I wouldn’t call myself a veteran, maybe more of a journeyman. I’m currently around the 1.5 year mark of TMI practice, from 45 minutes daily at the start, to approximately 1:30 a day now. Some days I get to do a second session if I’m lucky. But no real retreat experience (with the exception of some all day sits). I have a pretty normal life, for all intents and purposes; work 40 hours a week (I’m young-ish) at my first career job, work out, see friends, read books, do chores, and pursue career aspirations, etc.
Career wise, I think that I can say two things:
on the micro level, everything is sharper and clearer. Others complain about lack of memory - but practicing mindfulness of the breath, I find my memory is enhanced greatly compared to how it used to be. I can usually remember small details from days or weeks ago, and of course, that helps. Emotionally, there is so much even-ness. Now, I am not a master, so it would be innacurate for me to say that I reside in perfect equanimity (I am not there yet). But even when troubling emotions pop up (my biggest problems have been with anger, which is amplified because my job often alternates between boring and frustrating), they disappear much quicker. They went from persisting for a day, to an hour, to a minute, to a second (in most cases). Then they started getting replaced by loving kindness, and compassion, and joy, and equanimity. And this, of course, bleeds into all my interpersonal relationships.
Focus wise, there are so many less mistakes I make daily, although they are still there. I think, with any job where you repeat semi-complex tasks over and over, it’s tough to get every kind of error down to zero. My focus and ability to blitz through urgent tasks has also increased drastically, although I recognize that it will be better if can maintain a constant flow of focus for longer periods of time. In this way, meditation has been great, because the equanimity it introduces in the flow of thoughts is very fluid, but also open and creative. I think I look forward to making this kind of thing more constant (which I think is stage 10). But for now at least, the benefits have been unmistakable.
And in awareness as well - I can be open to things happening around me without being drawn into them. This is pretty wonderful too tbh.
2) On a macro level, there is so much more sharpness in everything. Previously (and I think this is also a symptom of being young), it seemed that the world around me was so much more vague in character and appearance. As in, career options, avenues of achievement, project progress, and etc. are all thought out more than one move ahead. Instead of wanting to do something and keeping it as a vague goal in my head, it becomes an established goal and intention, and if there’s time, I usually start planning immediately. In many ways, this is sublime, and it captures the ordinary fantasizing my mind used to do, transforming it into something directed and useful.
Insight as well, has been a useful way of consolidating ordinary reflections on micro and macro level processes, and incorporating them usefully into my life. Career wise, this manifests as, I would say, a much more realistic, and therefore practical, projection of my mental direction and plans onto real life. It feels like things are somehow “sharper”.