subject: Revealed: Meditation Techniques From Across The World [print this page] If you've spent any time looking into self development, you'll have noticed the array of different meditation techniques that are available today. Often they are talked about as if you already know what each one is, which can lead to confusion. Here's a little summary of a few of the most common types:
Walking meditation
This is pretty self explanatory, essentially use the process of walking to still the chatter in your mind. While you obviously need to be aware of your surroundings, its good to do this somewhere that you can use a well made path so you arent at risk of stumbling.
The idea isnt to focus on where youre walking, you want to lose yourself in the feelings of your body and your senses. What can you smell, see and how does your body feel? Often people think that this is a bit different to how we usually perceive meditation. But by being totally absorbed in the sensations of the body, the control of the mind becomes lessened. Just observe without judgment.
There is no need for thoughts of what youre going to have for dinner or work or anything like that. This is often easy for most people as we can all relate to losing ourselves in the feeling of walking. You can get so many benefits by developing this process consciously.
Breathing Meditation
This is another easy method to get started with. Breathing is something that obviously all do, but most of us dont stop to think about breathing or more specifically how were breathing. Do you breathe deep into your diaphragm? Or do you take shallow breaths that only expand the top part of your lungs, like most people?
Many people find that just breathing deeply in this manner will give them a sense of relaxation. Breathing like this opens your lungs and uses a different set of muscles, reducing stress and muscular tension. So to use this as a meditation technique, it really is very simple.
Take a few deep slow breaths, then close your eyes and keep taking steady, slow and deep breaths for 5 minutes or even up to 20 minutes (although its a good idea to build up to this long). Notice if there is a brief pause between your in breath and out breath. Simply observe your breath, let your awareness be your breath.
Binaural Audio Programs
Using research into meditative states and modern recording technology you can now experience deep meditation at the click of a button. Using specific tones at slightly different frequencies, these recordings alter your brainwaves, slowing the to a deep meditative state with very little effort on your part.
All you need is a CD or MP3 player and a set of headphones. Some people think that this is cheating, but its undeniable that this system gives you all the benefits of meditation, very quickly. You can use it in conjunction with an affirmation or a specific focus that you want. Its really like skipping the months or even years of practice that you usually need before you reach these states of lowered brain wave activity unaided.
Guided Meditation
Guided meditations can be done either in person or from a recording. Often there is some relaxation in preparation to the main part of the meditation. The focus could be self healing, relaxation or getting in touch with your inner guidance. Theres usually a different focus with each meditation.
If youve bought a package of guided meditations, therell usually be a variety of meditations with different purposes. Often youll find that if you listen to the same one a few times the effect will be stronger as you know whats coming so its easier to slip into the stream of whats being said.
This will give you an idea about some of the available meditation techniques and hopefully give you a bit of direction about which method might suit you the best. If you can, its really worthwhile trying all of them at some stage, since there is no really one size fits all, and its quite a personal thing to discover what form of meditation works the best for you.
