Types of Meditation & Their Benefits
A guide to why to practice, how to start, or troubleshooting your practice
TL;DR
Meditation is an intentional practice meant to train the state of your mind
Meditation has lots of benefits on almost every aspect of wellbeing
(and there’s science to prove it)Different kinds of meditations do different things
If you think you’re doing it “wrong”… you’re not
Recourses and references available at the end
Getting Clear on Meditating
20 years ago very few people were meditating.
I got started as a reaction to the realization that if 1) repeated depressive episodes runs in my family, 2) I didn’t want to be medicated, so 3) I’d have to find every possible tool to cope when these bouts of depression hit. I had heard about meditation from one of my acting teachers and thought it might be worth a go. So I bought a book on Buddhist philosophy and did my best to teach myself (thank you social anxiety for keeping me from seeking out a teacher… sigh).
Since then I have found teachers - a few great ones, and a few not-so-great. It’s interesting to see what you can learn, even from the not-great ones. There have also been podcasts, apps, shows - even a Netflix special or two! All of which is fantastic. Yet I still encounter people who struggle to meditate.
A few common refrains I encounter:
I don’t have time to meditate
I “can’t” meditate - or a variation “I can’t shut my mind off”
I don’t like it
The other common thing I encounter is confusion about different types of meditation, what “counts” as mediation, and which meditation might be right for you.
In this article I’ll break down the benefits of meditation overall, different types of mediation, the benefits of those different types, and how to overcome common obstacles.
Your questions are always welcome in the comments.
What “is” meditation?
There’s a lot out there on the interwebs calling itself “meditation”. I’m not going to comment on them. But for the purposes of this article, meditation is1 :
An intentional practice
Where you let go of the intention to analyze, judge, or have expectations of the practice
Self-induced (you chose to do it)
A self-directed focus, object, or idea
Trains your “being” towards a certain state
So you’re choosing to do it, “it” is a practice, you do your best not to judge yourself, and you focus on some prompt, practice, or idea, and it’s conditioning your self towards a state.
I want to add here - some “relaxation practices” are billed as meditation. It’s not that those things aren’t useful and awesome, but they’re not really meditating. Passively listening to a story or music isn’t the same as conditioning your nervous system and mind towards non-judgement or loving-kindness.
Benefits of Meditation
Here are just some of the documented benefits that all meditation practices have in common:
Improved mood2
Increased sense of connection with others3
Improved immune response to vaccination4
Improved ability to focus and performance on focused-based tasks5
Long term consistent practice improves executive function & ability to orient to a given stimulus (how quickly you can refocus on something new)6
Lessened experience of physical pain7
Less likely to engage in numbing behaviors (like drug use) 8
Diminish physical effects of stress & perception of stress 9
Boost positive disposition and sense of vitality 10
Different Meditation Types & Benefits
Mindfulness Practices
Mindfulness refers to observing one’s own experience. Sometimes that concept can be confusing, so I explain it to my clients like this:
Think of that feeling when you’re arguing with yourself in your own head. You go back and for with yourself, making point and counter-point like a game of intellectual ping-pong. If you’re the one arguing both (multiple?) sides… who’s listening to the argument? Who’s watching the ping-pong table from the outside.
Becoming aware that you’re also the observer is the first step. Consciously choosing to observe is to practice mindfulness.
This doesn’t only happen sitting in meditation, and there are lots of ways to practice mindfulness - walking, eating, knitting. Really any lived experience could become a mindful experience.
To sit and intentionally observe ones own thoughts is mindfulness meditation.
There are many traditions and modern ways to practice mindfulness. According to Buddhist tradition, our human suffering is due to our own shortcomings and through cultivating mindfulness we become aware of our contradictory behavior and can choose to live more ethically, find wisdom and insight, and cultivate our lives.
