Types of Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is a type of meditation that is based on training the meditator to become more mindful. By observing your breathing, thoughts, feelings and sensations without forming any judgments or opinions, you are able to increase in awareness which helps you in many areas of your life. Among the many benefits associated with mindfulness meditation are mastery of emotions and being able to respond better even to trying situations, reduction of stress, anxiety and depression. It also improves your overall brain performance and gives you the ability to make better decisions and follow through with them. Being mindful is among the best experiences of life and if you can be mindful throughout the day, that is when you wake up to when you go to sleep, you would notice an improvement in the quality of your life and how you handle things generally.

Vipassana meditation is a type of meditation that focuses on self transformation through self observation and personal experiences. It helps the meditator understand how the body influences the mind and vice versa. Vipassana meditation gets the practitioner into the root level of the mind where there is a connection between the mind and the body and help them purify themselves of all impurities. This way, peace and happiness is achieved. It also goes a long way in helping the meditator understand the reality of things and their true nature. That is why it is also known as insight meditation.

Compassion meditation is a type of meditation that is based on training the meditator to become more compassionate and caring towards other as they are towards themselves. We have all gone through sufferings in life although in varying degrees. Some have suffered too much and some too little. Some people have suffered because of natural causes but others have been made to suffer by other people. People based sufferings tend to make the ones who have suffered become more selfish and self centered, which is very understandable. But compassion meditation gives the meditator the chance to discover and understand that they are not the only people who have undergone suffering.

By understanding this at a deeper level, they are able to let go of the grudges, anger and selfishness and become open and more compassionate to other people. This meditation seeks to help people have genuine care and love for others amidst their suffering and it also helps to alleviate the suffering with kindness, love and genuine concern for everyone.

Bodhi meditation is a form of meditation that was developed by Master JinBodhi with the goal of improving health and happiness. This meditation, when done on the long term, allows the mind and body to come to balance, which makes for a healthy and happy person. As the developer of this meditation says, it is based on compassion and the desire to reduce the suffering and pain in our lives. When we let ourselves live with pain, we tend to increase our own sufferings. But bodhi meditation helps to reduce these sufferings and give us the opportunity to live healthier and happier lives.

Bodhi meditation stems from Buddhist traditions and it works with a lot of its traditions although it is not designed to be done by only Buddhists. The Master describes it as a self development tool to help us minimize the pain in our lives and increase peace and happiness. This means anyone from anywhere in the world and regardless of their religious or spiritual background can work with this meditation and benefit from it.

Binaural beats meditation is a form of meditation that is done with the help of sound technology. Ideally, binaural beats meditation is doing any type of meditation you desire but working with binaural beats to help make your meditation session deeper and more beneficial.

Binaural beats are new tones that the brain detects when two tones are played in both ears at different frequencies. Binaural beats are popular for helping with inducing mental states such as the meditative state, relaxation and sleep. They are used in meditation to deepen the meditative state of the meditator so that they can focus on their sessions and gain more value of them. An example of binaural beats for meditation is Zen 12. Binaural beats are under a form of technology known as brainwave entrainment which is based on working with the waves in the brain to bring about better and more positive states of the mind that favor the one using them.

Binaural beats are normally made by playing a tone in one ear that has a different frequency with the tone playing with the other ear. When you play the two tones, there is a new tone that is sort of created by the difference of the frequencies of the tones. There are also set conditions that make this successful. First, there have to be different frequencies. Second, the frequencies have to be more than 100Hertz in each ear and the difference of the two frequencies should not go beyond 30Hertz.

Dynamic meditation which is also called Osho dynamic meditation is a unique type of meditation that was created by Osho to help people who had troubles getting to a focused state when they started meditating.

This meditation is based on a number of activities that include dancing, jumping, making noises, shouting, screaming as well as silence and calmness. They are arranged in stages so as to help the meditator have proper emotional release and relaxation that allows them to quiet down in silence and have an easy time entering and remaining in the meditative state.

Dynamic meditation starts with moments of hyper activities. You, as the meditator, get involved in fast breathing, building up tension within yourself and then letting it go with screams, jumps and shouts and then stopping suddenly without any specific posture and remaining in that position for a couple of minutes. Afterwards, you are then directed to a period of dancing and self expression that help you feel free and happy and calm.

Dynamic meditation is among the toughest types of meditation as it requires you to be fully focused on the practice so as to to benefit from it. Some people opt for blindfolds as they help them to direct their attention inwards and not to get distracted by the outer factors.

Guided meditation is perhaps the easiest way to meditate. Just as the name suggests, it is about meditating with the guidance of an expert. The meditation expert will be your guide throughout your session, from when you start to when you finish.

The guide can be there with you physically or can guide you through the help of technology, that is, with meditation apps, audios, videos or even meditation scripts. This is important for the meditator, especially the beginners, as it helps them learn to meditate all the while having a full experience of the meditation session.

What happens is, the guide takes you through every bit of the session. When you start, they help you get comfortable and relaxed as well as focused. After that, they help you understand what you will be going through, what you will feel, how to handle the whole meditation experience and how to end a meditation session properly.

This way, you are able to go in prepared and have a very fruitful experience.

Transcendental meditation is another fairly demanding type of meditation that has a lot customizations with every person who uses it. This meditation is based on helping the meditator transcend to the deepest level of thought effortlessly without the need to monitor themselves.

This transcending of thought is made possible through a mantra. A mantra is a word or sound that has no specific meaning but is positive and makes a good support for the meditator to help them calm the mental chatter and focus on the exercise.

Choosing a mantra carefully with this meditation is key and you are supposed to work with a certified transcendental meditation trainer to help you get a good mantra that you can relate with for a successful meditation experience.

The trainer will interview you and then help you come up with a personalized strategy for doing this meditation that will work for you as an individual. Transcendental meditation is done for about 20 minutes a day, two times a day. Benefits of this meditation include having deep inner peace, improved levels of focus and brain function, reduced stress and anxiety and better health. Doing meditation goes a long way for your mental, emotional and physical health and you are given a strategy of how to make it a daily thing for you.