Meditation has been around for thousands of years and is a beautiful tool for relieving stress and anxiety. It also helps you reach a state of serenity, focus more, and even process emotions or events from your past. In this article, I am going to go over 11 types of meditation to explore during your journey!
If you are ready to add meditation to your daily routine but unsure where to start, then you’re in the perfect place! Let’s dive in!
Body Scan Meditation
Body scan meditations are great for enhancing your awareness of feelings in your body. It also assists with being able to focus on specific body parts. Doing this can come in handy during other meditative practices that need you to hone in on one area of the body.
During this meditation, you start by focusing on your toes. Take in the feeling of your toes if they are comfortable, tingly, warm, cold, etc. Take in these feelings without trying to alter them, and then slowly move up your body. After the toes, you can scan the feet, the ankles, etc. You will gradually move up your body, changing your focus until you reach the top of your head and have scanned your entire body.
This meditation can relieve tension as you become aware of any tension you are holding on to. However, when you start doing this, don’t try to change any tension or feelings you come across. You can practice doing that later when you become more comfortable doing the scan.
Chakra Meditation
Chakra meditation is a potent tool for opening and cleansing Chakras. It is important to note that when doing any form of Chakra work, you can experience intense emotions. These are emotional blocks that need to be released so you can move forward.
It would be best if you started by making sure you are in a calm and safe space in which you won’t be disturbed. I also recommend doing a more calming meditation first, even if it’s only 5 minutes, to prepare you for any information or emotions you might receive.
Remember that Chakras are very potent energy centers and don’t need your guidance to fix themselves. They only require your energy to be focused on them so they can heal and release blocks. Unless you are a professional, let your Chakras lead the way instead of forcing and specific outcome or movement onto them.
You want to start with the Root Chakra and focus on that area. Allow yourself to feel the energy of the Chakra and any emotions that come up. When you feel ready to move on, go ahead and continue to the next one.
*Pro Tip – Get a journal and write down any emotions you feel during meditating. You can then dive into what is causing those emotions and resolve them faster.
Flow Writing
Flow writing is an excellent meditation tool that strengthens your intuition and releases negative thoughts and emotions. It can help you better know yourself or heal any past wounds you may be holding on to.
With this meditation, you start by writing your thoughts out as they come. When you first start doing this, you might experience some blank spots. Don’t force yourself to think or write anything. This is just your body and mind getting used to this practice.
As you continue this meditation, you will start sitting down to flow write and find yourself barely able to keep up with writing down all of the things your mind needs to process. This practice opens up a way for your mind and subconscious to communicate with you and tell you precisely what needs to be processed or let you know if there are any feelings or signs in your life that you might have missed.
Guided Meditation
Guided meditations are great for people new to meditation or who want to explore a new type of meditation. They are led by a narrator or meditation teacher who guides you through several steps during the meditation to help you achieve a final goal.
Guided meditation can be a powerful tool to help you get started or explore a new side of meditation. An important thing to do before practicing a guided meditation is to listen to it entirely so that you know what the meditation is and what it will lead you to.
So many unique guided meditations can help you achieve many different things. While following a guided meditation, ensure you do not force anything that feels uncomfortable. If your teacher or narrator asks you to do something and it doesn’t feel comfortable, don’t push forward with that specific thing. You can continue the meditation and try that thing again later, but you never want to force anything.
Focused Attention Meditation
Focused Attention Meditation is an excellent practice for anyone who finds it hard to stay relaxed or to focus in daily life or during other meditative practices. With this meditation, you will practice focusing your attention on one thing.
For the best results with this meditation, I recommend trying multiple types of things to focus on. Some examples are sight(physical objects), sound(music), taste(chocolate or mints), touch(objects with specific textures), and smell(use your favorite incense). Most of us find one type easier than the others.
Once you find the easiest thing to focus on, use that to practice. You can slowly start branching out to include your other senses, but starting with one at a time is better.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is much like focused attention meditation and can be done in sessions though mindfulness should also be done throughout the day. Mindfulness meditation aims to be mindful of your life or to live in and enjoy the present moments and sensations.
You can practice mindfulness meditation by sitting down in lotus pose and experiencing the different sensations that come to you through touch(grass brushing your thighs), sound(birds chirping), smell(wildflowers), etc.