Documented benefits of Mindfulness Meditation (in addition to those above):
Improvements to mental health in clinical and non-clinical settings 11
Improved immune function 12
Decreased depression and anxiety with boost boost in empathy 13
Increased self-assessed quality of life14
Improved ability to recognize ones thoughts without reaction or engagement (which benefits mental health, focused attention, etc)15
Improved emotional control and decreased judgement of one’s own experience 16
Loving-Kindness/Metta
Metta is the traditional Buddhist name for this form of meditation that focuses on cultivating love, kindness, care, and goodwill towards others and oneself. When practicing you settle into an open-minded state, and then extend positive feelings and intent towards others. Generally you begin with someone you feel strong positive feelings towards (someone easy, like your grandma), then a neutral person (the barista perhaps), and then possibly to someone you dislike.
Documented benefits of Loving Kindness/Metta Meditation (in addition to those above):
Increased feelings of connectedness to others
Decreased risk of depression
Diminished sensations of physical discomfort
Increased sense of wellbeing
(all the above have the same reference17 )
Increased feelings of warmth and positive thoughts about others 18
Improved Heart-Rate Variability (a measure of stress in the body)19
Decreased rumination (related to increases in self-reported wellbeing)20
Increased positive emotion frequency 21 and improved coping with negative emotions 22
Focused Attention
Focused Attention meditations are those where you repeat a word or phrase, focus on something visual, or repeat a movement pattern. Examples include monitoring your breath, mantra or affirmations, and watching a candle. The practice is in repeatedly noticing that your mind has wandered, then return to the focal point.
This practice is often taught to beginning meditators as a way to build their ability to focus, concentrate, and understand the practice of meditation.
Documented benefits of Focused Awareness Meditations (in addition to those above):
(all these references are the same study23 )
Greatest increase in ability to focus
Decrease the “volume” of thoughts (or could be considered to increase the time between wandering thoughts intruding)
Improved present-moment awareness (the feeling of being “here” in this moment)
Body Scan/Interoceptive
Body Scan meditations (also called Interoceptive, which is the technical term for the sensations of your body) involve brining your awareness to different parts of your body and feeling the sensations, or lack of sensation, there.
Documented benefits of Body Scan Meditations (in addition to those above):
(these references are the same study 24)
Greatest increase of body awareness compared to other forms
Rated as more enjoyable than other forms of meditation & easier to learn
Getting Started Meditating
This might sound trite: but it’s never been easier to get started meditating. Apps, online courses, local meditation centers, YouTube videos… there are lots and lots of options to get you going. Below are a list of resources I’ve tried or my clients use that can be of help.
The way you get good at meditating: you’ve got to do it for it to work.
My approach with clients is to try a few basic techniques based off of what they want (see the list of benefits above) and then commit to practicing every day for a duration they’re 100% sure they can do.
Here are the three most common challenges I’ve encountered as a coach and how I work through them with my clients:
“I don’t have time to meditate”
Pick a duration you’re 100% sure you can commit to every day.
The shortest duration I’ve ever started a client on? 2 minutes.
Yes, 2 minutes. And after 2 days she said “this is dumb… I can do 4.” Then 5. Then 8. She topped out at 8 minutes - but began seeing benefits even at the 2 minute practice.
Start small
Stay consistent
That’s good enough.
“I can’t meditate” - or a variation “I can’t shut my mind off”
Here we have goal misalignment or a misunderstanding of meditation.
Fact: you can’t “shut your brain off” and stay living.
You can’t. So that’s not the point of meditation.
None of us have any control of the next thought that’s going to randomly pop into our heads. Sam Harris commonly makes this argument about why free will doesn’t exist.
The point is to accept that thoughts will come and practice returning to the practice. Over time the “choppy seas” of the mind begin to calm and your nervous system regulates. You learn the mental skills that can only be gained through practice, just like learning to throw a ball properly required repetition.
So you can meditate.
Experiencing the thoughts and learning to deal with them are the point.
