There are hundreds of techniques, schools, and styles of meditation. The common inner mechanism underlying the various techniques consists of two simultaneous mental activities: Concentration and Mindfulness.
Concentration means attempting to focus your attention on an object of focus, moment-by-moment, rather than your usual stream of thoughts and impressions. Mindfulness involves observing whatever thought, feeling, or sensation is momentarily arising – positive or negative – and letting it go without evaluating, judging, or elaborating on it.
The many techniques of meditation are basically different objects of focus that have been developed over the centuries. The reason there are so many is that every person learns differently. Some people are more visual, while others are more sound or body oriented.
At MedWorks, we teach the following techniques – representing most major types of meditation – so that participants will find at least one that they will want to do on an ongoing basis.
Body Awareness Techniques
- Breath Focus – Focusing your attention on the simple, moment-to-moment experience of your own breath coming in and out of your body. This is the most fundamental of all meditation techniques, and has many variations.
- Body Scan and Relaxation – Methodically feeling and then relaxing each part of your body in sequence. This comes from yoga and is used for stress reduction, healing, sports improvement, and many other applications.
- Energy Center Focus – Focusing your attention on the inner energy that flows in your body. These are ancient and powerful techniques that use the same energy (known as Chi or Ki) found in Oriental practices such as acupuncture and the martial arts.
- Eyes Open/Gazing – Breath focus and other techniques can be done with the eyes open, which some people find preferable to eyes-closed meditation. Gazing involves using a physical object of your choice as an object of meditative focus.
- Visualization Practice – This entails using your imagination to create an image or picture to focus on in your mind, such as your favorite place in nature. This technique is well-known for tremendous benefits in perfecting sports and other practical skills, and strengthening the mind.
- Mantra – This is a word, syllable, or phrase that is used as the object of focus, as you repeat it over and over either verbally or silently. It can be a plain-English phrase that appeals to you, or there are many traditional ones to choose from.
- Music as a Meditation – Following the sound of a bell, soothing music, or natural sounds is an effective relaxation and focus technique.
Moving Meditation Techniques
- Simple Yoga – All yoga movements (asanas) are techniques of meditation in which the object of focus is the bodily and energetic sensations that arise as you perform the movement. Simple yet powerful yoga movements can be done at your desk anytime.
- T’ai Chi Beginning Movements – These exercises are easy to do and focus your attention on the inner energy that flows in your body. They are both energizing and relaxing and have been used for centuries for strength and longevity. All martial arts are forms of moving meditation.
- Walking Meditation – Combines physical exercise with the stress-reducing benefits of meditation. In this technique, you focus on the feeling of your body moving through space while noting and letting go of whatever else arises in your mind. The result is a refreshing and energizing experience for your body and mind.
- Insight Meditation – This involves practicing mindfulness on the random stream of inner thoughts, feelings, and sensations (including sounds) as they flow by.
- Affirmations – Focusing on positive thoughts of a practical nature that you’d like to see manifest in the world, i.e., “I’m going to get that promotion,” or “I can lose weight.” This is a good practice to accompany all daily meditation sessions.
- Your Everyday Tasks as Meditation – Once you’ve experienced meditation, you can apply concentration and mindfulness to any everyday task, using it as the object of focus. Doing your job at work, doing tasks at home, wherever you are, you can turn whatever you’re doing into a moment of meditation. This is sometimes called “Meditation in action”, “Mindful action”, or “Being in the Zone”.
In addition to the various techniques that MedWorks teaches, all programs include: