It means focusing on the image of different people and directing positive energy and goodwill first to yourself and then to others. This technique invites you to ask yourself a question, then to be aware of the feelings your question evokes.
Deepstash helps you become inspired, wiser and productive, through bite-sized ideas from the best articles, books and videos out there.
It is the process of being fully present with your thoughts, being aware of your surroundings and not reactive to what is going on around you. Although some prefer to sit in a quiet place while focusing on their breathing, mindfulness meditation can be done anywhere.
Also known as Metta meditation; the goal is to cultivate an attitude of love and kindness toward everything. During meditation, practitioners send and repeat messages of loving-kindness, until they feel an attitude of loving kindness. Similar to prayer in that you reflect on the quietness and seek a deeper connection with your higher power.
Essential oils are commonly used to heighten the experience. Popular options include:. This type can be practiced at home or in a place of worship. Sign Up for free Sign In. Calming vs. Many meditation techniques combine elements of both. What are Zen meditation. Qigong meditation. Yoga meditation. And so it is with meditation. By conjuring a specific visualization, we not only get to observe the mind, but we also get to focus on any physical sensations.
Loving kindness. We direct positive energy and goodwill first to ourselves, and then, as a ripple effect, to others, which helps us let go of unhappy feelings we may be experiencing.
Below is a video with more instruction on how to use the loving kindness meditation technique. Skillful compassion. Similar to the loving kindness meditation technique, this one involves focusing on a person you know or love and paying attention to the sensations arising from the heart. By opening our hearts and minds for the benefit of other people, we have the opportunity to foster a feeling of happiness in our own mind.
Resting awareness. Rather than focusing on the breath or a visualization, this technique involves letting the mind truly rest; thoughts may enter, but instead of distracting you and pulling you away from the present moment, they simply drift away. Be aware of the feelings, not the thoughts, that arise when you focus on the question. The above list of meditation styles is far from exhaustive. Here are some other forms of this ancient practice that you may want to explore.
Note: Many of the following techniques should be learned with an experienced — and in some cases certified — teacher to be most effective. Zen meditation. Mantra meditation. This technique is similar to focused attention meditation, although instead of focusing on the breath to quiet the mind, you focus on a mantra which could be a syllable, word, or phrase.
The idea here is that the subtle vibrations associated with the repeated mantra can encourage positive change — maybe a boost in self-confidence or increased compassion for others — and help you enter an even deeper state of meditation. Transcendental meditation. Students are encouraged to practice twice a day, which often includes morning meditation , and the a second session is in the mid-afternoon or early evening. Yoga meditation. Just as there are many different types of meditation, so too exist many styles of yoga — particularly Kundalini yoga — that are aimed at strengthening the nervous system, so we are better able to cope with everyday stress and problems.
However, in order to integrate the neuromuscular changes that happen during yoga and gain the greatest benefit from the practice, we must take time for savasana or Shavasana, known as corpse or relaxation pose , to relax the body and relieve tension. Vipassana meditation. Another ancient tradition, this one invites you to use your concentration to intensely examine certain aspects of your existence with the intention of eventual transformation.
Chakra meditation. Blocked or imbalanced chakras can result in uncomfortable physical and mental symptoms, but chakra meditation can help to bring all of them back into balance. Thoughts and feelings can also be included in this. In a general sense it involves paying non judgemental attention to one or more aspects of our moment to moment mental or physical experience.
This is a much broader definition than the Samatha meditation and covers much more of our momentary experience. As such after some practice it can deliver much wider benefits than just calmness. As an added bonus though practicing Vipassana can also produce great states of calm as well as insight or seeing clearly; it is just that the calmness is more of a byproduct rather than the main focus of the meditation as it is with Samatha. The main differences between Samantha calmness and Vipassana insight in terms of what they deliver we have already made clear, but the difference between what the meditations are focusing on and why they are different is a little more subtle and deserve a little more explaining.
Samatha or tranquility meditation can only calm the mind because it is focusing the mind on a concept such as the breath and counting up through them with numbers, which are also a concept. What we call the breath is an abstraction or shorthand for the abdomen rising or falling or some other physical manifestation of breathing. By contrast the Vipassana meditation is actually focusing on the physical reality of these breaths manifesting, such as the abdomen rising and falling or air going in and out of the nostrils.
It is focused on directly observing moment to moment experience on the level of the senses or thoughts. Of course the breath in terms of the rising and falling abdomen is only a very small part of this momentary experience, which can also include hearing sounds and observing other sensations in the body as well as thoughts and feelings. So the Vipassana definition of meditation encompasses a whole lot more than the Samatha definition, which just focuses the mind very intently on one particular concept to produce states of calm.
Based on the differences we explained, you choose which meditation based on what you want the outcome or goal of the meditation to be. If calmness or tranquility alone is your main goal, then choose Samatha; if insight is your goal then choose Vipassana meditation. By insight we also mean seeing clearly or clearing the mind. We anticipate that most visitors to this blog have come here to look for resources for letting go or acceptance in some part of their lives or to manage some kind of mental disturbance like depression.
In these cases it is safe to say that Vipassana meditation is the practice of choice , as it is specifically designed for seeing clearly and therefore letting go. Solely using meditation for calmness will not resolve underlying problems in the mind or unresolved issues from the past. On a philosophical level, Vipassana meditation allows for this letting go as it is focused on observing actual reality. As Buddhism teaches us, once you use meditation to observe reality, you begin to see reality more clearly in the sense of non-permanence.
Focusing on the breath or other phenomena as they are becomes a means by which we begin to understand reality and life in a wider sense.
0コメント