Meditation seems to be a loaded word for a lot of people. There are those who think it’s religious or sacrilegious. Some think you have to work too hard at it or give too much time to it. And, there are those who think they just aren’t the meditation type. I think the key to capturing the benefit of meditation is to find the right meditation practice for you.
Why Meditate?
Well, because meditation is good for you. Nowadays, there’s plenty of information and evidence available to support this claim.
Thanks to meditation champions such as Deepak Chopra, meditation has become a common term and more broadly practiced. More and more health practitioners are offering (relaxation) sessions; incorporating relaxing, de-stressing energy healing sessions within their suite of services; and recommending some form of meditation to their clients. Conventional medicine has embraced it. (see Mayo Clinic notes on meditation).
Benefits of meditation:
- Stress reduction
- Reduced heart rate and lower blood pressure
- Relief from headaches, tension, and tension-related conditions
- Increased energy and balance
- Enhanced mental reasoning
- Improved memory
- Increased focus, clarity, and productivity
- Greater perspective
- Greater creativity, intuition, and innovation.
This is no small list and I wonder if there is anyone who can say that absolutely none of these benefits are, or would ever be, important to them.
In order to find the right meditation practice for you, start with you.
Meditation is Personal
Too often a person is introduced to meditation without considering his/her intentions, preferences, and lifestyle. And, they may have misconceptions about meditation. All these matters, and accounting for these three factors can make the difference between an enjoyable and arduous practice.
So, if you want to explore and perhaps establish a mediation practice of your own, make sure to consider these three things first and foremost. Do so before you start your research into the different forms of meditation. Otherwise, the process could become complicated and overwhelming.
- Clarify what your intentions are so you can make an appropriate choice about which method is most suitable. Why do you want to meditate? What do you hope the outcome of your practice will be?
- Assess how much time you realistically have to dedicate to your practice. It can be as little as a few minutes when you want or need to meditate or as much as forty minutes every day. You can derive benefits with either extreme or anywhere in between. So, don’t let your available timeframe deter you. Just work with it.
- Consider your style or technique preferences and identify a practice that incorporates them. For example, if you love nature and movement, pick a practice that lets you get outdoors and move. Do you love movement, but not outdoors so much? Try 5Rhythms dance. There are also many types of seated meditation for those who like stillness and deep inner reflection.
Types of Meditation
There are many ways to meditate and not all types of meditation are alike. It’s difficult to generalize because different methods entail different intentions and processes Also, people meditate for a whole range of reasons: stress release and relaxation, reflection and personal growth, enhancement of cognition and mental clarity, release and circulation of subtle energy for improved health and spiritual practice, mind-body-spirit balance and integration, transcendence, etc.
Included here are eight categories of meditation. These categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, open-focused and guided mediations can be followed while seated or walking.
Mindfulness:
Mindfulness and Buddhist contemplative and meditative techniques tend to be observant and reflective of personal development and enlightenment, with the mind gently engaged in the process. There’s a lot of variation within Mindfulness, but typically the breath is used alone or with soft awareness.
Spiritual or Expansive:
These techniques involve a connection to source (however defined) and tend to focus on the retrieval of guidance, which is often associated with a specific question that the meditator has posed for the session. Spirituality can be associated with organized religion, but this isn’t necessary, and often is not the case. Some spiritual meditation practices are expansive, opening the meditator up to universal energies, but the meditator doesn’t necessarily have to have a specific spiritual intention.
Transcendence:
Transcendental meditation aims to effortlessly quiet the mind and move toward a state of inner awareness, pure consciousness, and transcendence. These methods typically reduce stress and support self-development.
Focused:
Focused meditations use techniques that focus the meditator’s attention on something and frequently use an aid in the form of music, mantras (words or sounds), or mandalas (symbols or designs).
Open-Focused:
The basic technique of open-focused meditation is incorporated into many styles of meditative practices dating back to perhaps the first meditators. It is most commonly incorporated into practices that address trauma and stress release as well as creativity, neuroplasticity, and manifestation.
Guided meditation:
Guided meditation is a technique whereby the meditator is guided through a process of deep relaxation by someone who is either speaking in person or recording. Sometimes guided practice acts as a conduit to achieving a particular state and other times the meditation is used to expose the meditator to new ideas and personal possibilities (e.g., self-improvement).
Movement:
Some meditators like movement. The simplest, most accessible style would be taking a walk, maybe in nature, and daydreaming or listening to an inspiring guided meditation. Qigong, Tai-chi, and yoga use the breath combined with a flowing transformative process through a series of postures.
5Rhythms, a dance meditation style developed by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s and rapidly growing in popularity, is an example of meditation through movement. The main idea is for the person (i.e. dancer) to naturally and freely express and gain awareness of themselves and their emotions through their movement and dance, which arrives through the music of five basic rhythms: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness.
Kundalini Awakening:
Kundalini meditation aims to release and circulate Kundalini energy, a dormant but powerful source of creative and spiritual energy stored at the base of the spine.
The methods mentioned here are just a small set of what is available. Do your research. Sample a few options. See what works for you. Use as many different styles as you like.
Summing and Key Take-Aways
Meditation is good for you. That’s because it can support you and your decision-making in any number of ways. However, to really take advantage of the time you meditate, pick a practice that works for you. It’s important to develop a practice that integrates easily with your personal intentions, preferences, and time availability; the practice should be supportive, and add any additional burden.
Over time, your intentions may change and so may the type of practice, but the practice should always reflect and support your intentions.
For Information on Simple Quick Meditation Practices, See:
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- Starchaser Mind Body Spirit blog, in particular:
- Starchaser FREE Guided Meditations
