Meditation is a technique to develop an awareness of the present moment. It helps to connect your body and breath, bringing you the feeling of acceptance of all the emotions you are feeling at the moment.
Amid busy schedules and demanding lives, we all look for the moment of inner peace and trust me, meditation can bring you that. It will help to reduce stress and lead a wonderful life.
Here is a blog describing the best types of meditation you can choose from for reducing your stress levels. Choose the best fit for you.
Types of Meditation
1. Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation originates from Buddhist teachings. It simply involves concentrating on any object or your breathing. The idea here is not to judge anything but simply observe what thoughts are coming into your mind and take notes of that patterns.
For practicing mindful meditation, you need to sit in a comfortable position at a suitable place where there is no clutter. Leave lights on or sit in natural light. Choose a place with less distraction. Initially, you will take time to stabilize, but soon you will find a moment of relaxation. Just keep practicing the same, and you will encounter the benefits soon.
2. Spiritual Meditation
Spiritual Meditation is all about releasing who you are and what your purpose is. It is a process where you will feel joy and peace by encountering the eternal truth of life. Spiritual meditation leads you to think beyond the chaotic world that surrounds you.
The major advantage of practicing Spiritual Meditation is that it empowers you and helps you to reach your higher consciousness. It helps you to maintain peace with the past and let it go. Practicing spiritual meditation relaxes your nervous system and relieves your body from stress.
3. Focussed Meditation
Focussed meditation is also known as Focus Attention Meditation(FAM). It is the art of increasing your awareness of the present moment. The focused meditation technique involves focusing on any physical object or breathing rather than working on an empty mind.
One benefit of Focussed Meditation is that it helps in emotional regulation. Our daily lives are full of hassle, but practicing focused meditation will improve your sustained attention. Also, it reduces the stress hormone and boosts your immune system and mood. And if you are in consistent meditation practice, you can recall new information and cognitive tasks.
4. Movement Meditation
It is unlike the usual meditation of sitting ideal and focusing on breathing. Instead, you move through different positions with a mindful and slow pace. Movement meditation aims to pay attention to each part of your body that usually gets ignored in normal meditation.
Once you start paying attention to your body, you will feel how it moves and bends and twists. Your heartbeat, breathing, and inner sensations will be better noticed when you are mindful of the body. As you start with movement meditation, you will feel that your body wants to dance slowly and rhythmically. You will notice the feelings in your body that you usually ignore. You can practice movement meditation while dancing, cooking, walking, and even going to bed.
5. Mantra Meditation
Mantra is a Sanskrit term, where ‘man’ means mind and ‘tra’ means release. A mantra is a word or phrase that you use during meditation. It helps you to release your mind, it will make a lot of difference especially if you have trouble concentrating or getting in the right frame of mind.
What you need to do is, sit in a comfortable position. Decide a time for how long you would love to do meditation, now start with a few deep breaths and then start to chant the mantra. Remember to redirect your wandering thoughts and bring back your focus on a mantra. It will help you to make you calm and increase self-awareness.
6. Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation is the silent version of Mantra Meditation. This technique was created in India by Mahesh Yogi. It involves the silent chanting of a Mantra, which lasts for 20-25 minutes twice a day. The transcendental meditation technique is learned through certified teachers through a standard course of instruction.
It is a non-religious process of meditation that brings relaxation, stress reduction, and self-development. A research study says that practicing Transcendental meditation helps control blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease.
7. Loving-Kindness Meditation
Loving-Kindness Meditation is a self-care technique that enhances the feeling of love, care, forgiveness, kindness, self-acceptance, and more. The technique is helpful in the management of social anxiety, marital conflict, anger, and coping with the strains of long-term caregiving.
Practicing Loving-Kindness Meditation enhances the activation of the brain and boosts the feeling of positivity, and reduces negativity. The process of Loving-Kindness Meditation involves imagining complete wellness and inner peace. Thinking that you are experiencing breathing out tension and breathing in feelings of love. Next, you need to say reassuring phrases to yourself. These thoughts will bring you a feeling of warmth and self-compassion.
8. Visualization Meditation
Visualization Meditation is imagining a person or an image that becomes your point of focus. There are enormous benefits to trying visualization meditation, firstly, it enhances your performance. You tend to get focussed more and decrease in stress and anxiety associated with it.
If you have the problem of sleeplessness, then practicing visualization meditation will take you to a deep state of relaxation. It heals you from within and boosts your confidence to achieve more.
9. Progressive Relaxation
Progressive Relaxation is a technique that helps you to release the tension that your body is holding and causing you stress, worry, and anxiety. All you need to do is work through your body, tense the muscle group at a time, and release the tension. You will feel the contrasting feeling of relaxation.
It releases anxiety and reduces your body’s overall tension and stress levels. One must be consistent in progressive relaxation meditation to benefit from it most.
How To Get Started
Get started with meditation and bring peace to yourself. The easiest way to begin is sitting quietly and focusing on your breath. Initially, you should sit in meditation for twenty straight minutes. Then increase the time to one hour. You can gradually increase the time to five minutes.
Firstly, sit for 20 minutes and do this for 100 straight days. In this way, you will soon see the benefits of meditation and will develop an interest in it. Doing meditation the right way will contribute to healthy aging. Doing mediation brings you the following benefits:
- Reducing depression and anxiety symptoms
- Treating cardiovascular diseases
- Aiding with Alzheimer’s disease
- Curing insomnia
- Healing chronic pain and much more.
Wrapping Up
If you are looking for something to deal with your stress or looking for spiritual advancement, then meditation is a must-try. Do not be afraid to try various types of meditation techniques. Unless you try them, you won’t know what will suit you the best. Finding the perfect meditation for you will take a little effort of trial and error.
The start will be a small, regular practice, but soon you will enjoy the whole process of meditation. Meditation is like a fire you just need to ignite, and it will go on.