TYPES OF MEDITATION

 

types of meditation

When there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt. - St Francis de Sales

One of the main reasons we are doing meditation is to reduce the stress and anxiety which we are facing in our daily life. We become stressed in our working life and in personal life as well. It is unavoidable for all of us. One of the most powerful and effective ways to relieve stress and anxiety is to do a few minutes of meditation every day. Meditation reduces stress and anxiety, helps us to gain control over our anxiety, and ultimately living a more stress-free and happy life.

Experienced meditators agree that daily meditation practice gives benefit for both mental and physical both. Meditation is essential because it offers time for relaxation and self-awareness. Meditation is the practice of thinking deeply or focusing on one thought for a period of time. It is scientifically proved that meditation helps in fighting chronic anxiety, depression, and heart diseases.

There are many different styles of meditation. It is different for everyone. We practice meditation techniques from different cultures, traditions, and religions. There is not a perfect technique of meditation for all but we should find a technique that meets our needs. 

There are nine popular and best techniques for meditation:

1) Focused Meditation

2) Mindfulness Meditation

3) Visualization  Meditation

4) Movement Meditation

5) Mantra Meditation

6) Transcendental Meditation

7) Spiritual Meditation

8) Guided Meditation

9) Loving - Kindness Meditation


Here's a breakdown of popular 9 types of meditation to get you started: 

1) Focused Meditation:

focused meditation

Focused Meditation concentrates exactly what we are doing. It uses focusing the attention on a single object during the whole meditation session. It involves focuses on the internal object or external object to focus attention. Usually, this internal object can be your breath or visualization and an external object can be a sound or other object. Focused meditation requires focusing on something steadily by staying in the present moment. The main purpose of this meditation is to feel relaxed while using a particularly important point.

Focused meditation can be useful when you need quick stress relief. Focused meditation is a feasible and flexible meditation technique that can be practiced without an instructor or guide. Focused meditation can help you to improve your attention span and enhance self-awareness. It increases creativity and innovation. 

2) Mindfulness Meditation:

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation originates from Traditional Buddhist Meditation Practices and is the most popular meditation technique in the West. Mindfulness Meditation is the practice of intentionally focusing on the present moment and paying attention to your thoughts or emotions. Your mind will get distracted as you pay attention to your thoughts, don't judge them. Just simply bring the attention back to your breathing. Let each thought come and go, don't hang onto them.

The mindfulness meditation technique is a stress-relief technique. It is good for people who don't have a teacher to guide them, as it can be easily practiced alone and it can be done anywhere. It will encourage practitioners to be aware of their breathing by breath awareness and also brings attention to the areas of tension in the body with the help of progressive relaxation. It improves your focusing and memory power.

3) Visualization Meditation:

Visualization Meditation

Visualization Meditation welcomes you to picture something or someone in your mind. It can feel challenging but there is no difference really than focusing on the breath or body. In this technique, an image that can create a particular feeling is brought to your mind. Particularly this meditation technique mainly focused on improving feelings of relaxation, calmness, and peace by imagining scenes or pictures.

It is important to imagine the scene or picture clearly and use all five senses to add as much detail as possible. Regular visualization practice can help you manifest the things you want in your life by staying focused and pouring energy into them. Like you want to succeed or achieve specific goals in your life, imagining yourself succeeding at specific goals. It increases your motivation. 

4) Movement Meditation:

Movement Meditation

Movement meditation focuses on the body in motion. Many forms of meditation encourage you to remain in one position, but this form of meditation practice may include gentle forms of motion. Also, you can name this technique "yoga" because it is associated with physical movement. Another form of mindful movement is walking meditation. This practice may include anything like moving, gardening, playing, etc. 

This meditation enables us to develop a sense of mind-body awareness by concentrating on our body's physical sensations as it moves. This meditation technique can combine with mindful sitting meditation. It helps people who naturally find it easier to concentrate while they are moving.  

5) Mantra Meditation: 

Mantra Meditation

Every sound we make is a vibration. Mantra meditation is a repetition of powerful syllables that create positive energy when they are repeated at a certain frequency. Mantra Meditation is similar to Focused Meditation. A Mantra can be a syllable or word, and that is repeated for the purpose of concentrating our mind. Mantra Meditation is famous in many teachings including Hindu traditions and Buddhist traditions as well. 

It is totally up to you whether you have spoken the mantra loudly or quietly. This meditation empowers you to experience a profound level of awareness. Mantra meditation can improve concentration also. It helps you to stay focused and will give you a more positive outlook. It makes it easier to focus on a word than on our breath, so we can enjoy mantra meditation.  

6) Transcendental Meditation:

Transcendental Meditation is a specific form of mantra meditation introduced by Maharishi Mahesh yogi in 1995 in India and the West. It is a popular type of meditation. Transcendental meditation is also a simple technique and it is like mantra meditation in which a word or sound is repeated in a specific way which may personally be assigned mantra. Which involves focusing on a particular phrase or mantra by repeating it during meditation. 

This technique will give you an extreme state of relaxation and rest, intending to achieve inner peace without concentration but this practice has a high price tag. Accordingly, transcendental meditation may not be the original first choice for some practitioners. 

7) Spiritual Meditation:

Spiritual Meditation

Spiritual meditation is an essential part of Eastern religions, Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism, and other spiritual paths as well. Spiritual meditation may also include factors like a silent, spoken, or chanted prayer. Spiritual meditation supports deeper connections with the divine. Spiritual meditation is a mindful practice of connecting with powerful, wider, and greater than the individual self. 

Spiritual meditation can be practice at home, at your preferred place of worship, or in nature. This meditation is applicable for those individuals who are seeking spiritual growth and also for those who acknowledge setting time away for self-reflection. The elements of loving, kindness, and compassion always include in actual spiritual meditation. 

8) Guided Meditation:

Guided Meditation

In Guided Meditation a mentor leads you through the primary steps of the practice, which may be via meditation app or via the person. Particularly beginners have used this type of meditation. They are guided by an experienced teacher. It is the easiest way for beginners to meditate. The mentor guiding the meditation will guide us through the process and we have to follow their instructions.  

Guided Meditation helps you to develop better health and enhance your performance. It is very easy for beginners to start guided meditation because guided meditation usually comes in the form of audio and video both. It helps you to achieve deep relaxation in your whole day. It is normally conducted by soothing instrumental music. 

9) Loving-Kindness Meditation:  

Loving-Kindness Meditation

Loving-Kindness Meditation is also known as Metta Meditation. The meaning of the word "Metta" is kindness, love, and acceptance toward oneself and others. It is used to strengthen feelings of love, compassion, and kindness. While breathing deeply, practitioners open their minds to receive love and kindness from others and then send well wishes of loving-kindness to loved ones, specific people, and all living beings. 

In most of this meditation, we should repeat the message many times, until we will not get the particular feeling and attitude of loving-kindness and this is the key to do this meditation practice. This type of meditation is planned to develop compassion and kindness and so it may be perfect for those holding feelings of anger or resentment. This type of meditation may increase positive emotions and reduced depression and anxiety.


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