Meditation provides us with a means to train our minds and has numerous benefits to the body. Apart from providing an effective relaxation response, it helps lower blood pressure, slow respiration rate, reduce anxiety, lower blood cortisol levels, and improve blood circulation, to name a few.
There are a lot of meditation techniques. And if you’re trying it out for the first time, you might get lost trying to figure out what works best. To make figuring it out easy, we’re providing you with five meditative practices we think are the best for newbies. And they’re easy to learn too:
1. Mindfulness
As one of the simplest and most common meditation practices, mindfulness doesn’t require any unique technique. All you have to do is find a quiet space, sit or lie in a comfortable position and begin to focus your attention on inhaling and exhaling gently.
This type of meditation aims to allow you to focus and be aware of your present without getting distracted by your thoughts and feelings or trying to interpret them. It helps to improve memory and focus and reduce negative emotions.
2. Mantra Meditation
Mantra meditation involves using words or sentences, known as a mantra, to gain focus. The mantra could be one word like love or healing. Or a phrase like which can be said aloud or hummed quietly. Many cultures use mantras such as om mani Padme hum, but the Buddhists are the most well-known for using them. However, you can come up with your meditation chant.
If you’re trying out the mantra technique, you need to sit in a quiet place and try to center yourself while repeating your chant. Typically, you should repeat your mantra about 110 times, or you can use a bead to count.
3. Breath Awareness Meditation
This type of meditation is common and involves using breathing exercises as the object of focus. If you’re that person whose breathing gets shallower when stressed out, this meditation can help you breathe deeply, keeping you relaxed and at peace. It also helps keep your brain healthy and your mind sharper.
A simple breathing technique includes breathing in through your nose for four seconds, holding your breath for about eight seconds, then exhaling through your mouth for eight seconds. You can repeat this cycle as many times as possible.
4. Focus Meditation
When we’re finding it hard to concentrate, we’re told to focus all our attention on an object or a spot. We zero in on the minute details of the thing, examining it thoroughly, so much that we don’t see anything else. Little did we know that this was a very effective form of meditation and relaxation.
As a beginner, this technique helps to strengthen your focus while the object holds your attention. You can select a spot on the floor, a picture on the wall, or even a lit candle to focus your attention while meditating.
5. Mindful Walking Meditation
This type of meditation is gotten from Zen Buddhism. It involves centering yourself by focusing on walking around from one point to another in a quiet place. One hand should be closed in a fist behind your back while the other is closed inside the fist. You can walk at any speed you like.
This meditation technique is very relaxing and calming. It’s also perfect for people who find it hard to sit still for regular meditation practice.