You can also practice mindfulness throughout the day by simply experiencing every moment. An example is experiencing the sensation of brushing your teeth. Next time you brush your teeth, truly experience it and don’t focus on anything else. To be mindful is to be fully present in what you’re doing.
Mantra Meditation
Manta meditation is one of the oldest types of meditation. There are two different ways to practice Mantra meditation. You can use traditional mantras or newer ones. I’m going to start with traditional mantras.
Traditional Mantras
During Mantra meditations, with traditional mantras, you will practice chanting sacred meditative Mantras. You will be using these Mantras to make sacred sounds and vibrations.
These sounds are known for helping you unblock your chakras, heighten your energetic vibrations, mentally reset yourself, and align yourself with a new state of being.
Difference Mantras, or scared sounds, have different effects on you and will help you achieve different things, whether it’s gratitude, clarity, or releasing tension.
To do Mantra meditation, you will sit down in lotus pose, cross-legged, and chant the Mantra. If you are chanting the Mantra correctly, you will notice it sounds like a repetitive song. Keep going, even if it doesn’t sound like a song at first. It is part of the journey to get to know the Mantra, learn it, and chant it in a personalized way.
Though there are longer Mantras, it is best to start with some basics. Here are a few bija(seed) mantras to get you started.
- OM – Om is pronounced ohm and is the sacred sound of the universe.
- AIM – AIM is pronounced ieem and is considered the divine feminine counterpart to OM.
- HRIM – HRIM is pronounced hreem and represents the spiritual, emotional, and physical heart.
New Age Mantras
New age Mantras are currently known as words of affirmation. You can use existing words of affirmations or create your own. When you repeat them, you can say them or chant them. Either way, you are bringing that intention into your life and reprogramming your mind.
Some examples of Modern Mantras include:
- I am bliss.
- My true happiness is sourced from within.
- I am full of creative energy.
- I am successful.
- Etc.
Movement Meditation
Movement meditation is much like focused attention and mindfulness. Movement meditation is taking advantage of your movement and using it to practice meditation. If you are walking, you focus on the steps; perhaps you are focusing on gardening, etc.
Movement meditation is taking advantage of any form of movement and turning it into an opportunity to meditate. This action brings you into the atmosphere of experiencing the present moment, which is why it is considered mindfulness. Since you are also focusing on one specific thing, it is a focused attention meditation.
The point of movement meditations is to take your meditative practices to the next level. Instead of only meditating while you are sitting down, movement meditation opens the door to meditating throughout your life. Practicing meditation in this way turns meditation into a lifestyle instead of a spiritual practice.
Reflection
Reflection is a beautiful time to take out your journal with your emotions, feelings, or past events and pick one to work on. These can be things that come up during meditation or throughout the day. The goal of a reflection is to take a step back and give in to contemplation.
Find a safe place where you won’t be disturbed and set the intention to answer one of your questions or process an emotion or event. Once you do this, allow yourself to get lost in thought. Let your thoughts run wild and use this moment to get needed insight or healing you may need.
Silent Meditation
Silent meditation calms the mind and increases mindfulness. Silent meditation is a category of meditation under which many meditations fall. It is a meditation with as few sensory disturbances as possible. The goal of silent meditation is to silence the mind and bring tranquility.
Silent meditation allows you to explore the power of silence, connect with the inner self, and grow spiritually. It strengthens you as a spiritual being as well as your intuition. During silent meditation, you calm the ego mind to communicate with the spiritual self.
Visualization
Visualization is a tool used throughout many meditative practices. Most people think of manifestation when they hear the term visualization. That’s just one of many times it is used. If you think of any meditation in which you have to create an image or remember a memory or place, then you are using visualization.
Since visualization is a commonly used tool in meditative practices, I recommend practicing it as often as possible. You can do exercises to perfect your ability to visualize accurately.
Take a pencil, pen, or stylus out and look at it for a moment. Focus on memorizing every detail of it. Now set it down and close your eyes. I want to recreate that object in your mind with as much detail as possible.
Practicing this will strengthen your ability to visualize more effectively. Before you know it, you will create entire rooms, buildings, etc., in your mind. This is a potent tool for meditation.
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11 Types Of Meditation To Explore
Meditation has been around for thousands of years and is a beautiful tool for relieving stress and anxiety. It also helps you reach a state of serenity, focus more, and even process emotions or events from your past. In this article, I am going to go over 11 types of meditation to explore during your …