There are so many different types of meditation, that it's hard to know which is the best for me. There are techniques on breathing, silence, crystals, sleep, meditation for silencing the mind, and in more recent times there is mindfulness meditation and transcendental meditation amongst many more ancient forms originating out of India.
On top of this, there are also a number of ways of actually practicing meditation ranging from doing it on your own, via an app, being guided, or on a retreat for several days to name just a few. Before we even begin meditating, the process of trying to find the right one can be so stressful - it's very counter productive!
But lucky for you, we're here to help you understand how to determine which is the right one for you. Meditation is just like dieting - there's 100's of different types of diets, but at the end of the day, a well balanced diet, with plenty of vegetables and fruits is something we can all agree upon. And just like dieting, there are temporary diets we need to re-establish balance within our body, and diets suited to resolving a particular issue in our body.
All the different meditation techniques work to some degree, but it depends on whether you want to mask the problem, or you want to get to the root cause and solve the problem. Some of the most common things we hear are people wanting help with sleep, and wanting help with stress, generally from people who want to avoid medication. This would be the easy "quick fix" solution, which many free apps are likened to. Sometimes they will work, sometimes they won't, but regardless they're not getting to the root of the problem.
The main reason why is because we need to understand what the mind is, and then we can get to the roof of it. The human mind is essentially a 5 sense camera - we have our eyes, nose, ears, mouth and body. Through these 5 senses, we move through life experiencing the world, and as we do this, we store these experiences in our mind. We call these "pictures". They are the thoughts, feelings and emotions we have based on our past. Essentially we live bound to the past. This life that we have lived, circulating in our mind as a never ending video tape, is built on the foundation of the mind given to us by our ancestors. Our minds resemble our parents in the same way as our bodies! The body itself is also part of the mind which combined forms what we refer to as the human mind.
It's because of this human mind, and the fact that we store 10,000's of thoughts that we are unable to sleep, and we are unable to stop stressing, even if we want. So if you think about it from this perspective, now it's probably starting to make sense as to why for some people "just focus on your thoughts" is too difficult, especially when there's so many racing around inside! If you think about it like this, yes, it's easy to understand why an app which produces calming sounds can work on some minds, but for one who's mind has so many thoughts it simply does not work and only causes more stress!
This meditation is about discarding all of those past thoughts from the mind so there's space for us to actually live in the present moment. The beauty is, we don't lose anything, we simply eliminate the attachment to those "pictures" so they stop pestering us non stop. This meditation is about taking control of your mind and being the master. And the best part? Every benefit you are seeking comes naturally through this process of discarding the pictures. We're able to eliminate the cause of stress, naturally become more calm, naturally sleep better, and simply live a better, more joyful life.
So doesn't it make sense to reap all the benefits of meditation in this one, whole method? Book a free 1 on 1 introduction to find out more about it and see if it resonates with you!