Healthy Habits: Meditation Practice
Meditating is like going to the gym for your mind. In this article, we’ll explain different types of meditation such as mantra-based and mindfulness meditation, the many benefits of meditation including mental performance and longevity, and different ways to meditate such as unguided vs. guided meditation.
NOTE: Only “Mindfulness Minutes” in your Apple Health app counts towards your Meditation Habit in the Healthzilla app.
Types of Meditation practice
Despite the recent surge in popularity, meditation has been a part of the human experience for millennia. There are many types of meditation from different cultures and traditions. Most associate meditation purely with Eastern traditions, but even organized religions carry aspects of meditation in their traditions for seeking peace through solitude and prayer.
Mantra-based Meditation
When most people think of meditation, they are thinking of mantra-based meditation, popularized in the Western world under Transcendental Meditation. These are often more rigid, formal programs that can also involve rather high fees. The framework here is the mantra, which is repeated out loud or silently during meditation to focus attention solely on this word.
Mindfulness Meditation
Currently the most popular form of meditation is mindfulness meditation. Unlike mantra-based meditation, the intention here isn’t to escape and avoid thoughts through focus. Instead, the aim is to be mindful of the entire conscious experience which includes thoughts, emotions, physical sensations of the body, sight, sounds, etc.. The aim is to learn to separate these as appearances in the raw stream of conscious experience, helping the practitioner to distance their sense of self from these experiences.
Informal Meditation
Besides the traditional methods, many daily activities involving solitude and focus can mimic some of the effects of meditation. These activities can include sports, walking, solitude, and of course prayer. However, it is important to note that these informal mindfulness activities lack any framework and skill development for progressions required for gaining the scientific benefits of meditation.
Research on the benefits of Meditation
Meditation can be a powerful tool for personal development, whether the aim is simply mental performance, stress relief, or even overcoming trauma. Besides a plethora of clinically proven benefits, meditation can also help you develop useful skills for daily life.
“That which is aware of being restless, is not itself restless.” — Sam Harris
Meditation skills you can learn, anecdotally
Be comfortable being alone with your thoughts.
Some control of your thoughts and emotions.
Pause button for the “internal movie”.
Punctuate phases of the day with self-awareness.
A subtle sense of “awakening” through ongoing self-awareness.
“I realized, at the time, what must be the first time in my life that I was present.” – Dr. Peter Attia at age 45
Clinical validation and benefits of Meditation
Here is a summary of the current state of meditation science.
Mental performance
Increased mental capabilities through increased responsiveness and control of attention, that can be measured in brain activity changes after as little as 8 weeks of meditation practice. [study link]
Stress Relief
Stress is simply the way your brain reacts to negative external stimuli. You perceive threats and ruminate over the past. The bad news is that stress response cascades into your body wreaking havoc through cortisol, insulin, and oxidative stress. The good news is that meditation can directly alter the link between external stimuli and the internal reaction. [study link 1, study link 2]
Brain Health
Meditation can change your brain waves, that describe the patterns from erratic and wandering to calm when you sleep. It’s also dose-dependent and accumulating, meaning experienced meditators show stronger Theta wave activity associated with a calm, relaxed mind. [study link]
Longevity
Some work has been done to explore the correlation of cellular aging biomarkers like telomere length to meditation practice. You can think of telomeres as the candle wick of your DNA, so you don’t want to run out early. It has been established in research that unhealthy habits like smoking, lack of physical activity, and bad diets shorten telomeres. The potential mechanism for meditation is a decreased experience of stress leading to lower cortisol levels in the body which directly impacts telomere activity. [study link]
Methods and programs for Meditation
There are many ways to start meditation, but increasingly people are interacting with the practice digitally through podcasts and apps with audio content.
Guided Meditation
Most beginners should start with guided meditation audio. Typically these are around 10 minutes in length to fit into busy schedules. The expert guidance will help get over the hump of sitting restlessly with eyes closed, and allows gradual progression and development of key skills of meditation practice.
Unguided Meditation
Seasoned meditators and even beginners can choose to explore and develop their skills independently through simple timers from 10 to 60 minutes at a time. Often these timers would include intermittent audio cues to help the practitioner keep focused on the task at hand. Healthzilla includes an unguided meditation timer with gongs as audio cues.
TIP: A specific exercise you can try during unguided meditation is to focus on your chest area. Often negative emotions such as anxiety can be sensed as a tightness around your chest. Simply focusing your attention there while breathing can help relieve your symptoms in just a few minutes! As Sam Harris has said, that which is aware of restlessness is not restless. These negative feelings are just patterns of chemicals in your body and brain. You can separate your conscious experience from them to gain some perspective and distance.
Meditation Courses
You will find many local providers for meditation courses, for those who want a deep-dive with more personal and individual guidance.
Meditation Retreats
Another popular format is an intense weekend or even a full week of meditation in serene locations. These more infrequent sessions can be used to complement daily practice.
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com