There are many reasons that you may want to use meditation. The foremost being for balance and relaxation. Though meditation, you can relieve the body of day to day fatigue or stress, or you can work toward a goal. In the magickal world, meditation is used to prepare for rituals, gain out of body expererience, or simply for balance.
Though the use of meditation, you can get to a point where you can quite easily "center yourself" for your magickal workings. With meditation, you will find that your stress level will decrease while your concentration level increases.
As I personally reached what i consider the middle of my life (40+ years old) I found that my life was scattered like small bits of a dream here and there. I had no focus and my concentration was almost non-existant at this point. It had effected my home and business life and in the words of some dear friends, I was floundering. I was in no way living up to my potential.
Up to this point in my life, i had used meditation on a daily basis, but more as something to check off of my to do list than something to benefit me. Once that realization came to me, I came back to Ancient Pathway and read the meditation pages that I had written years before. And I brought this technique back into my life in full force, not as a habit, but as a joy of my life.
Since I have started my new regiment of meditation to goals, well, you can see the progress of this site as one of the side effects. But my relationship with my friends and family (children too) have come to a point where I am no longer simply tolerated by the kids, but a joy to have a round. I smile a lot more, don't seem as "lost" and most people that know me well say that my drive and concentration and been enhanced more than they could explain. Add to this that my business sense and drive have increased and I have say that Meditation has greatly helped me.
Please don't think that this is a quick fix for anything. This is simply a way to bring yourself to balance and center and gain a realistic grasp of your day to day problems and work toward resolution. Much like any other technique, this is a process. And mediation is not something that you can just "try one day" and hope that it helps. It takes time.
But though Mediation, you can see your own flaws, and work to resolve them. And you may even find that some of your flaws are more positive attributes than negative ones. This has happened with me on more than one occasion recently.
A personal example:
At midlife, as i found myself floudering, I also found that I had no direction in life. I have two young children here in Memphis and pretty much spent my life working and playing Everquest (great game - but highly addictive). My life had become a black hole and though i was unable to see it, i was depressed most of the time. These children that should have been a joy in my life, had become an obligation - where i would show up once a while to "play daddy". They deserved much better than I was giving to them.
Once i started my new mediation techniques, my mind was drawn to these two angels. My bright boy, 10 years old, smart and loving, always suprising those around him with his wit and talent. And my4 year old little girl with a smile that can light up a room and the brains to back it up, even at her age. Though meditation, I could see these children much better, but moreso, how those around them react to them. My daughter literlly brightens a room when she enters it, and people gravitate to her. They all talk to her as a "little person" no patronizing. And my son, timid and shy in some ways, but hell on wheels when he gets going. I was asounted at both of their beauty and intelligence, once my own personal blinders had lifted. And i can see now, that the world is a better place because these two are in it. It may sound like Fathers' pride, and it may BE Fathers' pride, but for a very long time, it was lacking within me.
Meditation let me look at myself, my flaws, my failures and see these children in a different light. And now, I spend more time with them, not out of obligation, but out of a need and want, mostly to see what they will do next to suprise me.
And this was just with my first steps though my new meditation processes. I can't wait to see what is around the corner for me.