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Why We Meditate and Types of Meditations
When we meditate we can access the parasympathetic nervous system, lower blood pressure, soothe anxiety, make conscious choices, calm larger than required emotional responses, and become attuned to our bodies and connected to our internal landscape or higher self bringing about peace and harmony.
Types of Meditation
Guided meditation, as with a teacher or app or recording.
Mantra meditation - using your own mantra or intention or a prescribed mantra like OM or SAT NAM. See also, Transcendental meditation.
Spiritual meditation - using a more spiritual mantra such as “Reveal Thyself” “I am Thine” or “I and my creator are one, my creator lives within me” as examples.
Mindfulness meditation - awareness in the present moment of everything in your surroundings as well as within you. Can be done during any activity of the day or sitting still in meditation.
Vipassana meditation -sitting with the breath and noting any thoughts or distractions that arise as they are, labeling the distractions, then releasing them. Allowing any emotions that need to arise to arise and flow through.
Chakra meditation -become aware of the chakras from root to crown and feeling to each of them, envision their color and what energy they are related to, imagine clearing and charging each of them to create balance and vitality.
Visualization meditation - very open. Bring to mind an image, something you want more of, something you need to release, a person who you are connected to. Hold this image in your mind and explore it, with awareness of any sensations or emotions that come up. Be with them and let them go. Notice and release.
Become an observer meditation - similar to mindfulness and Vipassana, simply sit in stillness and become aware of your thoughts, your body, your sensations, your emotions, noting each and releasing them all. Bring awareness to all parts of you impartially and with curiosity, releasing any judgment and holding all of it with compassion and understanding.
Metta meditation - Sending love to yourself and then to another you love, then to another you have difficulty with, then to the community, then to the world. "May I feel safe. May I feel loved. May I be at peace. May I feel happy. May I be free from suffering."
Body scan/relaxation meditation - begin at the top of the head or at the toes and begin a bodyscan using your internal awareness noticing each part, contracting and releasing each muscle, noting any tension and releasing it, and having gratitude for every part of the body until complete relaxation is achieved.
Mantra meditation - using your own mantra or intention or a prescribed mantra like OM or SAT NAM. See also, Transcendental meditation.
Spiritual meditation - using a more spiritual mantra such as “Reveal Thyself” “I am Thine” or “I and my creator are one, my creator lives within me” as examples.
Mindfulness meditation - awareness in the present moment of everything in your surroundings as well as within you. Can be done during any activity of the day or sitting still in meditation.
Vipassana meditation -sitting with the breath and noting any thoughts or distractions that arise as they are, labeling the distractions, then releasing them. Allowing any emotions that need to arise to arise and flow through.
Chakra meditation -become aware of the chakras from root to crown and feeling to each of them, envision their color and what energy they are related to, imagine clearing and charging each of them to create balance and vitality.
Visualization meditation - very open. Bring to mind an image, something you want more of, something you need to release, a person who you are connected to. Hold this image in your mind and explore it, with awareness of any sensations or emotions that come up. Be with them and let them go. Notice and release.
Become an observer meditation - similar to mindfulness and Vipassana, simply sit in stillness and become aware of your thoughts, your body, your sensations, your emotions, noting each and releasing them all. Bring awareness to all parts of you impartially and with curiosity, releasing any judgment and holding all of it with compassion and understanding.
Metta meditation - Sending love to yourself and then to another you love, then to another you have difficulty with, then to the community, then to the world. "May I feel safe. May I feel loved. May I be at peace. May I feel happy. May I be free from suffering."
Body scan/relaxation meditation - begin at the top of the head or at the toes and begin a bodyscan using your internal awareness noticing each part, contracting and releasing each muscle, noting any tension and releasing it, and having gratitude for every part of the body until complete relaxation is achieved.
