Meditation. It has taught me that there is an inside. A calm center. A still point inside my body. I get there through sitting still, and breathing. It's as simple as that. If you do it well, and often, it will change you. It does change you.
And what happens inside, changes how you see things outside. And what happens outside can be transformed by what happens inside. But it is a dance. The inside/outside dichotomy. It's not one thing. Meditation is not the answer, but it is an effective tool.
You want to be alive, engaged in the world. You want to sit still and find the calm center. Both.
A long life of meditation changes everything. But it's simple, it's a little thing, and it's everything too. Sitting still, breathing deeply, without effort, and the world and everything in it opens up. Alive.