If you haven’t heard about meditation by now, you wouldn’t have landed here today. And you’re in luck because meditation is the single most important tool that has improved the quality of my life.
Now, if you’ve never done meditation before it can sound a little bit intimidating and scary. You have probably heard spiritual people do it for extended periods of time, which you think is probably something you’ll never accomplish.
How are you going to still your thoughts for that long? How can people spend years and years focusing on it and seem to be in total bliss? Sounds unattainable for people like you and me, doesn’t it?
But no need to be discouraged, there are so many types of meditation (and meditation tools) that you just need to find a way of meditation that works for you.
If I can find something that works for me and start doing it, then you can as well. In this article, we go over what is meditation, how it helps you, and the various forms of meditation you can choose from, from the point of view of a complete beginner.
What is Meditation?
Meditation can be defined as the habit of concentrating the mind on achieving peace and tranquility. It is about achieving a state of relaxation, inner peace, serenities, and spiritual superiority.
In short: when you meditate in any way, shape, or form, you are trying to reach a certain state where your mind is completely empty. You don’t think about anything. No worries about the next or past day, no random thoughts, no to-do list, absolutely nothing.
There is a reason why many people support meditation for a spiritual purpose when you reach a completely calm state of mind, the magic starts to really take place and take you to an upgrade in your life.
The Benefits of meditating
So, let me explain more about why meditation is so important and what the benefits of inner silence are.
Spiritual Benefits of Meditation
The first one is also the most obvious one to me and that is the spiritual benefits because let me tell you, my friend, those benefits are vast.
But let’s back up a bit. The reason I started meditating was that I know that it’s so important for chakra healing, energy health, communicating with Spirit, and learning more about one’s soul.
And that’s all completely true! Meditation is not just helpful but vital for initiating the process of ascension, developing psychic abilities, and finding the truth that lies at your core being.
How does it do that? Actually, it’s pretty simple. It all boils down to the fact that when you have managed to silence your mind, your ego is out of the way. There ain’t anything going on up there in that head of yours.
What happens then? It opens the way for Spirit to make itself known and it allows you to notice the doorways to the beyond. It allows you to access the angelic realm, other dimensions, information about your own soul origin and history, and much more.
The ability to access the ‘app’ of your soul and the world of Spirit has always been there. It’s just that you were too busy using all kinds of other apps related to your day-to-day human functioning that you forgot that this master app even existed.
At first, you may not experience much but if you start a practice of daily meditation and start getting familiar with how your own inner self feels, you will start experiencing more and more until you initiate a shift into higher consciousness and ascend.
Physical Benefits of Meditation
Now let’s get into the physical benefits because meditation is helpful in a lot of ways besides the obvious spiritual ones.
First of all, I just want to state that this article is meant to be a brief overview written in user-friendly language. It’s not meant to be an academic report about this topic so I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail just give you the main points.
Right, well now that’s out of the way let’s get into it. Here are some research-backed physical benefits of meditation:
- Reduce Stress (and therefore improvements of related conditions like IBS or PTSD)
- Better Memory and Reduced Memory Loss
- Reduction in Blood Pressure
- Reduction in Inflammation and Acid Reflux
Take your time to start noticing them if you don’t feel it right away, it will happen after properly meditating a couple of times. Be patient. Be present.
Mental Benefits of Meditation
Generally, the mental improvements the people that started meditating share are:
- Reduction Anxiety
- Reduction in Depressive Thinking
- Better Sleep
And soon you’ll start to notice, that multiple different benefits of meditation start to happen at the same time. That night is the time to even increase the time you spend meditating.
Emotional Benefits of Meditation
There are several emotional benefits of meditation as well, besides what I said about anxiety and depression.
There is evidence that meditation may increase positive feelings towards yourself and others. So, it promotes self-love and love for others.
This is not a new thing. This is actually what happens when you connect to the loving, all-pervading, source of energy. Your whole consciousness ascends from small, ego-based, and fearful to vast, unity-based, and loving.
My experience is that your heart chakra starts out green, then shifts and you start to see pink in the center, and then finally you unlock the highest level. You start to see gold in the center and experience universal love.
Another thing I have observed is that emotionally, you get better at letting things go and not letting everyday problems get to you so much.
That doesn’t mean that you don’t ever feel anger, frustration, or fear only that you are able to release those negative emotions from your mind-body-spirit ecosystem.
Different Types of Meditation
Now that we have covered the what and why of it all, let’s finally talk about how to meditate! As I said before, there are several different ways you can practice meditation. It’s not a one size fits all kind of deal.
One thing I want to state is that I am a very no-nonsense, keep-it-simple, kind of girl so I’m not going to throw too much jargon at you. I’m just going to list out some different methods you can try, written from my own personal perspective, and by the way, some of them do kind of overlap.
Okay, so go through the below points and pick one to try out that you feel might suit you. And feel free to try out more than one if you are not sure!
Mindfulness Meditation
I’m sure you’ve heard of the term mindfulness before. The Oxford Dictionary defines mindfulness as: “A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”
The whole idea is to focus and pay attention to your breath and body sensations. You slow down and focus on the present moment. It is a form of meditation that anyone can do.
All you have to do is sit in a comfortable position while having an upright spine, eyes closed, and watch out for air flowing into and out of your lungs.
One thing I heard about is the 7 seconds rule. You take a deep breath, hold it in for 7 seconds, and then exhale. So focus on the breath and just become aware of how your body feels!
