Medivate Forum

I don't know that my path is all that common: I actually (finally) started meditating because I was acutely aware of the distance between my aspirations about how I'd act in the world, and how I was able to actually act in the world. What is mean is that I didn't want to be the kind of person who yelled at people, or said mean things, etc, but I was painfully aware that I was doing those things.
Essentially, I heard from somewhere some reference to the idea that meditation could help close that gap from the time you encounter a situation and the time when you're able to respond wisely to that situation. I was finding that that period for me was way too long; I'd have already acted before I could find a wise response.
Certainly, in the very short term, noting a difference in your behavior around things like that is hard. I think there's a quote where someone asked the (present) Dalai Lama about progress and he said something like "check in every five years." But even though it's only been about three since I started meditating in earnest I have definitely seen a change. It's not that I never feel a bit out of control or say something I regret, but it's less frequent. And it's far more frequent that I realize "I don't want to say that, I'd regret it later." and find a more skillful thing to say.