Most people think of meditation as sitting in a quiet place and not thinking about anything while sitting in a certain position. While this is meditation in the traditional buddhist way, it is not the main thing I am reffering to here. Meditation for me is a about a mindset, and a philosophy of which to behave in.
The relationship between thoughts and feelings
Most people go about their day letting feelings influence their thoughts. This causes them to be affected by what happens to them in the day-to-day. This also means that other people have the ability to influence or change how they feel.
This might be one of the reasons why so many people are unhappy and suffer from anxiety or depression; because anything someone says or does can affect them.
People think that the reason they are unhappy is because they are not successful enough. If they could only have more money, more things, more friends or be in a relationship / married they would be more happy. What they fail to realize is that happiness and contentment comes from within. This is not to say these things are bad, but they should not think that these things are what's making them happy.
So what's the solution to this? It is the power of now, meditation. Many people think that meditation is something only buddhists do, but it actually has a long history in the west too. It is the ancient greek philosphy called stoicism.
The inner monolouge
If you stop and notice your thoughts for a while - this is called mindfullness - you will notice an inner monolouge. What is important to realize is that what your inner monolouge thinks is influencing your fellings. Just by realizing this you now have the tools to improve your mood.
The next time you are feeling anxious or in a bad mood for some reason, you should stop and think about how your thoughts might influence the way you are feeling.
Implementing knowledge
In order to benefit from this you have to implement the meditation and philosophy exercises concistently. It is just like when you are training for better health, you have to implement it concistently in order to benefit from it.
