2024 has been a year of revelations for me. It’s the year I finally realized how much daily meditation practice influences positively my life, shaping not only my slow mornings but also my perspective on the world around me.
I started meditating about a year and a half ago, having no idea what I was doing at first. It felt like stepping into a completely new world — one I knew nothing about.
The introduction came from a close friend who had solo-travelled for one year across India some months before. When we caught up over coffee in my hometown of Naples, Italy, he shared stories of how deeply meditation is woven into the cultural fabric of Indian society. There, children begin learning meditation in their earliest school years, making it as commonplace as reading or writing.
Initially, I started small: just five minutes a day. Gradually, I worked up to 10, 15, and eventually 20 minutes. At that point, I hit a wall. My concentration began to waver, so I decided to hold steady at shorter sessions until I felt more comfortable.
The routine I’ve settled into usually happens right after waking up, just before enjoying a cup of Italian coffee and a bowl of fruit with organic ground flax, sunflower, pumpkin, chia seeds, and goji berries. The timing feels perfect — it’s a calm moment before the day truly begins.
Before I began meditating, I noticed that I was almost always uneasy — constantly needing my mind to be occupied. It was as if sitting quietly and looking someone in the eye without distraction was nearly impossible. People (myself included) are almost always in a state of unease — our minds need to be constantly occupied, fidgeting with something all the time. Few people, even close friends, can truly meet your eyes and remain fully present in the moment.
This is where my meditation practice made a huge difference for me. The constant urge to keep my mind busy almost completely faded away. Instead, I just started paying attention to whatever was there — observing things without letting them consume me. I’ve learned to be present without being consumed by inner chatter.
We live in a world of sound bites, social posts, and endless streams of information. Everything is designed to engage, excite, and overstimulate, yet it often leaves us feeling hollow. We’re offered oceans of experiences that rarely go deeper than a few millimetres. Modern life encourages extremes — loudness, excess, and constant validation — just to drown out the subtle whisper in the background that says, “There’s nothing here.” No wonder we feel uneasy and disconnected.
What we truly need — love, peace, and the ability to be at home with ourselves — feels increasingly rare. Our society has conditioned us to chase likes, affirmations, and quick fixes. We avoid negative emotions and shy away from silence, forgetting that these are the very pathways to understanding ourselves. We’ve grown frightened of simply feeling what arises within us.
Of course, the struggle with being present is not new. Every generation has grappled with it. Yet, none have been born into such a flood of distraction. We’ve become disconnected from the elements that bring genuine peace: nature, the sea, the sun, a quiet walk at night, and the soothing chorus of birds at dawn. Even time alone is often spent numbing ourselves rather than reflecting inward.
We are so scared to feel.
This is why meditation has mattered so much to me in 2024. I’m learning to reclaim stillness, to anchor myself in the quiet moments, and to accept the present. In doing so, I’ve discovered that the beauty of existence is always there, patiently waiting beneath the noise and commotion of everyday life.
“Meditation is a means to realize the beauty of your existence.” — Sadhguru