There’s More Than One Way to Meditate
For a long time, I think meditation suffered from a bit of an image problem.
When people hear the word meditation, they often picture someone sitting perfectly still, cross-legged, eyes closed, mind completely empty.
And if you've ever tried that and immediately started thinking about what you're making for dinner, the email you forgot to send, something embarrassing you said twelve years ago, and whether you remembered to switch the laundry—you may have concluded: “I'm terrible at meditation.”
But meditation isn't about successfully turning your brain off. And there isn't just one way to do it.
Different meditation traditions use different objects of attention, movements, phrases, postures, and techniques. Some practices ask you to notice your thoughts. Others give your mind something specific to focus on. Some involve sitting still. Others involve moving your body.
Finding a style that works for you can make meditation feel much more accessible.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is probably one of the forms people encounter most often today.
The basic idea is to bring your attention to what is happening right now—perhaps your breathing, sensations in your body, sounds around you, or thoughts passing through your mind. The important part is that you're practicing noticing without immediately judging what you notice.
Your mind will wander. That's not failing at meditation. The practice is noticing that your attention wandered and gently bringing it back.
Mindfulness can therefore be practiced formally while sitting quietly, but elements of mindfulness can also be incorporated into ordinary life: drinking your morning coffee, walking outside, eating, gardening, making pottery, or lying on a massage table.
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation, usually called TM, uses a mantra—a sound that is silently repeated during meditation.
Rather than continually bringing attention back to the breath or observing thoughts as they arise, the mantra provides a simple point around which attention can settle.
TM is also a specific, trademarked meditation program with a standardized method of instruction, so it isn't quite interchangeable with every form of mantra meditation.
For someone who finds an open-ended instruction like “clear your mind” frustrating, having a repeated sound or phrase to return to can make meditation feel more concrete.
Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta)
Loving-kindness meditation, also known as metta, involves intentionally directing thoughts or wishes of goodwill toward yourself and other people.
A practice might begin by directing kindness toward yourself, then someone you love, other people in your life, and eventually a wider circle.
Rather than trying to manufacture a particular emotional state, you're practicing the intention of compassion and goodwill.
For people whose internal dialogue tends to be much harsher toward themselves than they would ever be toward another person, I think there's something especially interesting about deliberately practicing another way of speaking to ourselves.
Zen Meditation (Zazen)
Zen meditation, or zazen, comes from Zen Buddhist practice and traditionally places considerable importance on posture and seated meditation.
Rather than necessarily trying to create a particular feeling, the practice involves sitting with awareness and experiencing what arises. This can include awareness of breathing, bodily experience, thoughts, and the present moment, depending on the particular Zen tradition and instruction.
For some people, the simplicity and structure of sitting practice are exactly what makes it appealing. For others? Sitting still is the problem. Fortunately, that's not your only option.
Body Scan and Progressive Relaxation
In a body scan, you deliberately move your attention through different areas of your body and notice what you find.
Maybe your jaw is clenched. Maybe your shoulders are practically touching your ears. Maybe you're gripping your toes for absolutely no discernible reason.
The goal doesn't necessarily have to be “make this muscle relax.” Sometimes simply noticing what's happening is the practice.
Progressive muscle relaxation is related but more specifically involves deliberately tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups. Although the two techniques are frequently grouped together in popular meditation resources, they aren't exactly the same practice.
Body awareness can also be useful because many of us spend enormous amounts of time living primarily from the neck up. We don't necessarily notice how much tension we're carrying until something directs our attention back toward the body.
Movement Meditation
And then there are the people who hear “sit quietly and concentrate on your breathing” and immediately want to crawl out of their skin.
You can meditate while moving.
Walking meditation is one example. Yoga and qigong can also incorporate meditative attention.
Instead of trying to ignore movement, movement becomes the focus. You might notice the sensation of your feet meeting the ground, your weight shifting, your breathing changing, or the rhythm of repetitive motion.
I think this is particularly important because it removes another unnecessary barrier to meditation. You don't have to look like someone meditating for something to become a meditative practice.
The ones I keep coming back to
Of all these approaches, there are three that have become my own preferred forms of meditation: mindfulness meditation, body scan meditation, and walking meditation.
They also happen to be the forms I’ve actually used most consistently over the years.
Mindfulness appeals to me because I can bring it into ordinary life. It doesn't necessarily require setting aside a special time, sitting in a particular position, or trying to make my mind blank. Sometimes it is simply noticing where I am, what I'm doing, what I'm feeling, and what is happening around me instead of moving through the moment on autopilot.
Body scan meditation feels like a natural extension of the work I've spent so many years doing as a massage therapist. It encourages us to notice the body before immediately trying to change it: Where am I holding tension? Is my jaw clenched? Are my shoulders raised? Am I actually comfortable? Sometimes we don't realize how much we're physically carrying until we deliberately bring our attention back to ourselves.
And then there is walking meditation, which may be my favorite of the three—particularly when I'm walking through a forest.
There's something about moving through trees that makes mindfulness feel much less like an exercise I am deliberately performing. I can notice the ground under my feet, the temperature of the air, the smell of damp earth and plants, birds somewhere above me, sunlight moving through branches, or all the tiny things I would miss if I were rushing toward a destination.
At some point, I'm no longer trying particularly hard to meditate. I'm simply there.
And there's actually a name—and a much larger body of thought and research—for intentionally spending time among trees and engaging with a forest environment this way: forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku.
That's something I think deserves an article of its own.
Which kind should you try?
Whichever one makes you willing to do it again.
Seriously.
You don't earn extra meditation points for choosing the technique you find most difficult.
Try sitting quietly. Try a guided mindfulness exercise. Try a body scan before bed. Try repeating a mantra. Try loving-kindness meditation. Or try taking a slow walk somewhere beautiful and paying attention to what happens when the destination stops being the most important part of the walk.
And remember that having thoughts while meditating does not mean you're doing it wrong. Your brain thinks. That's one of its jobs.
Meditation can simply be an opportunity to practice deciding where you want to place your attention—and noticing, with a little less judgment, where your mind goes when you're not directing it.
Maybe meditation isn't about becoming perfectly still or perfectly peaceful. Maybe it's about becoming a little more familiar with yourself.
And there are many different ways to practice doing that.
Sources & Further Reading
• The Mindfulness App — The Different Types of Meditation: An Overview
• The Mindfulness App — The Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness Meditation
• The Mindfulness App — Meditation Articles