As the world heads deeper into the 2020s, life seems to get more and more complicated, stressful, and difficult to manage, and not everyone has the time or capacity to take care of their mental health through it all. However, the key to your troubles could be meditation, a practice that has been popular for all of recorded history and one that has millions of practitioners around the world, so keep reading to find out more.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of viewing your life and your surroundings through an outside lens, without any judgment or biases, and if you do this, you’ll be able to detach from your stress and the racing thoughts in your mind by focusing completely on the present moment and how it’s making you feel. You’ll be able to notice tiny details, all of the sights, sounds, and smells around you, and by devoting your mental capacity to focus purely on your five senses, you’ll be able to prevent your mind from going elsewhere to more negative places, or even to thoughts that cause stress and anxiety. The more you focus on improving your skill set and experience with mindfulness, the better you’ll be able to navigate through the most stressful experiences in your life.
Bhajan
Bhajan for Kirtan meditation is an ancient practice that originated in India and served as a form of worship in Hinduism for thousands of years before spreading all over the world. It is about rhythmically singing mantras and devotional songs. This kind of meditation brings people together and helps them enter a calm and thoughtful state by using music, melody, and repeating mantras, as people sing in response to each other, creating a friendly atmosphere that goes beyond just one person. This rhythmic cycle of call and response allows you to feel like part of a greater whole, leaving you less concerned with your worries for the duration that it goes on.
Transcendental
Transcendental meditation is the practice of silently and privately repeating the same word or phrase over and over again to yourself for 15-20 minutes, allowing your brain to focus on repeating only the sentence. With time, you’ll find that the other thoughts that were flowing through your brain have faded, and you’re now only concerned about repeating the phrase over and over again, allowing other thoughts to flow in naturally, without anxiety, and slipping into a state of restful awareness.
Metta
Metta meditation, also known as loving-kindness meditation, comes from Buddhist traditions and is a great form of meditation for those who are looking for a more positive outlook on life, especially when our media is full of negative stories like war, deaths, and diseases. This form of meditation focuses on increasing the amount of positivity you feel for your life, developing strong love and compassion for yourself and others by saying kind phrases or positive words, and slowly spreading these good feelings to friends, family, and even those you might find challenging. Metta meditation is well-loved for making people feel better emotionally, lowering stress, and creating a sense of connection with everything around them.
Zen
Zen meditation is perhaps the most popular and famous form of meditation throughout the world, and the first thing people think of when they hear the word “meditation”. Its popularity is justified, as it’s an incredibly simple and easy-to-perform process since you just need to sit in a peaceful and quiet area for half an hour and focus on your breathing and heart rate, and you’ll quickly find yourself more detached from your life as a whole, and the negative aspects of it more specifically, allowing you to acquire a state of inner peace or “zen.”
Conclusion
Meditation is one of the greatest ways you could use to take control of your life, through its benefits in increasing mental wellness, and physical health, and reducing stress, but it’s more complicated than many realize, with many schools of thought and different methods of practicing that have varying impacts on the human psyche. By using the information in this article, you’ll be able to decide on the best meditation practice for you and get the immense benefits and advantages you deserve.
