Meditation is an exercise that involves different techniques such as mental focus and mindfulness to enhance awareness. You can also meditate to increase attention and thoughtfulness.
If you are new to meditation or have been doing it for a while, there’s a lot you can learn from it.
The practice also creates an emotionally stable and calm state in the meditator. While some people use it solely to improve their mental wellness, others meditate to keep fit.
For beginners, it may be challenging to remain immobile for hours on end, trying to maintain an “empty mind.” But, there are many techniques that you can adopt to help you through your earlier sessions until you get conversant with the routine. You must first learn about the different types of meditation and understand how to perform each of them to prevent a mix-up of activities.
Types of Meditation
There are different types of meditation, and they all use varying techniques. Once you’ve learned about several of them, you should try them out and decide which ones work best for you.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is the most common form of practice. It traces back to the ancient Buddhist teachings, placing it in the category of spiritual meditation. To perform this technique, you must remain keen on the thoughts inside your mind. It would help if you refrained from interacting with these thoughts or judging them. All that’s required of you is close observation and monitoring of the thought patterns.
The practice aims at merging awareness with concentration. While performing mindfulness meditation, it’s advisable to select an object to be your centre of attention. You can focus on feelings, bodily sensations, your breath, or random object in front of you.
Spiritual Meditation
Spiritual meditation is popular in Christian, Daoism, Hinduism, and other religious faiths. The meditators view it as a way of connecting with the dainty they believe in, mainly the Universe or God.
In most cases, it involves using essential oils such as cedar, sage, myrrh, frankincense, palo santo, and sandalwood. The meditation technique is observable in worship places or at home.
Movement meditation
Contrary to most people’s assumptions, movement meditation is not equivalent to yoga. It is part of improving your concentration while in motion.
Examples of this practice are gardening quietly, walking in vegetated areas, and other non-vigorous movements. It allows your mind to wander and draw inspiration from calm sceneries.
Focused Meditation
This meditation technique requires you to focus on any of your five senses. For instance, you may decide to remain attentive to internal activities like breathing.
You can also focus on external objects like scents, slow music, candle flame, fabric textures, or counting beads. Simple as it may sound, most beginners encounter challenges maintaining their attention on a single object for a long time.
If you lose your focus, you can start over and rebuild your concentration. With intense practice, you’ll master the art of focused meditation sooner than you can imagine.
Loving-Kindness Meditation
Loving-kindness meditation aims at nourishing the feelings of acceptance, kindness, and compassion towards other people and oneself.
Your mind prepares to send well wishes to acquaintances, friends, family members, and others through the practice. It also opens you up and helps your mind to receive the same series of wishes and love.
The meditation technique is ideal for individuals who are burdened with resentment or anger.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation is ideal for enhancing concentration, mindfulness, and relaxation. It calms down your nervous system, leading to other benefits such as:
- Reduced stress
- Mental wellness
- Lowering anxiety
- Decreasing the rate of respiration
- Enhancing blood circulation
- Lowering blood pressure
- Deeper relaxation
People who meditate for weight loss reap the benefits of elevated metabolism rates that help in burning more calories. A relaxed mind is less likely to induce stress eating, preventing you from weight gain.
For spiritualists, meditation strengthens their bond with the Universe or God, depending on their beliefs. The practice also helps people release negative energy that dwells in them as resentment or anger. It prepares them to be more kind and loving towards other people and themselves.
Meditation is a great practice that helps you live a less stressful or anxious life. Most things start in your mind, and meditating means getting more clarity on your other activities.
If you are a beginner, start with simple techniques and advance according to what you find more suitable.
