What Does Meditation Actually Do for You? The Developer of True Meditation Answers
Meditating for years doesn't make anger, worry, or a wandering mind go away. One of the biggest changes I've noticed in eight years is that I spend less time replaying things that are already over — and I get back to what I'm actually doing a little sooner.
I'm the developer of True Meditation, the app on this site. In the video below, I get asked what all those years actually changed.
Video: the True Meditation developer's real story, recreated with AI.
Does eight years of meditation stop you from getting angry?
No. I still get angry, I still worry, and my mind still wanders constantly. What changed is that after I get angry, I sometimes notice that I'm still feeding the thought of what made me angry — and once I notice, I don't have to keep following that thought.
Interviewer: You've been meditating for eight years? So you basically never get mad anymore.
Developer: Oh, I get mad.
Interviewer: You don't overthink stuff?
Developer: All the time.
Interviewer: Then what exactly have you been doing for eight years?
The anger still shows up. I just spend less time pouring fuel on it in my head.
What does "replaying things" actually mean?
It means continuing a conversation or argument in your head long after it's over. The other person is at home living their life, while you're still arguing with them in the shower, in the car, and in bed.
Developer: You know when a conversation ends at 2 p.m... but somehow you're still having it at midnight?
Developer: They're in the shower with you. They're in the car with you. Now they're in bed with you. And suddenly — you think of the perfect comeback.
Developer: And now you're replaying the whole conversation... except this time—
Interviewer: I win.
Developer: By a landslide.
Worry works the same way. "What if this goes badly?" can be useful once. When the same question shows up ten minutes later, in the shower, in bed, and again at 1 a.m., you're usually not solving anything — your brain has just hit replay.
Does meditation get rid of thoughts?
No. Meditation is paying attention to your breath, noticing when your mind has wandered off, and coming back — over and over. After eight years my mind still wanders within seconds. The skill isn't having no thoughts; it's noticing sooner and coming back.
Interviewer: Then aren't you bad at meditation?
Developer: That's what I used to think. But the moment you notice you've wandered off — that's not the failure. That's the moment you're actually practicing.
Developer: If having zero thoughts were the goal, I'd have quit seven years and eleven months ago.
Meditation doesn't stop you from getting lost. It helps you notice sooner that you're lost.
I also believe my thoughts less. "This is going to be a disaster" and "I'm having the thought that this is going to be a disaster" are the same thought — but the second one leaves a little space, and in that space I get a choice.
What changes in real life?
The biggest change meditation has made in my everyday life is that I spend less time replaying arguments that are already over. If I'd normally spend two hours replaying an argument from lunch, catching myself doing it sooner means I don't always have to keep following it. That time could have gone to dinner with my family, a conversation with my kid, a movie I was enjoying, or a quiet evening — time when I was physically there but my attention was somewhere else.
Developer: Say somebody gets under my skin at lunch.
Developer: If I spend the next two hours replaying it, those are two hours they get without even being there.
Interviewer: Rent-free.
Developer: Meditation didn't magically give me a better life. It helped me notice when I was missing the life that was already happening.
Interviewer: That actually sounds a lot like what people mean when they say someone is mentally resilient.
Developer: Yeah. There's definitely some overlap.
Resilient people still get angry, worried, and thrown off. The difference is that a difficult thought or emotion doesn't get to own the rest of their day as easily. I'm not saying meditation automatically makes someone mentally tough — but noticing what's happening in your head and coming back to what's in front of you clearly overlaps with it.
Do you have to meditate for eight years to notice a change?
No. Eight years is how long I've kept meditating, not how long it took to notice anything. When I first started, I'd do a short session once or twice a day — about 20 breaths — and often meditate as I fell asleep. Doing that, I started noticing small changes around three to six months in. That's my experience; everyone's different.
Interviewer: Did it take eight years to start noticing any of this?
Developer: No. Eight years is how long I've kept doing it, not how long it took to notice a change.
Developer: For me, I started noticing small changes around three to six months in. That's just my experience, of course. Everyone's different.
Interviewer: Okay. That's very different from eight years.
In short
The goal of meditation isn't to get rid of thoughts. After eight years I still get angry, worry, and overthink, but I notice sooner when I'm caught in a thought and come back to what I'm actually doing. Spending less time replaying things that are already over means missing fewer of the good moments — like dinner with family — that were already there.
True Meditation isn't an app you listen to. It's an app for doing mindfulness meditation yourself — practice in noticing your own thoughts, built into an app. It's free on the App Store and Google Play.
Related questions
What are you supposed to think about when you meditate?
You don't have to try to think about anything in particular. It's a common misconception, and the full answer is longer — it's the topic of the next video.
If my mind keeps wandering, am I doing meditation wrong?
No. Noticing that your mind wandered and coming back to the breath is the practice itself.
Does meditation reduce anger?
For me, the anger itself still shows up. What changed is noticing when I keep replaying "How could they do that to me?" — and getting pulled along by it less.
What happens to worry when you meditate?
The worry doesn't disappear, but I notice sooner when I'm running the same worry from the top again. It helped me tell problem-solving apart from hitting replay.