Meditation

When we say meditation what comes up for you? Do you recall calm memories from your own practice? Or do you slightly cringe and think of someone sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop chanting? Maybe you’re somewhere in-between.

Meditation is a little bit like exercise – just as there are countless ways to exercise, there are many ways to meditate. For example, running, body building, or CrossFit all fall under the umbrella of exercise but couldn’t be more different. The same can be said for meditation. To help you sort out the sea of meditation options, we will describe a few general areas of meditation along with a few examples to help you determine what might be a good fit for you.

Focused Meditation

This type of meditation is based around your body or encourages you to go inward and focus on your senses.  Types of focused meditation include body scan, breath focused, or guided meditation to name a few.  This can be a great place to start as generally these types of meditation can be led by a teacher or a meditation app and can help bring your attention back to your body when your mind wanders.  However, focused meditation can also be more challenging as it may be difficult to keep your focus for even short periods of time if you are new to meditation.  As with anything, the more you practice, the easier this becomes.

Spiritual Meditation

If you are looking to enhance your spiritual life, incorporating a spiritual meditation may be the direction for you.  While focused meditation encourages you to go inward, spiritual meditation encourages you to go out.  The focus or goal of spiritual meditation could be to rise above your experience and see your life in a spiritual context.  You may practice this at home or in a place of worship.    

One type of spiritual meditation is Metta or Love and Kindness meditation.  This type of meditation is focused around love and appreciation to yourself and then extending that out to others.  Generally, you are encouraged to repeat phrases starting with yourself, then loved ones and even reaching out towards those you may be in conflict with.  The goal is to see that my interests are no different than others or seeing a oneness or connection to everyone around you. 

Transcendental Meditation

Similar to metta meditation, individuals are encouraged to choose a phrase or mantra to repeat.  Sometimes a teacher will choose the phrase for you.  Regardless of your mantra, the goal is to rise above your current state of being.  Transcendental meditation can also fall under the spirituality umbrella.

Movement Meditation

There are many ways to incorporate meditation in your life while physically moving your body including walking meditation, tai chi, martial arts, or yoga such as Kundalini yoga.  Kundalini yoga not only incorporates moving your body, but also chanting with a group as well.  Movement meditation is generally guided by an instructor.

Mindful Meditation

Mindful meditation is another great place to start if you are new to meditation.  It is simply becoming aware or observing your thoughts without judgement and then gently bringing your attention or focus back to your breath.  This has a wonderful carry over into your life where you will become more and more aware of your experience, emotions and thoughts, observing them, letting them go, and going back to your breath. 

This is barely scratching the surface of meditation, but it’s worth noting there are many ways to bring gentleness and focus to your mind.  You can choose if you want to move your body or not, want to bring a spiritual element or not, or want to include people or not. 

It’s also worth pointing out that many forms of meditation fall under many categories.  Transcendental meditation can be categorized both as a mantra meditation or spiritual meditation.  Kundalini yoga is a physical, spiritual and mantra meditation.  Focused and mindful meditation have a lot of cross-over as well.  If you are doing a body scan, not only are you focused on your physical experience but also being mindful of the thoughts and feelings that come up while doing so.

While it’s important to understand the different types of meditation, it’s also just as important not to get caught up in the categories.  The overall focus is bringing awareness and gentle attention to your mind and/or body.  While reading these, some may have resonated with you and that’s a great place to start.  If you aren’t sure where to start, let us help!