Meditation is more and more popular now. However, not everyone knows which type of meditation to choose. Today I will present you the 14 most common types of this practice and when to use each of them. Try them now.
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What Is Meditation?
Meditation can be defined as a set of techniques that are intended to encourage a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. Meditation is also a consciousness-changing technique that has been shown to have a wide number of benefits on psychological well-being. - Verywellmind
Some kinds of meditation focus on the mental aspect only. However, in many cases, spirituality (i.e. connection with God, astral projection) is included.
14 Kinds of Meditation and Why Do They Work
Let me list the kinds of meditation first:
• Focused meditation
• Quigong meditation
• Sound bath meditation
• Chakra meditation
• Vipassana meditation
• Walking meditation
• Loving-kindness meditation
• Body scan or progressive relaxation
• Mindfulness meditation
• Breath awareness meditation
• Kundalini yoga
• Zen meditation
• Transcendental Meditation
• Spiritual meditation
1. Focused Meditation
It involves focusing on something intently as a way of staying in the present moment and slowing down the inner dialogue.
Focus meditation is like classic meditation, you remain in the present but focus wholly on one or more things. They can include sensory stimuli like sounds, visual items, tactile sensations, tastes, smells, and even your own breathing.
Benefits
It reduces stress and control anxiety, also enhancing your self-awareness and improves attention span. Your creativity and imagination increase and focus meditation boost your patience and tolerance for things, helping you to focus on the present moment.
Qigong (pronounced “chee-gong”, roughly translated as “the master of one’s energy”) meditation is an ancient Chinese healing practice. It combines meditation, controlled breathing, and gentle movement.
Moreover, it combines two important concepts of traditional Chinese medicine: herbs, acupuncture, tuina (medical massage) and qigong exercise.
There are two kinds of Quigong meditation: active (dynamic also known as dong gong) Qigong and passive Qigong.
• Active Qigong – it includes repeating gentle, coordinated movements to promote balance, blood and lymphatic drainage, muscle strength and flexibility, and a greater awareness of one’s body in space (known as proprioception)
• Passive Qigong – it focuses on embracing yin energy through body stillness and the mental cultivation of qi energy.
Benefits
You experience lowered stress and anxiety, increased focus, and improved balance and flexibility. This type of meditation may even reduce your risk of certain chronic diseases.
3. Sound Bath Meditation
In this case, you use various healing instruments (i.e gongs, singing bowls, percussion, chimes, rattles, tuning forks) to create sound vibrations that relax your mind. It simply means that you are “bathed” in sound waves.
The human voice is used as well. The music has no catchy melody or rhythm, but it is a carefully selected wash of instruments and voices with notable resonance and overtones. The intention is to change and help balance the energy of the participants.
During the sound bath, participants lie on their backs—sometimes referred to as the Savasana position in yoga—for the entire experience. Sometimes the entire group participates with chants, mantras, or rolling oms. One session lasts from 15 to 60 minutes.
Benefits:
You experience deep relaxation, while stress and anxiety are lowered. Sound bath meditation improves your sleep, focus and energy. You experience the feeling of rejuvenation.
4. Chakra Meditation
This meditation technique is aimed at keeping the core chakras open, aligned, and fluid.
You can practise chakra meditation on your own if your goal is to feel more balanced or relaxed, or even just to have an easier time falling asleep. However, f your intentions are a little deeper, your best bet is to learn from the pros.
If you try a guided chakra meditation for sleep, do it like this: A soothing voice will tell you to lie down in a comfortable position on your back with your eyes closed. The voice will then walk you through each of your chakras, detailing how to focus on and harness the power of each one.
Benefits
You should expect a sense of contentment, peace, and heightened charges of energy.
5. Vipassana Meditation
It is an ancient tradition, inviting you to use your concentration to intensely examine certain aspects of your existence with the intention of eventual transformation.
You go through the emotions within e.g., ten days like a condensed version of an entire year in the outside world.
You may feel pain in your hips and knees because of the long periods of sitting and living like a monk.
Vipassana pushes you to find "insight into the true nature of reality," via contemplation of several key areas of human existence: impermanence,” “suffering, satisfactoriness,” "emptiness" and “non-self.”
Benefits
Vipassana can reduce stress and anxiety, which may have benefits for substance use. It may also promote brain plasticity.
6. Walking Meditation
You focus on each footstep to be fully present, noticing the action of lifting, lowering, and having each foot touch the ground, one step after another.
In a 2013 study, researchers examined 75 individuals who had perceived high levels of psychological distress. They found that those who engaged in mindful walking for 10 minutes a day showed reduced levels of stress and anxiety, and overall improvement in quality of life compared to those who did not participate in mindful walking. - Headspace
Benefits
It boosts blood flow. Walking meditation is very beneficial for people who sit for long periods. Your digestion improves, anxiety is reduced, depression is alleviated, and your sleep quality improves, as well as your blood sugar level and circulation.
7. Loving-Kindness Meditation
It is also known as Metta meditation. The goal is to cultivate an attitude of love and kindness toward everything, even a person’s enemies and all that cause stress.
While breathing deeply, you open their minds to receiving loving kindness and then send messages of loving kindness to the world, to specific people, or to their loved ones.
Benefits
This type of meditation may increase positive emotions and has been linked to reduced depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress or PTSD.
