Why Meditate – The Benefits of Meditation

So why meditate? Because it’s good for you. In fact, the benefits of meditation are Black woman for why meditate - benefits of meditation wide-ranging, compounded by the many different styles. 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 popularly practiced. More and more health practitioners are offering (relaxation sessions) or recommending some form of meditation to their clients. Even conventional medicine has embraced it. (see Mayo Clinic notes on meditation).

The Benefits of Meditation

The literature, as well as the two above sources, identify many benefits of meditation. These most often cited benefits:

  • Stress reduction
  • Heart rate and blood pressure reduction
  • Improve heart-rate variability, an indication of stress resilience
  • Relief from headaches, tension, and tension-related conditions, e.g., muscle stiffness and pain
  • Increased energy and balance
  • Enhanced mental calm and reasoning
  • Improved memory
  • Increased focus, clarity, and productivity
  • Greater perspective.

Types of Meditation

The Right Practice For the Right Purpose

Lots of people seem to think meditation is hard and time-consuming. But, it depends on the type of practice you choose.

Not all types of meditation are alike. That makes it difficult to generalize.

First, the practice mirrors the intention of the meditation: relaxation, balance, toning the nervous system, clearing the mind, enhancing cognition and innovation, introspection, spiritual growth, raising subtle vibration, transcendence, etc.

Consideration of a person’s intentions, preferences, and lifestyle is paramount in the choice of the right type and practice. For this reason, many meditators use different techniques for different goals.

Meditation practices are grouped together into several broad categories based on their technique or intention.

The Technique and Benefits of Meditation By Category

Mindfulness

Mindfulness and various Buddhist meditation techniques tend to be observant and reflective of life experiences, personal development, and enlightenment. The mind is gently engaged in the process.

Transcendence

Transcendental meditation quiets the mind effortlessly and moves the meditator toward a state of inner awareness, pure conscientiousness, and transcendence. These methods typically reduce stress, enhance bodily functioning, and support self-development.

Spiritual and Expansive

These techniques involve connection to source (however defined. They tend to focus on the retrieval of guidance, usually associated with a specific question the meditator chooses for the specific session.

Spiritual meditation can be associated with organized religion, but this isn’t necessary and often is not the case. Some spiritual practices are expansive, opening the meditator up to universal energies, whether the meditator has a question related to her daily living or spirituality.

Focused

Focused meditation uses techniques that center the meditator’s attention on something specific. Music, mantras (words or sounds), or mandalas (symbols or designs ) frequently facilitate the session. These sessions can be healing, introspective, and/or transformative.

Open-Focused

The basic technique of open-focused meditation is an aspect of many styles of meditation 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

The intentions of guided meditation are wide-ranging. Here, the focus is on the technique. Someone who is either speaking in person or is recorded guides the meditator is guided through a process of deep relaxation.

Sometimes guided meditation acts as a conduit to achieving a particular state and other times it’s used to expose the meditator to new ideas and personal possibilities (e.g., self-improvement).

Movement

While people tend to envision a seated meditator, this is not always the case. Movement-based practices include Qi Gong and yoga, where the intention is usually to move subtle energy and induce healing and/or awareness.

5Rhythms, a dance meditation style developed by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s and rapidly growing in popularity is another example of meditation through movement. The main idea is for the person (i.e. dancer) to naturally and freely express 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.

Match Your Meditation to Your Intention

What meditation is and what it does all boils down to the intention of the individual and a choice of meditative practice that supports that intention.

A person who’s interested in initiating a meditation practice needs to first clarify her intentions so that she can choose an appropriate method.

It’s important to develop a practice that integrates well with personal preferences and schedules. To the extent possible, the practice should be supportive and not an additional burden.

Over time, intentions tend to change. Therefore, the preferred mediative practice will change as well.

For more on meditation or assistance in starting up a meditation practice, see:

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Updated October 9, 2022

About Patricia Bonnard, PhD, ACC

Mind-body-spirit healing. Addressing the whole person, I blend conventional coaching, embodied practices, and energy healing to help you live a more balanced, confident and conscious life. Offering sessions in-person (Bethesda, MD and Washington, DC area) and virtually anywhere in the world. Workshops, eBooks, free guided meditations, and an active blog are also available.