Tired of being told you should be meditating?
Do you sometimes feel like meditation is the new yoga and if you’re not part of it you’re somewhat not worthy of any dinner party chat?
All of a sudden, it’s not only the hipster-East-London-marketing-exec type person who spends their holidays in some deserted retreat in the Himalayas meditating, fasting and working through old trauma via breathwork. It’s become mainstream. According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, it’s estimated that 200–500 million people meditate worldwide. They also estimate that by 2022 the value of the US meditation market will reach over $2 billion.
Even the Queen recommended in early April during her coronavirus speech to use this ‘opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in meditation’.
If you still have some form of resistance towards meditation it is probably because you don’t think you will ever be that person who hangs out in yoga retreats trying…
Meditation amongst other more holistic approaches may seem a bit too ‘woo-woo’ to you. You may have heard of healing powers of crystals or that it’s possible to awaken human powers through Kundalini yoga.
The thing is, with meditation we do know scientifically that it works. I personally went from being a sceptic who only would take answers with proven facts seriously, to now somewhat a spiritual person.
I am not even sure what exactly happened, but it clearly did happen… I am that person now.
I believe it was in late 2014 or early 2015 when I first read about meditation as a means to a happier life. It was an article which was speaking about the meditation app ‘Headspace’ that caught my attention. The company was founded by two friends Andy Puddicombe and Richard Pierson in 2010. You might have even tried it before. If so, you’re not alone. They now have over 30 million users and Andy has even been on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘The Tonight Show’.
According to the CDC, meditation is now the ‘fastest-growing health trend in America’, with the number of meditators tripling between 2012 and 2017.
Meditation studios, brands and apps are spawning worldwide — with Apple naming ‘mental wellness/mindfulness apps the #1 app trend of 2018’.
It can sometimes feel as if we’ve reached maximum, peak mindfulness and meditation…
From there without boring you too much, a life-long love affair with the meditation practice began. I started with 5 minutes here and there listening to Andy’s soothing voice. And now have come to reach a twice daily TM practice of 20 minutes per session. One in the morning and one in the early evening before dinner.
TM stands for Transcendental Meditation and is a technique that uses a form of silent mantra meditation, developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
He is reported to have trained more than 40,000 TM teachers and taught the Transcendental Meditation technique to more than five million people. Including no less than the Beatles who he gave spiritual advice to. In 1968 they went to India for a spiritual reawakening with Maharishi’s guidance. This trip proved to be one of their most creative periods — they wrote reportedly 48 songs, with most of them ending up on the White Album, released later that year.
But that’s just one type of meditation amongst many more. For example, Richard Gere is famously known to practice Buddhist Zen meditation. According to an interview with Buddhist Magazine Tricycle no matter what, he always carves out a minimum of 45 minutes every day. Sometimes up to 2h, which are strictly devoted to meditation.
Let’s quickly have a look at the different types of meditation. The six most popular being:
1) Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness meditation originates from Buddhist teachings and is the most popular meditation technique in the West. In this practice you pay attention to your thoughts as they pass through your mind. You don’t judge the thoughts or engage with them. You simply let them be and take note of any patterns. Andy Puddicombe, co-founder of Headspace, spent ten years in Asia at monasteries as a Buddhist monk. He used this knowledge and experience to now teach mindfulness to millions of people.
2) Transcendental meditation
Transcendental meditation (TM) as mentioned already became famous through its celebrity fans, such as the Beatles. Being the most popular type of meditation around the world it’s also the most scientifically studied. This practice is more customisable than mantra meditation, using a mantra or series of words that are specific to each practitioner. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi based this technique on an ancient meditation practice which goes back thousands of years from the land of the Vedas in India. TM was first taught in the 1950s in India and then brought to the Western world in the hippy era.
3) Focused meditation
Focused meditation involves concentration using any of the five senses. For example, you can focus on something internal, like your breath (also known as breathwork) or you can bring in external influences to help focus your attention (e.g. a body scan). Listening to sounds like the gong or crystal singing bowls (also referred to as sound baths) are also a type of focused meditation.
