By: Mark Syme
are many different meditation techniques but they all have roughly the same aim?to still and calm the mind. Various spiritual traditions from around the world and spanning across thousands of years have used meditation to develop connection to the spirit or soul. Today we have a wide choice and if you want to explore your own spirituality but don?t feel drawn to traditional religion, you can now choose whatever meditation technique suits you the most. Here?s a quick run down of a few types.
Walking meditation
This is pretty self explanatory, essentially use the process of walking to still the chatter in your mind. While you obviously need to be aware of your surroundings, it?s good to do this somewhere that you can use a well made path so you aren?t at risk of stumbling.
The idea isn?t to focus on where you?re walking, you want to lose yourself in the feelings of your body and your senses. What can you smell, see and how does your body feel? Often people think that this is a bit different to how we usually perceive meditation. But by being totally absorbed in the sensations of the body, the control of the mind becomes lessened. Just observe without judgment.
There is no need for thoughts of what you?re going to have for dinner or work or anything like that. This is often easy for most people as we can all relate to losing ourselves in the feeling of walking. You can get so many benefits by developing this process consciously.
Breathing Meditation
This is another easy method to get started with. Breathing is something that obviously all do, but most of us don?t stop to think about breathing or more specifically how we?re breathing. Do you breathe deep into your diaphragm? Or do you take shallow breaths that only expand the top part of your lungs, like most people?
Many people find that just breathing deeply in this manner will give them a sense of relaxation. Breathing this way gives you more oxygen, helps to keep the immune system functioning properly and uses a whole set of different muscles to shallow breathing. So to use this as a meditation technique, it really is very simple.
Take a few deep slow breaths, then close your eyes and keep taking steady, slow and deep breaths for 5 minutes or even up to 20 minutes (although it?s a good idea to build up to this long). Notice if there is a brief pause between your in breath and out breath. And basically observe how you breathe, lose your awareness in the breath.
Binaural Audio Programs
Using research into meditative states and modern recording technology you can now experience deep meditation at the click of a button. Using specific tones at slightly different frequencies, these recordings alter your brainwaves, slowing the to a deep meditative state with very little effort on your part.
All you need is a CD or MP3 player and a set of headphones. Some people think that this is cheating, but it?s undeniable that this system gives you all the benefits of meditation, very quickly. You can use it in conjunction with an affirmation or a specific focus that you want. It?s really like skipping the months or even years of practice that you usually need before you reach these states of lowered brain wave activity unaided.
Guided Meditation
Guided meditations can be done either in person or from a recording. Often there is some relaxation in preparation to the main part of the meditation. The focus could be self healing, relaxation or getting in touch with your inner guidance. There?s usually a different focus with each meditation.
If you?ve bought a package of guided meditations, there?ll usually be a variety of meditations with different purposes. Often you?ll find that if you listen to the same one a few times the effect will be stronger as you know what?s coming so it?s easier to slip into the stream of what?s being said.
This will give you an idea about some of the available meditation techniques and hopefully give you a bit of direction about which method might suit you the best. If you can, it?s really worthwhile trying all of them at some stage, since there is no really one size fits all, and it?s quite a personal thing to discover what form of meditation works the best for you.
Different meditation techniques work for different people, but I’ve found that binaural audio meditation gives me all the benefits of deep states of meditation at the click of button. It only takes a few minutes and a pair of headphones. Click here to find out all the details http://www.howtomeditate.biz