Come into a relaxed, easy seat, palms resting in your lap. Use any props or bolsters to support your body into a comfortable seat where you can be relaxed but maintain an upright posture with a strong spine to prevent falling asleep but also to be free from distracting pain or strain. You may sit criss-cross apple sauce, on your knees with your legs tucked under you, or in a chair. Maintain a neutral upright posture where your shoulders remain over your hips, and you are neither leaning forward nor reclining back. Allow your chin to tuck slightly, elongating the back of the neck. You may find a point across the room upon which to focus your gaze, or you may focus your gaze at the tip of your nose and allow your eyes to half close, or you may close your eyes entirely. Begin to notice your breath as it comes in and out. Begin to slow your breathing and allow your lips to close so that you may breathe entirely in and out through your nose. Start to elongate your breaths making your exhale slightly longer than your inhale. For example, you may breathe in for a count of 4 and breathe out for a count of 8, counting internally. You may also use square breathing to elongate your breath cycle, breathing in for a count of 4, holding your breath for a count of 4, exhaling for a count of 4 and holding your breath out for a count of 4, before beginning with another inhale and repeating the same cycle. When a cycle of breath that feels relaxing and sustainable is reached, continue with this cycle. Feel your sit bones connecting with the seat beneath you and grounding you into the Earth below you as you breathe.
From this place of stillness and relaxed breathing, begin your desired course of meditation.
(You may follow the same steps as laid out above for a meditation in which you are laying on your back, finding a comfortable position laying on your mat or in your bed, using props as are helpful for support of your low back and body, choosing your gaze point or closing your eyes, and finding your relaxed cycle of breathing. Meditations in this prone position are used for relaxation, healing, rest and recovery or to prepare for sleep).
How to Begin a Seated Meditation
Basic
Breathing
Exercises
Belly Breathing
Deep breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing, is often called “belly breathing.” It involves inhaling and filling the lungs in such a way as to expand the abdomen, not the chest. In belly breathing the lungs expand downward, allowing much more air to be inhaled than during a normal chest breath. A belly breath provides much more oxygen to the body and helps lower the stress response.
How to Belly Breathe
1. Place one hand on your belly above your belly button and one hand on your upper chest.
1. Relax your belly.
2. Breathe in through your nose and fill your lungs.
3. Allow your lungs to fill downward and make the bottom hand move.
4. Pretend you have a balloon in your belly and blow it up with your breath.
5. Avoid shallow chest breathing and raising your shoulders.
6. Breathe out slowly like you are blowing a bubble and empty out the balloon. Feel the belly move.
How do you know you are taking a belly breath?
1. Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly. Just breathe as you usually breathe and notice which hand moves more. If the bottom hand moves, great, that’s a belly breath. If the top hand moves more, that’s a chest breath, which is associated with anxious breathing.
2. Intentionally take a shallow chest breath and breathe out on your hand. Notice the temperature as it flows across your fingers. Now intentionally take a belly breath and breathe out on your hand. Notice the temperature of the air as it flows across your fingers. Chest breath = colder air. Belly breath = warmer air.
3. Lie down on your back. Place an object on your belly such as a small stuffed animal. Now make the object go up and down with your breathing. If the object does not move while you are breathing, focus on intentionally moving that object on your belly with your in and out breath.
Basic Relaxation Breathing
This type of breathing is very helpful in deactivating the stress response. When we breathe in we activate our sympathetic nervous system, which activates our physiology as well as our stress response (the fight or flight response). When we activate our sympathetic nervous system our heart rate increases, pupils dilate, blood vessels constrict, sweat increases, and the digestive system slows down. We become more alert and overall tension increases. When we breathe out, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the “rest and digest” activities that occur when our body is at rest. When we exhale, our heart rate slows down, intestinal and glandular activity increases and we generally feel more relaxed. In other words, inhaling revs us up, and exhaling calms us down. This is why it is important in basic relaxation breathing to exhale twice as long as inhaling, to activate our parasympathetic nervous system twice as long with a result of calming our physiology and stress response.
Disclaimer: information presented herein is for educational purposes only. This information is not intended to diagnose or treat medical or psychological conditions. Nor is it a claim to treat, prevent, mitigate or cure such conditions. This information is provided as supplemental to, and not as a replacement for, medical care with a licensed professional.
