Meditation Techniques

Understand Meditation

The term ‘Meditation’ means a set of practices of any kind, where practitioners prepare their minds and self-induce consciousness to achieve some benefits. It is usually a form of personal practice that can be performed by individuals themselves. During meditation, one can use any of the ritual objects, prayer beads etc. These days, many scientists, therapists and doctors recommend some kind of meditation since they understand that it helps to overcome stress and anxiety up to a great extent. Meditation is not difficult to learn. In this article, we will discuss some of the simple techniques for meditation.

Meditation techniques for Beginners

• Breathing Meditation – It is amongst the most well-known and oldest techniques for meditation. There are different variations available for this exercise, but the primary focus of all is to be watchful of your breath. Feeling concrete sensations brings the brain in 1-pointed concentration. When this technique is combined with belly-breathing, it provides even better relaxation response. Another way of performing breathing meditation is chanting some sort of mantras. The mantras could be standard ones or created by meditation practitioners themselves.

• Visualization Exercise – This technique is very easy to perform and do not require much of the time of a practitioner. For this, the focus needs to be put on a mentally shaped visual picture. Choose a geometrical shape in a basic color, for instance – red square, blue circle etc. Draw that shape on a paper and stare at it for about 30 seconds. After that, close your eyes. Try to watch that image in the eye of your mind. The exercise will help you build concentration and remove all mental distractions.

• Binaural Beats Meditation – Binaural Beats are a tool to help reach deeper meditation levels with minimum efforts. In this kind of exercise, headphones are also used. Binaural beats are played into the ears of meditating practitioners. The idea is to put the brain in the state of gentle confusion because the two beats are almost identical. This exercise causes the brain to generate changed consciousness states.

• Posture – Maintaining posture is another kind of meditation technique. The practitioner has to avoid hunching his or her shoulders. This will help him / her to keep alert.

• Prayer Meditation – This is one of the most successful techniques for meditation. In this, an individual uses music, devotion and prayer to produce direct contact with divine. It is also known as state meditation.

• End-of-Guilt meditation – To perform this meditation practice, sit in a comfortable position and relax your body, emotions and mind. Visualize your deity in your mind’s vision. Watch your deity removing all your guilt and transforming all your sins into love. As soon as all layers get peeled away, you will realize that nothing is left within but only love. This practice will help you to become free from all sins and live life happily and stress free.

When beginning with any of the mediation techniques, there is a need to have a firm base. There are no short-cuts as far as meditation is concerned.