Meditation is kind of like sports: if you fail the first time, it doesn’t mean you give up sports altogether. It simply means you haven’t found the right sport!
Many people don’t realize that there are lots of subtypes of meditation, making it more likely that you’ll find one that suits you. Some people choose to blend different forms of meditation, customizing the best version to help them deal with stress, improve impulse control, boost well-being and refocus their attention on positive things.
Here are seven different kinds of meditation worth trying.
1. Mindfulness
The goal of this form of practice is to stay in the present moment and observe without judgement. This type of meditation can be done anywhere—while waiting in line, sitting on a train or stuck in traffic.
2. Zazen
Also known as Zen meditation, this practice uses particular postures and steps. Zen practitioners use it not only for relaxation, but also to try to reach a new spiritual path.
3. Breath awareness
The focus of the practice is on deep, slow breaths. The object is to ignore other thoughts other than the sound and feeling of your breath.
4. Kundalini yoga
This active form of practice combines yoga poses, deep breathing and mantras.
5. Transcendental meditation
For this practice, meditators sit, breathe slowly and focus on a mantra or repeat a specific word or phrase. Often led by a teacher who determines the mantra, practitioners sometimes report that they’ve reached heightened mindfulness or had a spiritual experience.
6. Body scan
Also referred to as “progressive relaxation,” the body scan technique uses a bottom-to-top (or vice versa) process of tensing and then relaxing muscles. A similar form asks practitioners to visualize a wave drifting over them to help release tension. Many people report that progressive relaxation helps them with chronic pain, insomnia and anxiety.
7. Metta
With a focus on cultivating an attitude of love and kindness toward everyone—including yourself and your enemies, Metta meditation uses deep breathing, mental messages of loving kindness and repetition.
