This ancient Buddhist tradition consists of sitting upright and following your breath, particularly the way it enters and exits the abdomen, and letting the mind “just be. Its purpose is to promote a sense of presence and alertness. This technique is similar to focused attention meditation, although instead of focusing on your breathing to calm your mind, you focus on a mantra (which could be a syllable, a word, or a phrase). The idea here is that the subtle vibrations associated with the repeated mantra can foster positive change, perhaps an increase in self-confidence or greater compassion for others, and help you enter an even deeper state of meditation.
This meditation technique aims to keep the energy centers of the body's central chakras open, aligned and fluid. Blocked or unbalanced chakras can cause uncomfortable physical and mental symptoms, but meditation on the chakras can help bring everyone back into balance. This is an ancient and powerful Chinese practice that involves harnessing the body's energy by allowing energy pathways called “meridians” to be open and fluid. Sending this energy inside during meditation is believed to help the body heal and function; sending the energy outside can help heal another person.
Guided meditation exercises that you can use anytime, anywhere. In guided meditation, a teacher will guide you through practice, either in person or through an application or course. This type of meditation is perfect for beginners, as expert guidance from the teacher can help you get the most out of a new experience. The main thing here is to find a teacher you like and connect with.
You can also customize your search based on the desired result and try guided meditations focused on sleep, stress relief or acceptance. Spiritual meditation is the conscious practice of believing in and connecting with something that is larger, more vast, and deeper than the individual self. In this meditation, you trust that there is something greater out there and that everything happens for a reason.
Mindfulness meditation
encompasses a set of techniques adapted from Buddhist traditions that date back more than 2500 years.Although practiced for centuries in South and East Asia, it wasn't until the 1970s that pioneers such as biologist John Kabat-Zinn and others introduced mindfulness to the West in spiritual, medical and mental health contexts. The practice of mindfulness begins at the most obvious levels of experience, often by noticing sounds in the room, breathing, or sensations in the body. After just a few weeks of practice, mindfulness can help you see people, including yourself, more clearly, without thick layers of judgment or prejudice. In mindfulness, your orientation or the way you view your experience matters.
Think of it as your attitude. In the practice of mindfulness, an attitude of curiosity, openness and acceptance is cultivated. Since the first period of Buddhism, more than 2500 years ago, vipassana was an element of a set of practices and mental qualities considered important for spiritual awakening. Although vipassana disappeared in the 10th century, it was revived in the 18th century in Burma and eventually became popular in the West in non-religious forms, most popularly S.
Vipassana is the form of meditation that many Western mindfulness teachers studied in places like Burma and Southeast Asia. Many of the principles and techniques of what we now know as mindfulness derive from traditional vipassana practices, specifically focusing on breathing. While the specific characteristics of the practice of vipassana may differ between communities and teachers, it generally begins with mindfulness of breathing as a way to stabilize the mind and strengthen the powers of concentration and awareness. Vipassana is another type of meditation that has been studied extensively.
Some of the most notable findings come from research conducted in prison settings. A 4-year trial on the practice of Vipassana in the King County Jail showed that participating inmates were 20% less likely to return to jail. Another study that analyzed numerous vipassana programs found that meditating inmates consumed less alcohol, marijuana and crack, while improving social and psychological functioning, showed greater optimism. Among mentally ill inmates, vipassana meditators showed less severe psychiatric symptoms.
Although technically not mindfulness, mettā is often used to support the practice of mindfulness. Zen meditation, also known as zazen, is a type of Japanese Buddhist meditation that aims to achieve a direct view of the nature of reality. The word Zen is Japanese, although it derives from the Chinese word Chan, which in turn is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyana, the ancient Indian word for meditation. Although Zen (like chan) was part of Chinese Buddhist practice for 2000 years, it did not enter Japan and became Zen until the 13th century.
After arriving in Japan, Zen was absorbed and mixed with pre-existing Japanese aesthetics and cultural norms. Although zen hasn't been as formally researched as mindfulness, it's a similar form of meditation and offers many similar benefits, such as stress reduction and emotional regulation. A mantra is a syllable or word that meditators repeat. Mantra meditation is similar to other forms of attention-focused meditation.
But instead of focusing on your breathing, you focus on a syllable, word, or phrase. In some types of mantra meditation, it is believed that the word has a specific meaning, or that the vibrations of certain mantras help specific types of people. In these schools, such as Transcendental Meditation, it's important that you receive your mantra from a certified teacher who is trained to relate to the correct mantra. Mantra meditation is generally practiced sitting with a straight spine and eyes closed.
