Meditation is always referred to as a practice because it takes time and practice before it can positively impact your health and well-being. Studies have shown that people who meditate regularly have certain differences in their brain structure, and their brains are healthier and less likely to show age-related loss of function.

What is Mediation

Meditation is a practice that involves focusing the mind by using techniques that encourage a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. While meditation is often used for religious purposes, it can be practiced independently of spiritual beliefs. As there are many different types of meditation.

Benefits of Mediation

Images from MRI scans show that meditation can positively affect your brain and mental health. The relaxation response from meditation helps lower blood pressure and improve your heart rate. Meditation teaches mindfulness and how to be in the moment. Each session is different, so you learn to not live by expectation but instead take each moment for what it is in this present moment. Because of that, I feel it teaches the ability to deal with and process negative emotions like fear, anger, stress and grief.

Types of Meditation

The five most common types of meditation include the following:

• Mindfulness meditation involves setting time aside to sit comfortably, close your eyes, and focus on breathing. Mindfulness meditation improves emotional regulation in the brain and limits anxiety, reduces depression, and improves self-control.
• Body Scan meditation involves focusing your awareness on each part of the body separately and how it feels. This practice can benefit people who suffer from chronic pain or have difficulty focusing on breathing alone.
• Transcendental meditation involves focusing on a specific phrase, called a mantra, and repeating it during the meditation.
• Loving Kindness meditation is used to manifest compassion for yourself and others. It involves directing phrases of goodwill, and a positive intention to yourself, loved ones, and challenging people in your life. This type of meditation can be suitable for people with a strong bias towards others and can alleviate anger, depression, social anxiety, and marital conflicts.
• Walking meditation encourages you to focus on each footstep and noticing the action of lifting, lowering, and having each foot touch the ground, one step after another. This type is suitable for people who don’t like to sit still because you are still mindful and focused on your body and its sensations.

Styles of Mediation

There are also different styles of mediation, each with its own list of unique qualities and benefits.

• Christian meditation seeks to allow someone to have a closer relationship with God or the teaching from the Bible. The Bible references the need to meditate, which is usually done through prayer.
• Yoga meditation focuses on meditative techniques, like focusing on the breath and the present, to strengthen and relax the body. Corpse pose (savasana), practiced at the end of all yoga classes, is one of the best examples of meditation.
• Visualization mediation is when you picture something or someone in your mind and only focus on that. This can be useful for people who want to practice manifestation by focusing and pouring emotional energy into what you want.
• Observer mediation allows you to observe your thoughts, feelings, patterns, and behaviors without judging whether the action or feeling is right or wrong. You observe and become mindful because you are simply a fly on the wall of your experience, only a witness.

How to Meditate

You can do meditation anytime, anywhere, simply by bringing your awareness to the style or type of mediation you want to practice. Doing it regularly will lead to better results. Try a technique every day for 10 days and see how you feel at the end. You can’t meditate wrong because it is normal if the mind wanders. Meditation is not about forcing the mind into submission but instead redirecting the focus and attention to give yourself some relief.

Breathe Chile Meditation Tips

1. Find a calm, quiet, uncluttered space.
2. Establish a routine and stick to it
3. Get Comfortable
4. And remember to Breathe, Chile

I’ve been using a meditation and sleep app called Calm, and I think you’d like it, too. Check it out and click here.