Which Meditation Style Is Right For You?
The timing for this post couldn’t be better. We’ve both been talking about, and trying to practice, regular meditation (though sometimes we blow it!). Siobhan posted 11 tips here and today the peeps at Well+Good are suggesting different styles for different types of people and issues. What’s your practice look like? We’ll share ours in the comments.
Is this you: You really want to meditate and be less reactive in stressful situations, but you can’t sit still and empty your mind? Us, too!
It could be that you (we) just haven’t found the right meditation style, says davidji, apprentice to Deepak Chopra, and the author of The Secrets of Meditation: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace and Personal Transformation.
In his new book, the corporate executive-turned-meditation teacher covers the most frequently practiced forms of meditation. “Many types of meditation can help you manage the constant swirl of the city and our reactions to it,” he says.
So which style of meditation is right for you? Here are five—along with some practical guidance from davidji—to help you pick one that sticks.
1. You’re a People Person (Sometimes to a Fault)
Practice: Metta Meditation
For this meditation practice you’ll bring loving kindness into your heart and then shine it out to everyone. Got it? You do this by sitting for five minutes and focusing your attention on loving thoughts and feelings. Use deep inhales to fill yourself up with loving thoughts, then let that love flow through you and out of you in a long exhale. This is a nourishing meditation, and an example of putting the oxygen mask on yourself first and then putting it on someone else.
2. You Need To Get Calm RIGHT NOW!
Practice: Breathing Meditation
You know that feeling you get when doing something you love? You’re so absorbed yet your mind is super clear? This breathing meditation can help invoke that feeling.
How to do it? Stop yourself for two minutes a day and bring your attention to your breath, like you may have done in yoga class. Just follow your breath in your mind’s eye going in and out through your nose. The idea is that by staying with your breath, you’re not going to the past or future in your thoughts.
If you’re extremely busy or a beginning meditator, this method works really well because it’s quick and you can do it anywhere (hello subway). It’s also beneficial for combating stress and anxiety (hello high-pressure work meeting).
3. You’re a Foodie, or Have Food Issues
Practice: Sensory Meditation
A form of sensory meditation is mindful eating. Choose a meal—or even just a piece of chocolate—and focus on the flavors and experience of eating it, savoring every bite, and connecting to the moment, without any other distractions like television, work, or other people.
If you struggle with emotional eatingor weight concerns, or just haven’t been taking the time to notice what you’re putting in your body, this is a great tool for gaining more awareness and bringing more joy to the experience.
Yeah, speaking of timing… I recently drafted a post related to #3 (not published yet), and I had a brief look at an article about meditation styles in the last couple days, and this morning I decided I’ve not been regular enough in my meditation efforts, so I just finished a short session before I sat down to read this post. The mindful eating is super important for me, though I didn’t necessarily think of it in this context. I will now!
I used to think meditation just wasn’t for me because I thought of it as just sitting still for a long time. My meditation style involves listening to chants on my iPhone. While I walk/run, or after are good times for me. Sometimes I listen to the chants during mundane tasks like cleaning. This morning after my run I got on my yoga mat with this special neck thing that helps my tension, and listened to my favorite Om Namah Shivaya chants. I’ve always done the breathing thing too, since I was a kid and needed to calm down that’s been a standard.
Mindfulness meditation/walking meditation/lojong meditation