You then repeat the mantra in your mind throughout the session. In other versions of mantra meditation, you whisper the mantra softly, as a way to help you focus. Mantra meditation can also take a more devotional form called japa, in which you lovingly repeat sacred sounds associated with the name of God or gods. Transcendental meditation is a specific form of mantra meditation.
It is taught individually by teachers who are trained and licensed by the Maharishi Foundation. To learn about the benefits, see the benefits of mantra meditation above. This meditation technique, which has become very popular in the West, is based on the teachings of the Buddha. Mindfulness meditation can be essential in helping us understand how our mind works.
This self-knowledge serves as a basis for overcoming dissatisfaction, impatience, intolerance and many other habits that prevent us from living a fuller and happier life. Ideally, to be a complete meditation technique, mindfulness combines concentration with awareness. All that is required is a disciplined meditation posture, a straight back, and a willingness to be honest with yourself. The most well-known approach to mindfulness meditation is breathing; impartial observation of physical sensations is another common technique.
Every time you find that your thoughts wander, simply notice them without judgment and return your attention to your breathing. Practicing mindfulness has been shown to reduce depression, stress, and anxiety. In addition, it promotes resilience, a timely quality that helps you face difficult situations without losing your peace of mind. A traditional type of focused meditation involves drinking a cup of tea.
Here, you train yourself to stop all other forms of activity (without checking your mobile phone, not jumping to let the cat out, without adding anything to the shopping list) and you focus your attention exclusively on drinking your cup of tea. You may notice the feeling of warmth, the scent and the weight of the mug in your hands. Every time the mind wanders, you drink tea again. You don't have to do it alone.
Apps, videos and instructional tracks can help guide you through guided meditations. They give you instructions on the meditation style you choose. Many websites have free educational programs to get you started. This type of popular meditation is based on Buddhist teachings.
Mindfulness meditation opens you up to experiencing your thoughts and emotions honestly, without judgment. This type of meditation improves your awareness of yourself and the world around you. This type of meditation helps you to see your emotions honestly. It helps you to control negative emotions and to pay more attention to positive emotions.
Mindfulness meditation is often recommended for symptoms of depression and anxiety. Movement meditation focuses on posture, body movement, body interaction with the ground, and breathing. This can be done through a formal practice, such as yoga, or through everyday activities such as working in the garden, cooking dinner, or folding clothes. Focused meditation (or concentration meditation) shares some practices with mindfulness meditation.
It often involves focusing on something external, such as a flame, running water, drinking tea, reciting a mantra, or humming an “om” syllable. Like mindfulness meditation, as your mind begins to wander, you can refocus your attention. Rather than opening yourself up to your thoughts and feelings, the goal of focused meditation is to strengthen your ability to concentrate. Another type of focused meditation is called reflective meditation.
Like a body scan, you enter meditation to develop discipline in your thinking. Choose a question or topic to focus your attention on and let your ideas explore that topic. When your mind wanders, return to your topic. Like the meditation of love and kindness, this practice focuses on emotions rather than on the mind.
You can take a few approaches when practicing heart-centered meditation. If you're looking for an introduction to the different types of meditation, check out the 10-day beginner course on the basics of meditation, available for free in the Headspace app. This type of meditation is particularly useful for beginners because the teacher is experienced and confident, and your guidance can be key to helping those who are new to the practice get the most out of the experience. The main characteristic of this type of meditation is the generation, transformation and circulation of inner energy.
From my point of view, this type of meditation always requires prior training to be effective, even if sometimes this is not stated expressly (only implicit). Mindfulness, Mantra Meditation, Trataka, TM, Vipassana, Loving Kindness, Chakra Meditation, Zazen, Kundalini Meditation, Self-Research, Taoist Meditation, and Nidra Yoga are some of the most popular types of meditation. This type of meditation gained popularity in the United States in the 1960s, when it was brought from India and secularized to Western audiences. Some types, such as Kundalini, focus on using meditation techniques to strengthen and relax the nervous system.
Trataka, or looking at candles, is a type of meditation in which you keep your eyes open and focused on a point or object, often the flame of a burning candle. Although these 9 types of meditation lead to positive psychological and physical results, meditation doesn't necessarily focus on results. There are hundreds of types of meditation that come from different spiritual traditions, religions and cultures. This ancient type of meditation aims to use focused awareness to intensively examine certain aspects of your existence.
This type of meditation may be preferred if you have difficulty focusing on your breathing alone; it may be easier to anchor your awareness in how your body feels. . .
