Meditation has recently taken the world by storm as a means to reduce stress and increase happiness. People all over the world seem to enjoy and benefit from meditation. But what exactly is meditation?
Meditation 101
It might be easier to start with some things that meditation is not. First, and most importantly, meditation is not a way of turning off or silencing your thoughts. It isn’t religious or spiritual in nature, although meditative practices are present in most, if not all major religions. And finally, while you may find yourself calmer or happier after practicing for a while, the goal of meditation isn’t necessarily to transform yourself as a person.
Meditation is simply a way of training your awareness. Think of it like an exercise for your mind. But instead of lifting weights, you’re observing your thoughts, or focusing on something specific, like your breath.
Different Types of Meditation
As you may have noticed from the dozens of meditation resources now available online, there are many ways to meditate! But here are a few of the major meditation styles, many of which are available on the Fabulous app:
Concentration meditation: Concentration meditation is exactly what it sounds like. You focus all of your concentration on one object while tuning out everything else. The object can be anything, like a lit candle, but is most often your breath.
Mindfulness meditation: Mindfulness meditation focuses specifically on your ability to be aware and engaged with the present moment. There are different types of mindfulness meditations, many of which are aimed toward people with high stress or mood disorders, such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT).
Loving-kindness meditation: Also known as metta meditation, the goal of loving-kindness meditation is to cultivate feelings of compassion and love, both for other people and for oneself.
Guided meditation: Guided meditations are scripted meditations, where a guide walks you through various thought exercises or processes. Beginners may find guided meditations a good way to start learning more about meditation since someone is telling them what to do. But there is also more than enough variety of guided meditations online to be useful to anyone.
Benefits of Meditation
The practice of meditation may be as old as civilization itself but the scientific study of it is still fairly new. However, the rapidly-growing body of research on meditation is showing that the health benefits meditation can provide may explain why it’s stuck around for so long.
Here are just a few possible benefits of a regular meditation practice
1. Reduced stress
2. Increased Focused
3. Increased empathy
4. Improved sleep
5. Decreased perception of pain
6. Lowered blood pressure
With all these possible health perks, it’s no wonder meditation is getting so popular! Are you ready to give meditation a try? Sign up for Fabulous’s Daily Meditation Challenge and see what meditation can do for you!