“I don’t like it”
Two main solutions here:
Keep experimenting until you find something you like
Have a strong enough reason and connection to that reason to overcome not liking it. (If you need some tools for that go here)
Resources
These are books, podcasts, or apps that I have personally used or clients have recommended. It’s not an all-encompassing list and you’re very welcome to add your suggestions to the comments.
First, check out this additional information on Body Scan. If you’re a paid subscriber there’s a recording of a guided body scan meditation.
Podcasts & Specific Episodes
(The links are to Spotify)
Here’s Cory Muscara on Better Than Fine:
Apps
Shine
Headspace
Calm
Books
Stop Missing Your Life by Cory Muscara
Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith
Cardoso, R., de Souza, E., Camano, L., & Leite, J. R. (2004). Meditation in health: an operational definition. Brain Research Protocols, 14, 58-60.
Kok, B., & Singer, T. (2017). Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training. Mindfulness, 218-231.
Kok, B., & Fredrickson, B. (2016). Upward spirals of the heart: Autonomic flexibility, as indexed by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness. Biological Psychology, 85(3), 240.
Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., . . . Sheridan, J. (2003). Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 564-570.
Jo, H.-G., Schmidt, S., Inacker, E., Markowiak, M., & Hinterberger, T. (2016). Meditation and attention: A controlled study on long-term meditators in behavioral performance and event-related potentials of attentional control. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 33-39.
Chan, D., & Woollacott, M. (2007). Effects of Level of Meditation Experience on Attentional Focus: Is the Efficiency of Executive or Orientation Networks Improved? The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 651-657.
Monk-Turner, E. (2003). The benefits of meditation: experimental findings. The Social Science Journal, 40(3), 465-470.
Monk-Turner, E. (2003). The benefits of meditation: experimental findings. The Social Science Journal, 40(3), 465-470.
Pascoe, M. C., Thompson, D. R., Jenkins, Z. M., & Ski, C. F. (2017). Mindfulness mediates the physiological markers of stress: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 95, 156-178.
Kok, B., & Singer, T. (2017). Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training. Mindfulness, 218-231.
Fjorback, L. O., & Walach, H. (2012). Meditation Based Therapies—A Systematic Review and Some Critical Observations. Religions, 1-18.
Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., . . . Sheridan, J. (2003). Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 564-570.
Shapiro, S., Schwartz, G. E., & Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students. Journal of behavioral medicine, 21(6), 581-599.
Fjorback, L. O., & Walach, H. (2012). Meditation Based Therapies—A Systematic Review and Some Critical Observations. Religions, 1-18.
Kok, B., & Singer, T. (2017). Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training. Mindfulness, 218-231.
Sauer-Zavala, S. E., Walsh, E. C., Eisenlohr-Moul, T. A., & Lykins, E. L. (2013). Comparing Mindfulness-Based Intervention Strategies: Differential Effects of Sitting Meditation, Body Scan, and Mindful Yoga. Mindfulness, 3, 383–388.
Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Loving-Kindness Meditation Increases Social Connectedness. Emotion, 720-724.
Kok, B., & Singer, T. (2017). Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training. Mindfulness, 218-231.
Kok, B., & Fredrickson, B. (2016). Upward spirals of the heart: Autonomic flexibility, as indexed by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness. Biological Psychology, 85(3), 240.
Kok, B., & Fredrickson, B. (2016). Upward spirals of the heart: Autonomic flexibility, as indexed by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness. Biological Psychology, 85(3), 240.
Barbara, F., Michael, C. A., Kimberly, C. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of personality and social psychology, 95(5), 1045.
Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S., Rcard, M., & Singer, T. (2014). Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 9(6), 873-879.
Carter, O. L., Presti, D. E., Callistemon, C., Ungerer, Y., Liu, G. B., & Pettigrew, J. D. (2005). Meditation alters perceptual rivalry in Tibetan Buddhist monks. Current Biology, 15(11), R412-R413.
Kok, B., & Singer, T. (2017). Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training. Mindfulness, 218-231.