Mindfulness is something that doesn’t necessarily mean breathing. You can practice mindfulness at work, on the train, etc. Just stop and focus on your body and breath to clear your mind. You can keep your eyes open too so you don’t look like a weirdo on the train!
Visualizations
To be honest, mindfulness meditations have their place but I myself prefer visualizations. Why is that? Because clairvoyance is one of my strongest psychic channels.
I’m a really visual person and I believe that everyone has a style of meditation perfectly suited to them based on their dominant learning style and sense.
If you’re a really visual person, then you will enjoy visualizations as well.
Here’s what you do. You sit or lie down comfortably, close your eyes, and imagine something. For example, you could imagine yourself at a beach, and be fully present in that internal vision.
That is just one example. Most of the meditations in my articles and materials are visualizations. I ask you to listen to some calming audio and picture something.
For example, in the case of grounding, I ask you to imagine a golden cord (or roots of a tree) going down from your heart, through the soles of your feet, and all the way down into the earth’s core.
That’s visualization. They’re amazing for developing clairvoyance. I started out with chakra visualization and grounding.
Now, I start with something like that, or other visualizations are trying to connect with spirit animal guides, travel to other faraway places in our universe, or look for signs of my angels.
Sound Meditations
This is another form of meditation that can resonate with people that are clairaudient and sensitive to sound.
This one is super easy because there is no ‘work’ involved on your part. You can literally search for any meditation track on YouTube and listen to it. I often go for 432hz or 528hz.
You just close your eyes while sitting or lying down comfortably and listen. Don’t think about anything, just listen.
For me, I do both visualizations and sound healing. So, while I’m doing a visualization I’ll be listening to one of my fave meditation tracks to help me alone.
I can meditate without audio and I’ve done it while on an airplane even but I resonate a lot with sound healing and it helps me to get into a meditative state of mind faster.
Any kind of audio will do, by the way, and doesn’t have to be a dedicated meditation track. You can listen to nature sounds, play on a harmonium or use singing bowls to accompany your meditations. Any sound that truly speaks to your soul will work best.
Guided Meditation beginner guide
Guided meditations are basically an overlap of visualizations and sound. The only difference is that someone else does the ‘work’ for you and instructs you to visualize something in particular while some calming music plays in the background.
This is perfect for beginners and this is how I suggest beginners should begin with meditating. The chakra and grounding meditations, are also guided meditations you should be able to follow easily.
All I had to do was listen to someone walk me through the steps as I followed along in my mind. It’s so easy! I highly recommend it for beginners. Once you’ve done it enough you can follow the same process without a guiding voice. You can listen to audio-only and do the meditation 100% by yourself.
Mantra Meditation
Mantra meditation is basically chanting. This is what my parents do. They sit in the lotus position, focus on their breath, and chant a particular mantra.
This one is also good for sound-sensitive people or people who have strong voices, like singers for example.
You start off by focusing on your breath, just like I described in the mindfulness section, and then you slowly and purposefully say a particular word aloud, putting all your intention behind it.
For example, you can choose to say the chakra sounds, like ‘om’ for the third eye. Just say it aloud slowly, mindfully, and repeatedly. You could choose to go through all the chakra sounds to heal your chakras.
Another thing you could do is chant affirmations in the same way or other words like “be still” or “release”. The choice of word is up to you really. But anything done with intention is powerful so choose your words carefully!
Movement Meditation
This is perfect for people who feel like they cannot sit still or for people who are very physical and sensation-based.
What is movement meditation? Movement meditation covers things like yoga, tai chi, and qi gong. Any type of mindful activity that involves movement.
This doesn’t necessarily need to be a kind of yoga or martial arts, by the way. You can even do a walking meditation.
My husband is great at walking meditations, or mindful walking. It doesn’t come easy to me, but according to him, all you do is look at your surroundings as you take a walk, letting the sensory information come in but not thinking about it or processing it in any way.
Ideally, you would do this in nature. And by ‘nature’ I don’t mean that you have to go hiking. If you like hiking, great, otherwise you can practice mindful walking by the sea, or in a garden. It’s up to you!
Tea Meditation and Other Types of Meditation
Any practice that is done mindfully, in a way that lets you focus, while cultivating a tranquil mind is a form of meditation.
Tea meditation is drinking tea mindfully. That involves brewing yourself a nice cup of tea, smelling it, feeling the warmth of the cup, and drinking it slowly. As you drink the tea focus on the sensation of the warm tea flowing through your body.
The same idea can be applied to anything. Even ironing clothes, cleaning, applying makeup and skincare, or making coffee. I’m serious here!
I did my own makeup for my wedding and the process of applying the makeup was so very calming to me. Why? Because my mind was totally blank as I focused on the task of applying makeup. It’s a manual activity, not a mental one and that’s the key.
Taking a shower is also a form of meditation, where you simply focus on the warm water, which cleanses your body and does not hurt it.
Have you ever come up with good ideas? This is because you have entered a meditative state and your mind can freely stimulate and receive psychic and mediumistic information.
Start your first Meditation Now
The form of meditation can be literally anything, so don’t let yourself be limited in any way!
If you are unsure, try more than one and choose the form of meditation that will best help you reach a completely calm state of mind quickly and with minimal effort.
And remember that how long you do it is completely up to you! When I meditate I usually go for around 20 minutes before I naturally ‘wake up.
Do you resonate with any of these types of meditation? Are you up to start a 2-minute meditation right now? Do it and let us know how you feel afterward in the comments below!