If the phone rings while you are studying Spanish, it’s obvious that you have been distracted.

However if you are studying Spanish, and you suddenly have a thought about someone who you want to talk to on the phone, it’s not as obvious, but you have been distracted just as much as if your phone rang.

Meditation is a way to quiet your mind, so that you can either get a form of deep and complete rest (without your mind thinking) or focus just on one thing (such as learning Spanish) without being interrupted by distracting thoughts.

When you sit down to study, it should be obvious, that you should turn off your phone and study without distractions in order to make good use of your study time.

Meditation lets you do something that most people don’t know how to do.  When you learn to meditate you will learn to turn off your mental distractions.

When I started working on Language101.com in December of 2007, I worried almost all of the time.  I had very little control over my thinking, and I absolutely could never turn off my thoughts and get any mental rest.  I thought that I was my thoughts.

When I would study a foreign language I would often be interrupted by my worries.  In late 2008, I learned how to focus my attention on my body, my breath, and whatever was happening at the present moment.  It was a very effective way to quit worrying, although I initially had to say, “Attention here and now” hundreds of times per day.

It always worked to get rid of my worries.  In early 2009, I learned how to meditate.

After I learned how to meditate, I wanted to see if meditation had any effect on foreign language learning.  I tried meditating before and after a foreign language study period.

It was great to no longer be distracted from my study by worries.  Meditation did dramatically reduce the number of times that I would be interrupted by distracting thoughts during a study session.

I wish that I could say that meditation made me ten times more effective as a language student, but the benefits that I am sure of are these.  1.  I felt a LOT better after meditation.  2.  I was much less mentally distracted during my study periods so my study was more effective.

It’s worth noting that I was absolutely 100 percent unable to meditate for my first many attempts.   The thing that really helped me be able to meditate, were the tapes by Kelly Howell called binaural beat tapes.  Before I used these tapes it was impossible to meditate, and after I used them it was easy.

The medical and health benefits of meditation have been proven scientifically beyond any reasonable doubt.  If you want to look at some of the original research go to Pub Med and do a search on meditation.

The benefits of meditation on things like foreign language learning are (to the best of my knowledge) not as well documented.

If you have any experience with meditation and foreign language learning, or if you know of any research on the subject, please contact us.

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