Types and Benefits of Meditation

Types and Benefits of Meditation

Meditation offers time for heightened awareness and restful relaxation in this stressful world that we live in where our senses are often jaded. Research suggests that meditation has the capacity to be more than just a temporary stress reliever.

Educators, mental health experts, and spiritual healers have developed many forms of mediation. There is a form that will suit most any person, regardless of a persons lifestyle or personality.

For someone who meditates, it offers a chance to improve physical and psychological well-being. However, there is no right way to meditate, meaning that people can explore all the different types of meditation until one that works for them is found.

Fast Facts on Types of meditation:

*Within each type of meditation, there are several subtypes to discover

*Meditation offers times of relaxation and heightened awareness

*Meditation helps in times of stress when senses are jaded

*It can be used for more than a temporary solution

*There are dozens of forms of meditation developed by spiritual gurus, experts and educators

*Regardless of a persons lifestyle, there is a form for everyone

*Has been practiced in cultures all over the world for thousands of years

*Nearly every religion has a tradition using meditation

*It can be used as a psychotherapeutic technique

*Inside each type of meditation there can be several subtypes to discover and practice.

*It teachers have different ideas on how frequently a person should meditate

*It is okay to blend types and test different approaches until the right one for you can be found

Two Forms of Meditation

Meditation may take on many forms, but there are two main forms: centrative meditation and mindful meditation. They are very similar but the main differences are:

Concentrative meditation focuses all attention on specific objects while tuning out everything else around them. The main goal is to experience whatever it is you are truly focusing on, no matter if it is your breath, a specific word or mantra, in order to be able to reach a heightened state of being.

Mindfulness meditation includes both mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Mindfulness targets different types of issues, such as depression, anxiety, and even bipolar disorder. Its focus may be different from one practice to another. Overall, it involves the state of being aware of and involved in the present moment and making yourself open, aware, and accepting.

Seven Types of Meditation

Loving-Kindness Meditation

This type is known as Metta meditation. The goal is to cultivate love and kindness toward everything, including a persons stressors and enemies. When you breath deeply a practitioner opens their mind to receiving loving kindness. They send messages of loving kindness to the world. In most forms, the key is to repeat the message many times until the person feels the attitude that loving kindness puts out. It is designed to promote feelings of compassion and love, both for others and for self. It can help those affected by: anger, resentment, frustration, and interpersonal conflicts. This kind of meditation may increase positive emotions linked to less depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

2) Progressive Relaxation

Meditation that encourages people to scan their bodies for areas of tension. The main goal is to recognize tension and to allow it to be released. During these sessions, practitioners start at one end of their body and work their way through the entire body. In some forms of progressive relaxation, people are required to tense up and then relax the muscles. Other forms encourage people to visualize a wave, drifting over their body to release tension. It can help promote general feelings of calm and relaxation. It is also known to help with the relief of chronic pain. Some people even use it to help them relax and fall asleep.

3) Mindfulness Meditation

This is a form of meditation that requires practitioners to remain aware and present in the moment. Mindfulness encourages the awareness of a persons existing surroundings rather than dwelling on the past or dreading the future. This is something that can be done almost anywhere. For example, while waiting at a doctors office, a person may get frustrated so they might calmly notice their surroundings, including sight, sound and even smell. Breath awareness encourages practitioners to be aware of their breathing, while progressive relaxation draws attention to the areas that are tense. Mindfulness can:

*reduce the need to fixate on negative things

*improve focus

*improve memory

*lessen impulsive, emotional reactions

*improve relationship satisfaction

Some evidence suggests that mindfulness may improve a persons physiological health.

4) Breath Awareness Meditation

Breath awareness is a type of mindful meditation that encourages mindful breathing. The person breathes slowly and deeply, counting each breath and focusing on each breath. The only goal here is to focus ONLY on breathing and ignore any thoughts that are in or try to enter the mind. Breath awareness offers many of the same benefits as mindfulness. Those include:

*improved concentration

*reduced anxiety

*greater emotional flexibility

5) Kundalini Yoga

This is a very physical form of meditation that mixes movements with deep breathing and mantras. This is done by learning from a teacher or in a class setting. However, it can be learned at home. Like other forms of yoga, this can improve ones physical strength and reduce pain. It can also improve mental health by reducing ones anxiety and helps with depression.

6) Zen Meditation

Sometimes called Zazen, zen meditation can be part of the Buddhist practice. Many practitioners study under a teacher because this form of meditation requires specific steps and stances. The goal is to focus on breathing, getting comfortable, and observing ones thoughts without any judgement. This is similar to mindfulness but it requires more discipline. This may be preferred if one is seeking both a new spiritual path and relaxation.

7) Transcendental Meditation

This is a spiriting form of meditation where a person remains seated and breathes slowly. The goal is to transcend or rise above the persons current state. During a session , the person focuses on a mantra ( a repeated word or series of words). The teacher, if used, determines what the mantra will be based on several distinct factors. Sometimes it may include the year the person is born and the year that the teacher was trained. An alternative allows the person to choose their own mantra. This form, however, is not technically transcendental meditation but it looks substantially similar. People who practice transcendental meditation report both heightened mindfulness and spiritual experiences.

The Effects and Benefits of Meditation

Meditation can have both physiological and psychological effects on someone. Some of the beneficial physiological effects include:

*a lowered state of physical arousal

*reduced respiration rate

*decreased heart rate

*change in the brain wave patterns

*less stress levels

Some of the other psychological, emotional, and health-related benefits include:

*Increased self-awareness

*Better stress management skills

*Improved emotional well-being

*Better management of symptoms of conditions including anxiety diorders, depression, sleep disorders, pain issues, and high blood pressure

*Improvement in working memory intelligence

*changes in different aspects of attention

Consciousness is often compared to a strea, shifting and changing smoothly as it passes over the terrain. Meditation is one way for changing the course of the stream and in turn, altering how the person perceives and responds to the world around them. Even though experts do not fully understand exactly how meditation works, research has demonstrated that meditative techniques may have a range of beneficial effects on the persons overall health and well-being.