A practical benefit I see for meditation is being able to move through stressful situations faster. I still feel stress but I'm able to notice it faster and recover faster. The number of stressful situations per day is probably consistent, but I'm just spending less time recovering and processing them.
For me, practicing without a guided voice has been really helpful in this pursuit as it makes it easier to quickly meditate in or after a stressful moment without having to escape the situation.
Someone - I don't remember who - made the analogy that life is like a fast moving river where you're pulled along by the currents of your thoughts, feelings & experiences. Meditation enables one to stand on the bank of the river and observe the current as opposed to being in the river and swept up by it.
I think a more accurate analogy is that you're always pulled into the river but meditation helps you get out of the river more quickly, stay on dry land a bit longer, before eventually being pulled back into the river again.
"Tell me, dear sir, how you crossed over the flood."
"I crossed over the flood without pushing forward, without staying in place."
"But how, dear sir, did you cross over the flood without pushing forward, without staying in place?"
"When I pushed forward, I was whirled about. When I stayed in place, I sank. And so I crossed over the flood without pushing forward, without staying in place."
[The devata:]
At long last I see a brahman, totally unbound, who without pushing forward, without staying in place, has crossed over the entanglements of the world.
For me, practicing without a guided voice has been really helpful in this pursuit as it makes it easier to quickly meditate in or after a stressful moment without having to escape the situation.