The 6 Main Types of Meditation

This past year has been difficult.

I started a new job, faced career confusion and experienced personal bereavement.

I was in a poor mental space and had to make a change.

After speaking to my highly spiritual friend, I realised I needed mindfulness.

Reading the literature, I realised how powerful mindfulness can be.

Mindfulness is ‘’a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.’’

It has profound effects mentally, physically and socially.

Unfortunately, mindfulness can be overwhelming for a beginner and difficult to obtain.

The easiest place to start your journey to mindfulness is meditation.

So in this article, I will break down the 6 main types of meditation.

Well said Ali.

The overall benefits of meditation

Everyone preaches about meditation and how great it is. But I wanted the evidence.

Well, here it is.

• Meditation can reduce blood pressure, heart rate, triglycerides (fats), cortisol (stress) and inflammatory markers (CRP, TNF-alpha) in the body. This study blew my mind.
• Meditation increases pro-social behaviour (empathy, compassion and helping behaviours) and emotion.
• After 8 weeks meditation improved anxiety, depression and pain.
• Even meditation apps may help with stress, anxiety, depression and psychological well-being.

I’m convinced.

These benefits span across all the types of meditation I’ll discuss.

You might be wondering then, what are the differences between them?

Well, scientifically, each different type of meditation has its own pattern of brain firing, activating different areas. And the firing is even more different depending on experience.

This will make more sense as we explore the different types of meditation.

Some are more evidence-based than others. My 6th Meditation type is where I’ll be starting, but Meditation type 5 surprised me.

Let’s get right in.

1. Mindfulness Meditation

This is the most popular form of meditation (apart from maybe the 6th). It’s the one I found the most scientific research about too.

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present moment and observing thoughts/feelings/sensations without judgment.

How to do Mindfulness Meditation

1. Find a quiet place and sit comfortably, with a straight back
2. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing: inhalation and exhalation
3. When your mind wanders, acknowledge it without judgement and return to your breathing
4. Practice for 5-10 minutes

Your mind will inevitably wander. Label each distraction (e.g. thinking, worrying, planning) and do not ignore or suppress them.

Every time you do this, you train your self-awareness, concentration and mental discipline.

The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

Almost all research on meditation ends with ‘meditation may have this benefit but more research is needed’. Regardless, here are the benefits of Mindfulness Meditation.

1. Mindfulness meditation can help with depression and blood pressure.
2. It may enhance attention and working memory capacity.
3. It improves pro-social behaviour (compassion, empathy, etc).
4. It improves sleep and psychological well-being.

2. Focused Attention Meditation

Focused Attention Meditation is simple and easy to understand.

It involves directing your full attention to a single point of focus such as an object (e.g. candle, leaf), a sound, breath or a mantra.

How to do Focused Attention Meditation

1. Find a quiet place and sit/lie comfortably, with a straight back.
2. Focus on your chosen object. If it was a candle, focus on the shape, movement, color, noise, etc.
3. Gently return to your object of focus when your mind wanders.

Every time you do this, you are training yourself to increase concentration, reduce stress and improve mental clarity.

The Benefits of Focused Attention Meditation

One scientific review looked at MRI scan readings in people who practice Focused Attention Meditation.

Focused Attention Meditation consistently recruited parts of the brain responsible for attention/focus, emotional regulation and problem-solving/adaptability.

Plus it uses parts of the brain responsible for reducing stress and self-focused thoughts.

And you get the general benefits of meditation.

This may be a more simple start than mindfulness meditation, as you have something that you can focus on.

3. Movement Meditation

This involves engaging in gentle, mindful physical movements.

The movements tend to be in the form of yoga, tai chi or walking.

This is great to build an awareness of both the body and mind.

How to do Movement Meditation

1. Find a quiet space to move in.
2. Choose a gentle, repetitive movement (walking, yoga, tai chi).
3. Begin the movement slowly, focusing on the sensations and your breathing.
4. Stay present and maintain awareness of your movement.
5. After a certain amount of time, slow down, take deep breaths and reflect on your experience

Very similar to focused attention meditation. But it involves movement rather than being stationary.

As I become more advanced at mindfulness, I want to start doing this one.

The Benefits of Movement Meditation

Meditative movements (Tai Chi, Qi Chong and Yoga) can improve sleep quality and quality of life.

Meditation and yoga may be effective at reducing blood pressure.

