On top of health issue (back pain), that I was looking for help in meditation (and got it!), obviously the question was, if meditation can be the tool to "cool down" brain, to maintain focus on what is important, and to learn living satisfying life..
I do not know about you, but I do believe that core issue of society today is speed of technology development surpassing ability of people to process information and adapt to changes. Attacked by old media (TV, radio, press, in-store materials etc) while being immersed into zillions of data available in the virtual web, people start liking the feeling of being busy, informed and belonging to some groups, while that all happens at the expense of losing focus on essentials. Family, friends, spirit, health, work - some of them lose in the race for the attention. And while overall people get the feeling of living of very intense (busy) life, in many cases we get more and more shallow, and depth of relationship does not develop.. Also relationship with your own soul...
Religion can be the part of the cure, the bridge to your own inner world, but even here it seems that action becomes shallower, and people tend to focus on rituals instead of the deep inner contemplation.
Meditating does slow you down in this race. I did not get perfect self reflection there, and I did not figure out "who I am" and "what do I really want", but at least my brain enjoyed a lot simply thinking/contemplating about what is really important, vs what the world is stimulating you to know..
Experiencing inner silence is very energizing. This part of meditation comes slowly to the man of this century, but once experienced, gives nice rest to ever stimulated brain. It is re-freshing to realize, how much of the every day thought can be spent on "marketing" stimulus... On things and feelings you are "sold" to try, to strive for, to dream of...
I will continue to meditate, but not the recommended 2 hours a day. 1 hour max. That will probably not be enough to take me to my unconscious mind and enlighten me one day, but it seems will be good enough to make life simpler, keeping "inner compass" in mind..