Meditation can refer to any number of approaches that can be used to become more aware of one’s present-moment experience. Often this involves some degree of relaxation into one’s body and out of the nonstop stream of thoughts that typically constitutes the soundtrack of our lives.
In meditation, one usually becomes something of an observer, trying to get distance from our own experiences. Whether you practice meditation through yoga, traditional sedentary meditation, or mindful noting throughout the day, the goal is to become more present and more aware. Aware of what thoughts and feelings are surfacing, aware of how your body is alive and alert to the world. This is often experienced by meditators as an altered state of consciousness.
Most people who meditate today have a less lofty goal: they just want more separation from their thoughts and feelings and more access to peaceful experiences. In its contemporary and Western form, meditation is generally understood to be a process of concentrating on the breath and inner sensations while also consciously distancing oneself from thoughts and feelings – especially the negative ones that we normally get stuck on. When our minds get quieter, we know ourselves on a deeper level and we experience more freedom from anxiety and psychological pain in general.
How Might Meditation Benefit Us?
The benefits of meditation for one’s mental health are a somewhat contested topic. One review of the research found that while meditation improves our mental wellbeing, at least in the West it is not usually employed as the primary treatment for psychological issues. Rather, it is often recommended as a complementary treatment. So, for example, adding yoga or a meditation practice to your life may be a useful supplement to starting psychotherapy for depression or anxiety, but psychologists generally would not recommend trying only yoga or meditation as a primary treatment.
On the other hand, some researchers, in reviewing the evidence, have found a stronger case for meditation’s positive impacts on mental health. Specifically, researchers found evidence for moderate improvements in anxiety, depression, and experiences of pain in general, simply as a result of engaging in mindfulness meditation programs. They noted that mindfulness meditation did not distinguish itself as better or worse than other therapies for depression and anxiety.
The research findings may underestimate the benefits of meditation because many interventions are brief, so participants do not show the benefits of a more in-depth or long-term practice. It was people who experienced a more persistent sense of self-transcendence – an important goal of meditation – who showed the strongest psychological benefits from their meditation practices.
Types of Meditation
The types of meditation range from techniques developed millennia ago to those being honed and refined as you read this. Some, such as transcendental meditation, use a single mantra, repeated again and again, to attempt to transcend one’s typical thoughts and attentional patterns.
Vipassana meditation focuses on awareness of the breath and bodily sensations to steer us away from our thoughts and feelings and into awareness of the impermanence of all things. Still other approaches, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), see present-moment awareness and acceptance as the main goal.
One way to differentiate among these types is to consider them as focused on mindfulness, concentration, or self-transcendence. MBSR, for example, is not focused on achieving nirvana but rather on becoming more mindful of the present moment. Loving-kindness meditation, by contrast, tries to focus the mind on positive thoughts and feelings. And something like yoga, which can also be considered a meditative practice, combines concentration and mindfulness to bring us into our bodies as much as possible.
Meditation & Yoga
Meditation and yoga are often used in the same interventions, or completed in sequence, in order to deepen one’s experience of mindfulness. For example, you might begin with yoga to more fully engage the entire body before settling into a meditation that is meant to slow things down while also capitalising on this increased awareness. At least one intervention study conducted with college students suggests there may be health benefits to doing both at the same time.
In Sum
Your initial attempts at meditation do not have to be very intensive for you to experience some benefits. If you are curious about meditation, try just dipping your toe in. A 5-minute meditation is a good place to start.
Please know that people have all kinds of initial experiences with meditation: some people feel better, some feel worse, and some feel no difference at all, at least at first. With patience, though, we can all experience some of the benefits of meditation.
