Meditation is a practise that involves employing a combination of mental and physical approaches to focus or clear your thoughts.
You can meditate to unwind, lower anxiety and stress, and more, depending on the type you select. Some people even utilise meditation as a means of enhancing their health, such as by adopting it to help them cope with the difficulties of quitting smoking.
There are many various types of meditation, which have been practised for thousands of years. However, it has only been in the last several decades that contemporary science has begun to thoroughly examine this practise. Technology has enabled some of the major advancements in science’s understanding of meditation.
How do you meditate?
There’s no one correct way to meditate. That’s because meditation can take many different forms. Experts have analyzed meditation practices and found that some common processes happen across different meditation forms. These are:
- Body-centered meditation. This is sometimes called self-scanning. Doing this involves focusing on the physical sensations you can feel throughout your body.
- Contemplation. This usually involves concentrating on a question or some kind of contradiction without letting your mind wander.
- Emotion-centered meditation. This kind of meditation has you focus on a specific emotion. For example, focusing on how to be kind to others or on what makes you happy in your life.
- Mantra meditation. This kind of meditation involves repeating (either aloud or in your head) and focusing on a specific phrase or sound.
- Meditation with movement. This type of meditation can involve focusing on breathing, holding your breath or performing specific body movements. It can also involve walking while focusing on what you observe around you.
- Mindfulness meditation. This form of meditation is about staying aware of what’s happening at the moment rather than letting your mind wander and worrying about the past or future. It can also involve a similar approach as body-centered meditation, using what you feel throughout your body as a foundation for your awareness of the world around you.
- Visual-based meditation. This kind of meditation involves focusing on something you can see (either with your eyes or by concentrating on a mental image).