effective leadership.
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How it works:
LKM is distinct because its primary goal is the active cultivation of positive, other-oriented emotional states. The traditional practice involves sending loving-kindness through phrases to yourself, people you love, neutral people, difficult people, and the world at large.
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​Performance Benefit:
This practice creates an affective transformation, actively building positive emotional and social resources. Crucially, compassion is a resilient and motivating state, protecting leaders from the burnout of empathic distress.
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Other Key Meditation Practices
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At klarosity, our structured programme also allows you to experience a wider range of foundational and complementary practices to find what works for you:
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Breathing Meditation:
A foundational tool where conscious awareness of the breath is used to calm your entire system. As your awareness of the breath grows, you may begin to realise that you can control not only your breathing but also your thoughts.
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Mantra Meditation:
An anchoring technique where you silently repeat a word or phrase (like calm or a Sanskrit phrase) to deepen practice. The word 'mantra' is a Sanskrit term often translated as a 'spiritual sound formula' or a 'liberation from thinking'.
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Chanting Meditation:
This involves reciting, singing, or chanting a mantra out loud on one note to emphasise vibration. The focus on vibration can lead to a deep meditation practice.
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Visualisation Meditation:
A teacher guides you to create a picture or a sense of a scene in your mind. This journey into your imagination can help you get away from distracting thoughts.
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Contemplation Meditation:
This can be described as steadily considering an object or idea with attention. This releases the mind from other thoughts and can help you gain different insights.
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Walking Meditation:
Apractice where you walk mindfully by focusing on each step as you walk slowly. It helps us slow down and reminds us to 'just be' and not be anxious about getting somewhere.
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Silent Meditation:
A simple practice where you just sit. After focusing on the breath, you can let go of the focus and in the silence you can find peace.
A Time-Tested Technology for Modern Minds
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Why does the history of meditation matter to a modern leader? Because it confirms that you are not engaging with a fleeting wellness trend. You are utilising a mental technology that has been refined over thousands of years to optimise human consciousness.
Understanding this lineage helps you realise that this practice is not new, nor is it the exclusive domain of any single religion. It is a universal human tool.
The Foundations (1500 BC)
The drive to master the mind is ancient. The earliest written records of meditation were discovered in the Vedas (ancient Hindu scriptures) dating back to between 1500 and 1200 BC. From the very beginning, humanity has sought systematic ways to train attention.
The Global Evolution (500 BC - 200 AD)
Across the globe, different cultures independently developed meditative systems to cultivate focus and clarity:
Buddhism (500 BC)
Founded with meditation at its very heart, offering a rigorous framework for transforming the mind.
Taoism:
Recorded around the same time, emphasising focused attention and mental tranquility.
Christianity (2nd Century AD)
The Desert Fathers developed contemplative practices to create a "quiet sanctuary" and connect with the soul.
The Performance Era (1960s - Present)
In the modern era, these ancient techniques were adapted for secular and practical use:
1960s: Transcendental Meditation (TM) brought ancient techniques to the West, popularised by figures like the Beatles. 1970s: Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme. By stripping away religious dogma and focusing on the biological and psychological benefits, he paved the way for the evidence-based, performance-focused mindfulness we teach today.
The Science: Upgrading Your Mental Hardware
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For the ambitious, the question is rarely "does it work?" but "how does it work?" Science confirms that meditation is not a passive activity; it is a tangible investment in upgrading your brain's capabilities.
1. Neuroplasticity: Building a High-Performance Brain
Your brain is not fixed; it is designed to change based on how you use it. Just as you train your body in the gym, meditation systematically strengthens specific neural pathways.
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Executive Function:
Regular practice strengthens the pre-frontal cortex, the CEO of your brain responsible for logical thinking, planning, and emotional regulation.
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Emotional Intelligence:
It strengthens the hippocampus and the temporo-parietal junction, areas vital for memory, empathy, and compassion.
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Stress Reduction:
Simultaneously, it weakens the amygdala , your brain's fear centre, and quiets the default mode network, the circuit responsible for distracting mind chatter.
2. Mastering Your Nervous System
High pressure often triggers the "fight-or-flight" stress response (sympathetic nervous system), flooding your body with cortisol and adrenaline. While useful for immediate physical threats, this state kills strategic thinking.
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The Relaxation Response:
Meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system , triggering the "relaxation response" identified by Dr. Herbert Benson.
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Faster Recovery:
This mechanism lowers heart rate and blood pressure and reduces levels of stress hormones like cortisol by approximately 30-40%. This allows you to move from "reactive" to "responsive" far faster than your peers.
3. Accessing Flow States (Brainwaves)
Your state of mind is reflected in electrical brainwave activity, which changes distinctively when you meditate.
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From Busy to Focused:
Daily life often keeps us in Beta waves (active, busy thinking). Meditation shifts the brain into Alpha waves (relaxed wakefulness) and Theta waves (deep creativity and insight).
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Peak Performance:
Long-term meditators even display increased Gamma waves, high-frequency waves associated with heightened perception and peak mental activity.
Meditation FAQ
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Q: Is meditation just a form of relaxation?
A: No. While meditation triggers the physiological "relaxation response," it is distinct from passive relaxation or daydreaming. It is an active mental training technique designed to anchor attention and cultivate awareness. Think of it as a workout for your focus, not a nap.
Q: I have a "busy brain." Do I have to stop thinking to meditate?
A: Absolutely not. It is impossible to stop thoughts from flowing into your mind. The goal is not to empty the mind, but to train yourself to observe thoughts without getting carried away by them.
Q: How much time do I need to invest to see results?
: You do not need to meditate for hours. Scientific evidence suggests that a 20-minute daily session brings real benefits. While behavioural changes (like feeling calmer) can happen quickly, research indicates that lasting structural changes to the brain (neuroplasticity) are optimised at around 22 minutes of practice per day.
Q: Is meditation a religious practice?
A: It does not have to be. While meditation is central to traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism, it can be practised as an entirely secular discipline. At klarosity, we focus on the functional and pragmatic application of these skills for modern performance.
Q: What is the immediate physiological impact of a session?
A: Meditation actively calms the sympathetic nervous system (the "fight or flight" response) and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This leads to tangible reductions in cortisol (the stress hormone) by approximately 30-40%.
Explore Our Meditation Services
Achieve new levels of focus, resilience, and leadership with structured, evidence-based meditation programmes designed for ambitious professionals.
About the Author
Simon Jones DipBSoM, Meditation Teacher
I'm Si, the Founder and Managing Director of klarosity and an externally accredited Meditation Teacher through the British School of Meditation. I teach meditation to Executives, Leaders, Founders & ambitious Professionals from all walks of life. I've been practicing meditation for over 15 years and experienced first hand the resilience, focus and clarity that a consistent meditation practice can bring you.
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