exclusive58 said:

Does anyone else feel that meditation also increases your "influence" on the world around you?
hmmm..how to say better? Somehow i feel that regular meditation makes you more aware of your actions and therefore your actions have a bigger impact on reality...?

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Absolutely. I think this is because you have more control over yourself and therefore have more strength.

exclusive58 said:

Does anyone else feel that meditation also increases your "influence" on the world around you?
hmmm..how to say better? Somehow i feel that regular meditation makes you more aware of your actions and therefore your actions have a bigger impact on reality...?

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To add, I think its that in more awareness, you begin to realize the bigger impact you have been having on the greater reality that you weren't aware of before.

Gomp put up a post called the journey, did you see it? It was a clip of a commercial where one piece was pushed and created a huge chain effect of movement through so many parts of the car laid out.

That was neat to me to watch thinking, what if just one word I utter, creates that sort of chain effect going out into the world. Ei, boss yells at the man, man kicks the dog, dog, bites the kid, women yells at the man for getting the dog, the kid yells at the woman for not loving the dog, yada yada all because the boss said one word to the man "you're STUPID".

Extending our awareness in this way does make us more conscious of the bigger impact we have in the world that goes beyond our ability to know it with just the 5 physical senses.

What if his boss would've said "You're BRILLIANT" a totally different chain reaction would've occurred.

I think centering is one of the greatest benefits to meditation.

Making yourself your own point of gravity gives you tremendous balance and stability and power.

Too often we throw ourselves far out to the left or far out to the right, giving weight to ideas, people and things far outside of us and then, the gravity of those masses pull us hither and dither.

When we make ourselves the focal point in meditation, the thing that matters most we pull it all back in to our center. Doing this as often as possible during the day makes a huge difference.

It also helps to learn how to tune out external noise, and then calm internal noise to a place of absolute calm and quiet. It's like cleaning out a messy cluttered room, organizing what worth keeping, throwing out the junk and making space for new.

You can do all of this while engaged in mundane activity even. It doesn't require setting aside time. It can be worked into your way of going through an active day. I think some of us here call it walking meditation and its worth the time you make and take to do it.