8. Body Scan Meditation
It is meditation that enables people to scan their bodies for areas of tension. The goal of body scan l is to notice tension and to allow it to release.
You usually start at one end of their body, usually their feet, and work through the whole. During the body scan, you can visualise relaxation or tension and then relax your muscles.
Benefits
Progressive relaxation can help to promote generalized feelings of calmness and relaxation. In addition, it may also help with chronic pain. Some find it useful for better falling asleep.
9. Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that urges you to remain aware and present at the moment.
It encourages awareness of a person’s existing surroundings. You also eliminate judgment. So, rather than reflecting on the annoyance of a long wait, you will simply note the wait without judgment.
You can practise mindfulness meditation almost anywhere. For example, while waiting in line at the grocery store, you might calmly notice their surroundings, including the sights, sounds, and smells they experience.
Benefits
Mindfulness meditation reduces fixation on negative emotions, improves memory and focus, lessens impulsive, emotional reactions and improves relationship satisfaction.
10. Breath Awareness Meditation
During a simple breath awareness meditation, you breathe slowly and deeply, counting your breaths or otherwise focusing on your breaths. The goal is to focus only on breathing and ignore other thoughts that enter the mind.
Use a guided recording or do it yourself. Start by breathing in and out and taking note of how each to inhale feels. What kind of breath is it? Deep or shallow? Short or long? Examine the pause between inhaling and exhaling in the same way.
Remember to watch your wandering mind without judgement. When intrusive thoughts let them go and focus on breathing again. At the end of the section assess your level or, e.g., anxiety.
Benefits
Mindful breathing has been shown to reduce anxiety, help with burnout, provide certain types of pain relief, and decrease negative thinking.
11. Kundalini Yoga Meditation
It is a physically active form of meditation that blends movements with deep breathing and mantras. You usually learn from a teacher or do a class, although learning the poses and mantra at home is also possible.
Kundalini yoga can improve physical strength and reduce pain. It is also beneficial for people suffering from anxiety and depression. A more developed sense of self is also important.
In Kundalini meditation, you can work to awaken this energy and achieve enlightenment through a combination of techniques, including physical movements, deep breathing, mantras and mudras (i.e., hand movements). More about this type of mediation is here.
Benefits
Quote According to research, it may help ease stress and anxiety, improve cognitive functioning, and boost self-perception and self-appreciation.
12. Zen meditation
It is sometimes called Zazen, being a form of meditation that can be part of Buddhist practice. The goal is to find a comfortable position, focus on breathing, and mindfully observe one’s thoughts without judgment.
Although like mindfulness meditation, this type of meditation requires more discipline and practice. People may prefer it if they are seeking both relaxation and a new spiritual path.
Zen meditation focuses on posture: open shoulders, upright spine, soft belly, and on the ground (chair or cushion). We follow the breath. One inhalation and one exhalation at a time. Each time a thought arises, we just don't follow the thought and return to the breath. -Muse
Benefits
Zen mediation has many benefits: it improves focus, memory and the ability to prioritise and plan, restores energy, fosters a more positive attitude about work, and builds empathy and acceptance.
13. Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation is a spiritual form of meditation where you remain seated and breathe slowly. The goal is to transcend or rise above the person’s current state of being.
During a meditation session, you focus on a mantra or a repeated word or a series of words. The mantra is determined by the teacher based on a complex set of factors, e.g., the year the practitioner was born, and the year the teacher was trained. An alternative allows you to choose your mantra.
Benefits
People who practice Transcendental Meditation experience less stress and anxiety, depression symptoms become milder, their thinking is more purposeful and their decisions more far-sighted.
14. Spiritual meditation
There are thousands, if not millions, of religious and spiritual traditions that include spiritual meditation in many different forms Here are some examples:
• Sufi dhikr or remembrance of God
• Hindu Japa mala and mantra meditation
• Zazen meditation in Zen Buddhism
• trance states in Shamanistic traditions
• Jewish kabbalistic practices
• loving-kindness or metta meditation in Buddhism
• Marananussati Bhavana or reflection on one’s mortality in Theravada Buddhism
• Christian contemplative prayer
“A spiritual meditation is a meditation practice you partake in with the desire to connect with a higher power, the Universe, God, your Highest Self, etc.,” - Jen Alico, a certified meditation coach.
Spiritual meditation takes you to the depths of who you are, and it makes you realize the eternal truth and let go of all that had happened and will happen. The present is where you want to be and find solace.
Benefits
By connecting with Higher Purpose, you heal physical and mental illnesses and gain peace of mind.
My meditation is spiritual meditation as I connect with the Source (God), Mother earth and other beings. You focus mostly on the present, cleansing your body, mind and soul but also healing all your subtle bodies.
Let's meditate together
Connect by telepathy during meditation on Saturdays at 8 pm GMT. I will meditate with you and other people so that our joint energy can create miracles. Send your intention to the Universe. Transform your life and the world.
More about meditation
In a Nutshell
Today you have read about 14 major types of meditation. Some of them focus mostly on the physical aspect (e.g., Walking Meditation), mental (Mindfulness Meditation) and spiritual one (Spiritual Meditation). They all improve your overall health. Good luck with your practice. With love and light,
Vicky
About
Vicky is an experienced holistic writer and coach that inspires, motivates, and encourages everyone to become the best version of themselves - physically, mentally, and spiritually.
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