Dance, exercises or just spontaneous visualizations also exist as effective meditation techniques. Discover them here.
This post is meant to take down popular myths that make people believe that meditation is a boring or pasive practice. Even the most quiet meditations, if done correctly, will relief the stress but also bring you more energy, because something as simple as an irregular breathing can depress your organism and bring stress to your routine.
But anyway, it could be hard for a lot of readers to find those benefits in a short term before they lose their patience. That's why I'll share in this post the main meditation types available, including those that are shorter or more dynamic, hoping you may find the best for you or expand your repertoire for your own current practice.
Spontaneous meditation and visualization: as magical as simple
This is maybe the most important type of meditation and the essence of all of the rest. The spontaneous meditation, in which you just take a pause and connect with your senses and the present, is so powerful and effective that for every yoga class, after the formal meditation technique or any asana/exercise, is indispensable to give yourself this break. It allows you to hear your intuition and breathing at the moment and also perceive how you are really feeling: physically and mentally. Without it, what you just did for yourself could mean just no change or improvement.
This spontaneous meditation can also be practiced with more dedication at home or in a quiet place including a guided visualization, refering to topics that allows you to get a better peace of mind or any objective about your health. Guided visualizations are commonly used by professionals for therapeutic purposes, by writing and telling 'healing tales' adapted to the patients' psychological profile. It's also very common to find a lot of them associated with the chakras, natural environments or colors.
Practicing this technique by yourself before going to sleep can also prepare your mind/soul to reveal you messages and solutions to your routine problems. It could take you just some seconds or you can likewise appart some minutes of your day, adding guided meditations from Youtube or manuals.
Raj, Kriya and Kundalini Yoga: developing the neutral mind and the Royalty of the Soul
This isn't a technique, but a whole universe of techniques of breathing (called pranayams), physical poses and movements, mudras (locks of hands and tongue) and a lot of more tools that, correctly practiced, may let you achieve specific benefits and states of conciousness. And is in this variety where you can find the best example of dynamic meditations, either with some physical movement or just with a specific breathing pattern (pranayam).
At least in Kundalini Yoga, some sets (called kriyas) may include dance and exercises to shake the whole body! The dancings are usually spontaneous and coupled with traditional indian music, with a lot of percussion instruments to let your mind improve its connection with your instincts and basic needs.
Breath of Fire
This pranayam is one of the most importants in Kundalini Yoga, because it gives you a lot of energy, oxygenates your blood and also heals your digestive system. To do that, sit confortably and pump your navel in dynamically as you simultaneously exhale through your nose. The inhalation (nasal too) comes automatically and the eyes could be closed to focus your mind on how your body is feeling.
Tips and warnings
- It must not be practiced if you are pregnant or if you just ate (wait at least 1 hour)
- Ideal rhythm: 2 to 3 breathings per second.
- If it's difficult for you to get the correct pace of the breathing, start the painting dog breath: with your tongue out, practice the pranayam breathing through your mouth opened. It could make you laugh at the beginning :).
Za Zen and buddhism: Enter the Void
For the buddhism philosophy one of the main keys to be free of suffering and reach the real awareness is empty your mind of thoughts and prejudices. Beyond philosophy and theory, there is the Za Zen meditation, which could be the closest to what the mainstream collective understands as meditations, because it is very contemplative and there you just scan your mind, body, breathing and 'your' thoughts (by saying 'just' i don't mean it's unuseful or less effective).
It's practiced sitted on a zafu: a cushion specifically adapted for this meditation. There, the practitioner could be sitted from just a few minutes to almost 3 hours with an specific breath pattern and eye focus.
Jaapa Mala: project your mind through the technology of mantras and selected thoughts
The advantage of this practice is that it an be done while you are in the bus, or waiting for it or at any moment. You just need the will of clear your mind and focus it to an specific intention. For that purpose, it's commonly used a scapular called Maala.
For each one of the balls of the Maala, you do one repetition of the mantra or thought you are willing to project. They usually have 108 balls plus 1 that is distinguished from the others, which represents the Guru or cosmic consciousness. From the ball next to the Guru starts the count and it also works to make you aware of your counting because that ball shall not be counted. Once you reach it, turn the Maala over and continue counting in opposite direction.
Because of the catholic Rosary, this practice can be easily associated to religious practiced, but in essence, mantras are a technology done to project the mind and as I just said, you can also project an specific word, image or thought. Hence, the Jaapa Mala can be practiced chanting or in silence.
This simple technique will clear your mind and give you a powerful determination and focus. If you do it with the eyes focused on the eyebrows/third eye you may fell that from your front a beam is being projected and you could even fell heat in that zone!
Tantric meditations: as controversials as unknowns
One famous indian Master named Osho could be taken as the most important responsible of the current fame of the word Tantra, now associated to sexual practices and orgies. Even though that kind of Tantra exists and 'sexual' energy is required to develop it, it's just one of many others types of Tantra practiced nowadays.
I'll tell you about this kind of meditation in a further post, because I think that for now I've given enough techniques to research about. This is a wonderful world of techniques to know yourself better and improve your physical and emmotional health.
Good luck and Sat Naam
Image from @ZenToons