4) Spiritual meditation
Spiritual meditation is used in Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Daoism, as well as in Christian faith. It’s similar to prayer in that you reflect on the silence around you and seek a deeper connection with your God or Universe.
5) Movement meditation
Although most people think of yoga when they hear movement meditation, this practice also includes qigong, forest bathing (basically walking through the woods) or even gardening. It’s an active form of meditation where the movement guides you. Personally, I think of swimming as a moving meditation too.
6) Mantra meditation
Mantra meditation is prominent in many teachings, including Hindu and Buddhist traditions. This type of meditation uses a repetitive sound to clear the mind. It can be a word, phrase, or sound, such as the popular ‘Om’ (which represents the union of mind, body, and spirit that is at the heart of yoga). Unlike TM it doesn’t matter if your mantra is spoken loudly or quietly. After chanting the mantra for some time, you will be more alert and in tune with your environment. It is meant to allow you to experience deeper levels of awareness.
How to find what works for you
Within each of these types of meditation you will be able to find a lot of information. There may be different nuances and interpretations, depending what organisation or information source you look for advice for. As with the arts or different types of exercise, there will be some styles that you like and others that you don’t.
Whether you like it or not, you may experience that actually the most challenging one is what benefits you the most. But in order to find out you will have to try different one’s out. This is something I am afraid you will have to do by yourself and not something I can help you with nor anyone else.
But what I would like for you to consider are its countless benefits. To literally anyone. For this reason, let’s look at excuses why you may not be meditating (yet) and why this shouldn’t stop you from doing so:
1) I don’t have enough time
Research shows that time spent meditating decrease sleep time significantly when compared with people of the same age and sex who did not meditate.
Furthermore, researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center claim meditating can change the structure and function of the brain through relaxation, which can ‘increase focus and learning concentration, improve memory and attention span’.
If you say you don’t have time, think again for a moment. If Richard Gere can dedicate a minimum of 45 minutes per day, you honestly think you have less time available then him? Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Will Smith, I mean even Arnold Schwarzenegger — they all meditate regularly.
2) I really struggle switching off my thoughts
It doesn’t matter. The ‘struggle’ is part of the learning process. You still benefit from it and it just requires practice. You weren’t able to just suddenly speak or write. It took years of listening to and mimicking your parents before you got there. And you’re still learning every day by adding to your vocabulary.
As outlined above, there are so many different techniques. One of them at the very least will work for you. If you just don’t vibe with sitting there listening to your breath or repeating a mantra why not try a walking meditation or attending a sound bath? The options are pretty much endless!
3) It will take a couple of years before it works
A study followed a group of middle school students diagnosed with ADHD who meditated twice a day in school. After 3 months, researchers found over 50% reductions in stress, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms.
A lot of other research shows that those who practice transcendental meditation may experience a decrease in stress and anxiety within minutes. I mention here TM as that is the most researched type of meditation.
Point being that even if it’s a subtle change which you may not immediately feel, it’s definitely working. It may manifest differently for you than for someone else, depending on countless different factors. For example how regular you meditate and for how long.
4) It’s boring
If you’re looking for some form of entertainment, yes you may find it boring. It’s really about your attitude towards meditation and your general wellbeing.
This isn’t really about being entertained and having fun, it’s about carving out time for yourself. It will pay back. With a sense of more calm, self-love, acceptance, improved sleep patterns, reduced stress and anxiety, and much more…
I can appreciate if you’re feeling disheartened by all the attention meditation is getting at the moment. Maybe you don’t want to do what everyone else does. It’s just one of those fad’s like the Keto diet and before you know it we all will be moving on to the next thing.
I might be wrong, but I honestly don’t think this is just another trend which will disappear. It hasn’t in literally hundreds of generations. The benefits are the same now then thousands of years ago, the only difference being that we have more research available to us.
If there was only one thing that you could possibly take up during lockdown, I highly recommend to listen to the Queen and to ‘slow down, pause and reflect, in meditation’.
