Excerpted from:

http://meditationformultitaskers.blogspot.com/2012/06/5-ways-meditation-can-save-you-money.html

The next time you feel like skipping your meditation session, think about the bottom-line practicality of taking the time to sit in silence and do some deep breathing and visualization. Meditation pays dividends that may not be obvious in the short-term but make a big difference as the days, months, and years go by. Meditation can put you in a different place in life if you make a serious effort. The following short list just scratches the surface:

1. Meditation Decreases Desire for Useless Things. Meditation will not make you immune to advertising, but it will blunt its effects. If you feel good naturally, you will not need that energy drink / new outfit / hamburger / whatever (the list is infinite) in order to make you happy. You will have a sense of inner calm that does not depend on external goods.

2. Meditation Reduces the Need to Self-Medicate. You won't necessarily go cold turkey because you start meditating, but chronic pain, stress, and anxiety will bother you less. You won't need a cocktail or a beer (or those prescription meds) in order to wind down for the day because you will stay calm as a matter of course. You can take the money saved and put it towards whatever you decide makes you truly happy.

3. Meditation Keeps the Doctor Away. Meditation actually increases your body's immune response and its capacity for healing. Everyone else will have the sniffles, but you won't. You will be more productive even in the midst of the worst flu season.

4. Meditation Aids Clear Thinking. People living under constant anxiety make poor decisions, including financial ones. Meditation can lead to a more spontaneous and reality-based decision making process that does not stem from fear. Making better decisions leads to better outcomes for years to come.

5. Meditation Stimulates Creativity. Ideas really run the creative economy, and meditation liberates the mind to focus on the unexpected. Call it serendipity, grace, or intuition, meditation produces more of those epiphany moments. Those big ideas can become the next small business, the next bestseller, the next work of art.

Just for starters, these five outcomes make meditation more than worthwhile. Besides the financial impact, just think about the value of living with greater peace and joy! The intangible things really make life worth living, so do not rob yourself of the tranquility that meditation can provide. You will thank yourself later.