I took an 8 week course called "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction" a few years back and documented my experiences in a dynasty here:
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course - A RL Writeup - Front Office Football Central
I wrote a LOT. There were lots of activities that I learned about in this class related to mindfulness, but the main thing I came away with was a meditation practice.
There are different types of meditation, with different focuses and different aims. Most apps as I understand them (I've personally used HeadSpace) focus on Mindfulness Meditation, which is the the type of meditation I practice.
I would describe meditation as weightlifting for your brain/emotional well being. When you go to the gym and lift weights, you have an intense session where you train your muscles, your body physically changes based on this, and you become stronger in day to day life, over time and experience benefits in your day to day life.
When you practice mindfulness meditation, you are giving yourself an intensive mental workout. Over time studies show that this does actually change things within your brain, and you can develop skills that you can use in day to day life to enjoy the little things more, to improve your mindset about stress, to improve dealing with anger and stressful situations based on your "exercise" of meditation.
Quote:
"For whatever it's worth, that's the exact opposite of my understanding of the purpose/practice of meditation, which is to clear the mind entirely."
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I would take slight issue with this, because "clear the mind entirely" is a common idea and it leads many new people to frustration because they "fail" at completely clearing their mind.
Let me describe mindfulness meditation briefly as I see it and do it:
You sit in a quiet area, relaxed (but not so relaxed that you'll fall asleep, which is why posture and stuff comes up in things you google but IMO it doesn't truly matter much), close your eyes and focus on your breath. For the duration of your meditation, you simply aim to notice your breathing - in whatever way this might mean for you (a light focus on your stomach/chest moving as you breath, feeling the air enter your nose, a silent internal "in/out" mental note each breath).
While you're doing this, thoughts will pop into your head. Your aim is to notice the thoughts, but to let them pass by without latching on to them and interacting with them. You may start thinking about your grocery list, you may notice your leg is a little stiff, you may focus on some major problem currently in your life. Your aim is to let those thoughts go and to return to your breathing. Everytime this happens, consider it a "rep" - going back to the weightlifting analogy.
You will rarely, if ever, "clear your mind" - some days may be "good", some "bad" - as far as thoughts coming and going. Sometimes you latch on to thoughts and it takes awhile to "return to focus on your breathing". But that's the aim. And there are days where I've meditated for 30 minutes and my timer went off and it felt like 2 minutes, and it honestly felt magical. But the days where I meditated for 30 minutes and it felt like 2 hours... those are equally important. It's all "practice".
I've probably typed too much. I'm extremely passionate about this and consider meditation and mindfulness to have been lifechanging for me, I'd be happy to answer any questions about it.