What Is Meditation?

Over the past few years meditation has become popular as a way to help reduce stress, be focused at work, sleep better, or simply relax. Yet meditation isn’t just a tool to improve focus or relax, but a way to strengthen the positive qualities we all naturally possess: compassion, kindness, generosity, patience, humor, and finding joy in everyday life. This episode explores this higher purpose of meditation through the less familiar technique of analytic meditation that uses stories, thoughts, and emotions to steer our minds toward happiness, meaning, and benefiting others.Leave us a rating and reviewScott Snibbe's new book How to Train a Happy Mind with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama is out now in print, e-book, or audiobook. In May, Scott is doing two special events in New York City, one with musician and artist Laurie Anderson, and another with DJ Spooky. Both events can also be streamed online. Visit skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour.Support the show