Meditation Techniques for Beginners, Types of Meditations

Meditation is an intensely personal and spiritual experience. The purpose of each meditation technique is to channel awareness into a more positive direction by totally transforming one's state of mind. The mediation is to turn inwards and to concentrate on the inner self.

There are many meditation techniques for beginners, I believe that guided meditation is the best for learning how to meditate. In order to keep your mind from racing and to focus your attention you can create a guided meditation using a simple recording device. The key is to speak slowly and clearly in a calm and relaxing voice. Begin by relaxing your body starting at your head, and moving down your scalp, face, neck, throat chest back, arms, hands, abdomen, pelvic girdle, buttocks, legs, feet toes. Talk gently and slowly and use the word relax many times.

When learning how to meditate the important thing is to start somewhere. You can always improve your meditation techniques once you’ve started but if you don’t apply any techniques on how to meditate then you’ve got nowhere.

Mindfulness meditation involves opening the attention to become aware of the continuously passing parade of sensations and feelings, images, thoughts, sounds, smells, and so forth without becoming involved in thinking about them. The meditator sits quietly and simply witnesses whatever goes through the mind, not reacting or becoming involved with thoughts, memories, worries, or images. This helps to gain a more calm, clear, and non-reactive state of mind.

Mantra meditation forms the heart of the Hindu faith and it's effectiveness has also been proven by centuries of successful application. In mantra meditation, you pick a mantra that suits you and then repeat it mentally or out loud continuously. This technique, just like Zen Meditation, will help develop your concentration, mental focus and awareness.

Controlling Your Breath At no time during the practice of this technique should you make any effort to control the breath. Let it flow naturally. Gradually, you may notice that the pauses between the inhalation and exhalation are becoming longer. Enjoy these pauses, for they are a glimpse of the deep peace state of advanced meditation. As you grow very calm you may notice that the breath is becoming so shallow (or the pauses so prolonged) that it hardly seems necessary to breathe at all.

Taoist meditation methods have many points in common with Hindu and Buddhist systems, but the Taoist way is less abstract and far more down-to-earth than the contemplative traditions which evolved in India. The primary hallmark of Taoist meditation is the generation, transformation, and circulation of internal energy. Once the meditator has 'achieved energy' (deh-chee), it can be applied to promoting health and longevity, nurturing the 'spiritual embryo' of immortality, martial arts, healing, painting and poetry, sensual self-indulgence, or whatever else the adept wishes to do with it.