Meditation In 9 Forms

Meditation

Over my writing I have talked a lot about mindful meditation, breathing, and yoga. These along with many others are considered types of meditation. With a vast range of meditations that have origins all over the world. With such a large range they are all so different- simple or complex, active or stationary, creating insight or calming, and guided and unguided.  

Meditation is about becoming acquainted with your mind and body, observing thoughts, focusing, or relaxing. It can take a lot of practice and often won’t be perfect, some days will be easier than others depending on stress and thoughts. Start with short periods and slowly grow as you become more focused.

Meditation is often used as a psychotherapy as it has effective and a large range of benefits including:

• Improved sleep
• Reduced stress levels
• Improves symptoms of anxiety, depression, and emotional wellbeing
• Improved self- awareness as well as greater attention to self and others
• Better memory and concentration
• Improved immunity, physical wellbeing, and reduced pain
• Becoming present- being in the moment

An overview of the 9 popular meditation styles:

• Mindful meditation

Is a technique that combines meditation and mindfulness where the aim is to slow your thoughts to reduce negativity. Many of the techniques are very simple and can be used anywhere, they involve deep breathing and awareness of mind and body.

• Focused attention

Is a relaxation technique where instead of focusing on nothing, you focus on a sound, object, or sensation. This allows you to relax slowing down your mind and reduce intense thoughts.

• Movement meditation

Is as the name suggests, meditation with movement. Some of the most better-known would-be yoga, tai chi, and walking. Do activities such as walking with a more open mind, paying attention to the trees, your breath, or noises around you.

• Body scan/progressive relaxation

The aim is to focus on relaxing and the physical body to reduce stress. Progressively feeling the sensations of your body or tensing and relaxing the muscles in the body.

• Breath awareness

There are many different techniques that are types of breath awareness. It can be super convenient being done on anywhere or can be focused seated in a more in-depth meditation.

• Loving kindness

Is all about learning to give self-love and kindness to yourself as well as others. It has been proven to help anything from anxiety, physical pain and relationships. I’m sure we can all be a bit kinder to ourselves.

• Zen meditation

This is what people generally think of when thinking of meditation. It is an ancient Buddhist technique which is focused on concentration. these can be focusing on breathing, quiet awareness or traditional intensive meditation.

• Mantra Meditation

Is about reinforcing a word or phrase by repeatedly say or think it to reinforce. This can be a goal, a sacred word, or a calming phrase.  Can be done each day when you wake up to give confidence or drive, or when dealing with a fear to reassure yourself.

• Transcendental Meditation

This is a Mantra based meditation where you repeat a word or phrase for 20 minutes twice a day to create calm.  It can be started with a teacher or app and shown to benefit many mental health illnesses including PTSD and behavioural problems.

Many of these have guided meditation through apps such as headspace, YouTube, medical professionals, or different websites. Like many skills it becomes easier with time with benefits that can be life changing.

So, give these a go and see which one fits you!

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