7 Different Types of Meditation: Meditation for Performance and Mental Health
Different forms of Meditation, and how they can help you achieve your mental health goals
Meditation is an art where the mind, body, and soul connect together to form a harmonious state of consciousness – as a result, you get to manifest an attitude that’s positive in every situation.
Your productivity and peace of mind are apparent in all fields of life. Be it performing well on a test or playing in a sports match, with such positive energy harbouring from the inside out, nothing seems impossible to be done.
Suppose you are expected to score a goal for the football team, and everyone’s eye is on you. However, you get out of focus because of the anxiety and pressure that’s hovering over you and fail to perform to your own expectations.
In that essence, clearly, all the workouts and protein supplements went to waste because you were not ready in your mind.
Meditation is kind of a mental workout where you train yourself to face any such situation so you don’t fail at the last moment.
What are The Main different types of Meditation?
Now that you’ve seen the importance of practising meditation in daily routine, let’s have a look at some of the types of meditation that you can do anywhere, anytime:
1. Transcendental Meditation
The idea of the technique is to keep repeating a set phrase, or “Mantra” as it is often suggested in conventional meditation until you reach a calm state oblivious of the external situations going around you.
While some people might call it escapism, it is often regarded as a healthy coping mechanism for people who have anxiety disorders or some other mental health issues like PTSD, autism, and anything that involves an active trigger.
The repetition aims to bring your focus on the verbal action and alleviates the stress response to such triggers. Stage fright or chills before some big performance can be managed well through this meditation.
2. Guided Meditation
The meditation uses multiple of your senses, generally your visual sense and imagery power to paint a picture fully with your mind. Usually, there is an external teacher or “Guru” that helps you paint that picture, hence the name given to the type.
If you want to get the best results from meditation, you can also take the help of some apps such as Headspace.
With time, you can learn how to master this imagery and be able to do it on your own. However, this needs some practice and patience.
3. Vipassana Meditation
If you just thought “Indian” with the name of the meditation, you’re right – this technique originated in India about 2,500 years ago. This is especially suitable for people who want to form a deep connection with their mind and body, and so people who need to do tasks that need good coordination between the mind and the body can make good use of this technique.
The idea is to be self-aware to a point where you feel every sensation your body is going through so you can create harmony between the mental and the physical.
4. Metta Meditation
This is especially helpful for people who have difficulties in their relationships of some sort or have some anxiety disorder that affects their social health.
The idea is to first send positive affirmations to oneself with positive words like “May I prosper” and then continue replacing the pronouns to “You” while thinking about a said individual and then replacing it with “All” by taking into account all of humanity.
This is a great approach for people who want to build some meaningful relationships with people around them and who find it hard to make new connections.
5. Mindfulness Meditation
This is the most popular type of meditation as many people ought to do meditation for making peace with their thoughts and emotions, and mindfulness specifically addresses this situation.
One can choose a comfortable and quiet place to sit in where they can imagine their thoughts and emotions passing in front of their eyes.
However, the key to observing these things is to not be engaged with them whatsoever and adopt an unbiased, unreactive attitude as one sees the troubling thoughts and emotions passing through their mind.
This is specifically helpful for people who complain of thinking too much and having a pessimistic approach about certain matters.
LeBron James himself uses the Calm app for mindfulness and states that this meditation is integral to his overall health and fitness.
6. Chakra Meditation
In the spiritual language, there are thought to be seven chakras that are responsible for different aspects of a person’s spiritual life and connect to the physical world.
The technique lays an emphasis on creating spiritual harmony by healing these chakras so a person feels more harmonious to the physical world.
People use different crystals, colours, cards, and fragrances as a way to visualize these chakras so they can connect to their spiritual selves and practice self-harmony through this meditation technique.
7. Yoga Meditation
Among the widely practised types of meditation is yoga which involves great use of both the body and the mind.
There are numerous poses one can learn in doing yoga, and each one has its own significance. Yoga is meant to enhance physical health also due to which many athletes have made it an important part of their routine in addition to physical workouts.
Joe Johnson from the NFL praises doing yoga as he says it helps him relax after strenuous routines of workouts.
A Quick Word on Affirmations
Don’t forget to reinforce your personal goals with positive thinking. Positive affirmations can be a great way to help you focus in on what you want to achieve, as well as helping to reframe your state of mind.
Sometimes the beginning of the week can be a challenge but some well thought out Monday affirmations can help kick start your week.
We also suggest keeping your affirmations in a place you feel safe and strong everyday, perhaps on your dressing table or desk. Sporting Blog Founder Oli Harris even keeps his in the shower!
Final thoughts on how different types of meditation can help performance
These are some basic types of meditation anyone could do for better overall mental health and fitness. If you are looking forward to improving both your mental health and physical health, going for an all-inclusive approach like meditation is the way to go for you.
When you have attained peace of mind and your body is well-synched with your thoughts and feelings, you are better able to perform well in different aspects of life, even where you don’t even require a lot of mental labour.
