Meditation Matters—And Not (Just) for The Reason You Might Think
by Jeremy David Engels, PhD, Pennsylvania
The health benefits of a meditation practice are well established. Even a few minutes of mindfulness increases the ability to focus – a vital skill in a distracted world. Researchers have demonstrated that a more sustained practice can reduce stress and anxiety, promote better sleep, and help healing after injury and illness, while allowing us to feel more at home in our bodies and in our lives. Meditation matters for these reasons. Meditation also matters because it is how we become free.
Mindfulness as a Practice of Inner Freedom
The practice of mindfulness is based on an insight first described by ancient meditators: human beings have the capacity to observe experience without getting tangled up in it. This means, simply and wonderfully, it is possible to observe ourselves having a craving, or a happy thought, or even a scary emotion, without amplifying those feelings or sending our minds spiraling off into rumination about old memories or fretful anticipation of future events.
Practicing mindfulness, we can observe ourselves having an experience without immediately reacting to that experience. We can see it might not be necessary to layer story after story on top of the emotion in a way that feeds the craving, the joy, the doubt, or the fright, until it overwhelms us. Watching thoughts and emotions come and go without immediately reacting to them, it becomes possible to make choices about how we want to respond—and to decide more deliberately how we want to live our lives. This is inner freedom.
Responses and Reactions
The power of meditation unfolds in the space between a reaction and a response. Consider for a moment the word “reaction.” The prefix “re-” means “again and again” and indicates repetition. To redo something is to do it again. To repeat something is to say it again. So reaction is literally “re-action,” a redoing of something that we have done so often that it has become automatic. To react is to re-act, meaning that in moments of reaction we are, literally, unmindful. To the extent that we live in a constant state of reaction, we are not free.
To react is to set life on autopilot, allowing our habits, and our conditioning, to take over. Autopilot mode is not inherently bad. But when based in bad habits, our reactions can cause ourselves – and those around us – tremendous pain.
The word “response” shares the prefix re- with “react.” However, a response is not the same as a reaction. The word response comes from the Latin respondere, “to answer,” and includes the verb spondere, which indicates a deliberate and conscious promise or pledge. This verb completely changes the meaning of re-, which, here, does not simply connote again and again, as it does in reaction – instead it means giving something “back to you” or “in return” with thoughtfulness and consideration.
A response, in contrast to a reaction, is considerate, deliberate, mindful, and made in line with some system of values and judgment that are important to us. Not all responses are wise, but they are by definition intentional. In moments of response, we pause and dwell in the peaceful space of contemplation between stimulus and response – anywhere from one mindful breath to hours to years. And then we speak or act with deliberation. To the extent that we can learn to respond more and react less, we will experience more inner freedom. Meditation helps us to do this.
Inner and Outer Freedom
Meditation teachers often say that each of us is a wave that would not exist without the ocean. But unlike a wave—and this is something that many meditation teachers forget to mention—we are free to step out of the flow and make choices about how we wish to respond to the situations we find ourselves in.
We possess an inner freedom that a wave will never know. And once we’ve developed that freedom, we can work together with other caring and compassionate people to clean up our home, which is a kind of outer freedom that a wave will never know.
It's true that we can’t always or even often control the circumstances we find ourselves in. With meditation practice, however, we can control our responses to these circumstances. This is inner freedom.
And once we learn how to do this – once we learn how to mindfully respond to life, rather than just reacting to it – we can work more deliberately with others to create lasting transformation in the world by changing the circumstances themselves. Not alone, but collectively, we can attempt to build a society that is no longer oppressive, divisive, and dehumanizing.
This is outer freedom. And it is not possible without the inner transformation we achieve with meditation. This is just one of the many reasons that meditation matters.
Jeremy David Engels
Jeremy David Engels is Liberal Arts Endowed Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences at Penn State University, where he teaches classes on communication, ethics, democracy, and mindfulness. He is also a longtime yoga and meditation teacher, and the co-founder of Yoga Lab in State College, Pennsylvania. His research and teaching, in the classroom, on the cushion, and on the yoga mat, helps his students develop the skills necessary to be capable and compassionate citizens, community builders, and leaders. He is the author of six books, including, in 2026, On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World (Parallax) and Living Namaste: A Practical Guide to Mindfulness, Yoga, and Building Community (Inner Traditions). You can learn more about him, and about upcoming events, at his website, www.jeremydavidengels.com
