Meditation is one of those things that even if you do it a little bit it will improve your life. It’s also all the rage now days with mediation apps, celebrities promoting it, and research hitting the news about it’s vast benefits. So what is meditation and what are the benefits of a practice?
What Is Meditation?
Meditation is a practice that involves focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to train attention and awareness. It helps achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in various spiritual traditions. It is also used as a secular technique for stress reduction, relaxation, and promoting overall well-being.
Some Popular Types of Meditation
There are many different types of meditation practices. The specific techniques can vary widely depending on the tradition or approach. Here are three common types of meditation:
- Mindfulness meditation: Focuses the mind on the present moment, without judgment. It often involves paying attention to the breath, or to physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they arise. The goal is to cultivate a non-judgmental, accepting awareness of the present moment.
- Transcendental meditation: Involves the use of a mantra, which is a word or phrase that is repeated to help focus the mind. The goal is to achieve a state of deep relaxation and inner calm.
- Loving-kindness meditation: Loving-Kindness practice means cultivating feelings of love and compassion towards oneself and others. It often involves silently repeating phrases that express loving-kindness and compassion, such as “may all beings be happy and free from suffering.” The goal is to cultivate a sense of interconnectedness and unconditional positive regard towards oneself and others.
These are just a few examples of the many types of meditation practices that are available. Some other common types include concentrative meditation, where the focus is on a single object or mantra; open monitoring meditation, where the focus is on the present moment without attachment; and visualization meditation, where the focus is on creating and maintaining a specific mental image.
Starting a Practice
The best way to start a meditation practice is to find a method that works for you. Make it a regular part of your daily routine. Start by following these steps:
- Choose a quiet, comfortable space where you can sit or lie down comfortably. You may want to use a cushion or blanket to make yourself more comfortable.
- Find a comfortable position. You can sit on a cushion or chair, or lie down on a mat or blanket. It’s important to find a position that allows you to relax and feel comfortable.
- Set aside a regular time. Choose a time that works best for you, such as first thing in the morning.
- Start with a short session. Begin by meditating for just a few minutes at a time. Gradually increase the length of your sessions as you become more comfortable with the practice.
- Focus on your breath. One common way to meditate is to focus on your breath as it moves in and out of your body. Alternatively, you can focus on a mantra, or a physical sensation, such as the feeling of your feet on the ground.
- Notice when your mind wanders. It’s natural for your mind to wander during practice. When you notice that your mind has wandered, gently redirect your attention back to your breath or your chosen focus.
Remember, the goal is not to clear your mind completely. Rather, it is to develop the ability to focus and pay attention. With regular practice, you’ll be able to stay more present and focused, even in the midst of daily distractions.
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Key Benefits
Meditation has been shown to have a number of potential benefits for both physical and mental health. Some of the key benefits of meditation include:
- Reducing stress and anxiety: It calms the mind and reduce stress and anxiety by promoting relaxation and a sense of calm.
- Improving focus and attention: Improves focus and attention by training the mind to be more present and aware.
- Promoting emotional well-being: Meditation can help to improve emotional well-being by increasing feelings of happiness, compassion, and self-acceptance.
- Improving sleep: Improves sleep by promoting relaxation and reducing stress and anxiety.
- Reducing pain: Meditation has been shown to help reduce chronic pain by altering the brain’s perception of pain.
- Improving cardiovascular health: Meditation has been shown to have a number of beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, including lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of heart disease.
It’s important to note that the benefits can vary from person to person, and it’s possible that not everyone will experience all of these benefits. However, it is generally considered to be a safe and effective way to improve overall well-being.
Popular Meditation Apps
Thank goodness for apps! There are so many helpful ones that can make a difference in our daily habits and well-being. Here are a few mindfulness apps I’ve used and that are popular. Investing in one of them is a great way to start a mindfulness practices. For me, I don’t feel so alone when meditating and I like being guided when starting out.
The Waking Up App
This is my all-time favorite meditation app. Created by neurologist, philosopher, and mindfulness advocate, Sam Harris, this app includes so much more than guided mediation. With a yearly or monthly subscription, around $100/yr or $14/mo, Waking Up gives you short daily meditations, long-form guided meditations, wisdom lectures, interviews with trending mindfulness teachers and practitioners, and full access to Sam’s Making Sense podcast, which covers topics ranging from spirituality to social issues. It’s a gem, trust me.
Calm App
The Calm app is one of the most popular apps around. It’s won many awards, including App of the Year and Editor’s Choice. With over 1.5 million downloads, Calm provides people with guided meditation, sleep training, relaxing music to promote inner peace, videos on stretching the body, and audio programs aimed to enrich your understanding of mindfulness and well-being. It’ll cost you about $70/year or $14/month.
The Headspace App
Headspace’s mission is “to improve the health and happiness of the world.” As part of a larger organization called Headspace Health, they aim to ‘democratize mental healthcare.’ Providing meditation courses and sessions, Headspace also promotes good sleep and healthy relationships. They have tiered subscriber plans: a monthly, an annual, and a family plan ranging from $99/year to $150/year (if on the $13/month plan). They also have free plans for teens (amazing!) and special plans for educators and students. Check them out!
Changing Your Life
Being able to witness our thoughts and feelings as though they are arising like balloons in front of us gives us power and choice. It helps us to not be reactive to situations and emotions in life but to observe them, think about them, and decide who we want to be, how we want to respond, to them. This can utterly change your life.
I personally struggle with anger issues. I can easily be set off, feeling overwhelmed with a sense of anger when I’m stressed out. But meditation has truly helped me see that emotion arise and sort of distance myself from it. It has given me a choice to act it out (and potentially verbally hurt those around me) or breathe through it and utilize the energy of anger in a more productive way, such as exercising or writing down my feelings before I express them to another person. I hope you give meditation a try. Comment below to share your experience with it and how it has helped you!