Yoga can reduce cortisol (stress hormone), blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose, cholesterol and fats.

Yoga increases overall brain activity.

Plus, I reckon yoga is a good social form of mindfulness. Therefore further enhancing social connections.

‘For social relationships, no significant effects for yoga were found over controls’… Oh.

4. Mantra Meditation

Mantra meditation involves repeating a worse, phrase or sound to achieve a deep concentration.

You may have seen a Guru cross-legged, eyes closed, and chanting ‘Ommm(ॐ)’. That’s mantra meditation.

Until I did my research, I thought you had to chant this out loud. But you can do this silently. Excellent.

You may have heard of Transcendental Meditation. Whilst popular, it appears to be a branded form of mantra meditation, with some innovation on top. I excluded it from this guide.

How to do Mantra Meditation

1. Choose a mantra: Om, Peace, So Hum
2. Sit upright, comfortably, eyes closed
3. Repeat the mantra in your mind, focusing on the sound and rhythm
4. If your mind wanders revert attention to the mantra
5. Finish with a short reflection and deep breathing

The different forms of meditation are starting to sound similar, aren’t they?

The Benefits of Mantra Meditation

Mantra-based techniques show reductions in mental health symptoms like anxiety, depression, stress and post-traumatic stress.

Mantra meditation has benefits on stress, anxiety, blood pressure and immunity.

Both of these studies suggested the evidence wasn’t great.

Mantra meditation is one of the lesser-researched meditations.

5. Loving-Kindness Meditation

This is the sweetest form of meditation.

It involves repeating phrases of goodwill and compassion towards yourself and others.

This develops a sense of love and kindness.

How to do Loving-Kindness Meditation

1. Sit in a comfortable, quiet place with your eyes closed
2. Repeat positive phrases such as: May I be well, happy, and peaceful.
3. Extend this to others. Instead of ‘I’ say the name of a loved one, neutral people, difficult people and finish by saying ‘May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful.’
4. Try to genuinely feel the compassion and warmth behind the words.
5. Finish with deep breaths and reflection

Basically just repeating positive affirmations. These are powerful for some people but may be ineffective for others.

This may feel weird if you didn’t grow up using these kinds of phrases, but it’ll pay mental and social dividends to get used to it.

The Benefits of Loving-Kindness Meditation

The evidence base for this type of mindfulness is strong.

I saw so many positive studies. This surprised me. I hadn’t heard of this type of meditation before.

• Can increase compassion, and self-compassion, reduce depression and benefit individuals/communities.
• Can enhance positive emotions.
• Can increase life satisfaction.
• Can improve emotional wellbeing over 9 weeks, even more so than mindfulness meditation.

6. Guided Meditation

This is the meditation that I started with.

Guided meditation involves following verbal instructions to achieve mindfulness.

This isn’t a distinct form of meditation, per se. It could be any of the other 5 meditations that we mentioned. But you are simply guided through it.

How to do Guided Meditation

1. Find a source for guided meditation: YouTube, Headspace, Calm, Insight Timer
2. Follow the guide

Simple. That’s why I’m starting with this form of meditation.

The Benefits of Guided Meditation

This will depend on the actual type of meditation you are performing.

But expect the usual: improved concentration, reduced stress/anxiety, and increased positive emotions. You’ve seen it all now.

One study found as little as 13 minutes of daily guided meditation improved mood, attention, memory and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators.

This was over 8 weeks. 4 weeks was not long enough, it had to be 8 weeks.

Furthermore, science shows that meditation apps may help with anxiety, depression and psychological wellbeing

Summary

We can achieve mindfulness with daily meditation. The main types of meditation are:

• Mindfulness Meditation: focusing on the present and observing thoughts/feelings/sensations without judgment.
• Focused Attention Meditation: directing your full attention to a single point of focus: an object, a sound, your breath or a mantra.
• Movement Meditation: engaging in gentle, mindful physical movements: yoga, walking, tai chi.
• Mantra Meditation: repeating a word, phrase or sound to achieve deep concentration
• Loving-Kindness Meditation: repeating positive phrases such as ‘May I be well, happy, and peaceful’ to yourself and others
• Guided Meditation: following verbal instructions to achieve mindfulness.

Pick your favorite and start doing it daily, they all have their benefits.

8 weeks later you’ll feel the difference.

“When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place” - Bhagavad Gita

I hope this was helpful and see you next week.

— Pretesh