Our full selection of articles exploring meditation.
A one minute meditation is any practice you can do in 60 seconds or less to calm your mind, connect inward, and pull yourself into present awareness. These short meditations help you incorporate reflection into busy days — especially when you feel too overwhelmed for longer sessions. In an ideal world, we’d all have time…
One way you can cultivate wellbeing is with guided meditation scripts, which you can read out loud, record, or use with groups or in classroom settings. Over time, this process can help you internalize a greater sense of wellbeing in daily life. Here are three guided meditation scripts to get you started: 1. Gratitude meditation…
A self love meditation is a way to internalize compassion and love for yourself. This short guided meditation for self love can help you start to rewire your brain for self love, positivity, and inherent worthiness. For some reason, we often tend to treat ourselves worse than we treat others. Forgiving ourselves is often harder…
A confidence meditation is one way to begin to trust yourself, and your own intuition, in a stronger way. This short guided meditation for self esteem and confidence will help you make progress toward building trust in yourself. By repeating affirmations that promote trust in yourself and increased self-worth, you can internalize an enhanced sense…
Movement meditation techniques like yoga, walking meditation, and tai chi are a way to bring a more active energy to your meditation practice. We often think of meditation as a practice that happens in stillness – but it doesn’t have to be, as long as you’re still paying attention to the present moment, nonjudgmentally. Some…
This list of 35 interesting facts about meditation shows that there are 275 million meditators around the world, the most popular city for meditation is Melbourne, Australia, and many other meditation fun facts. You’ve no doubt heard many of the most popular facts about meditating. Perhaps you’ve heard meditation can make your body healthier, your…
Meditation journal templates make meditation journaling easy. If you’re looking to get started journaling about your meditation experience, keep it simple: grab a piece of paper or open a new note on your phone, and jot a few notes down about your experience. To make it even easier, use a meditation journal template and prompts….
Water meditation techniques are any meditation method that focuses on water. It includes meditating near water, listening to the sounds of water, or even immersing yourself in water while you meditate. One of the most universally relaxing sounds we can hear as humans is the sound of running water. That’s why so many spas have…
Harming others, on purpose or not, comes with being human. That’s why having the capacity to forgive yourself is so important. This 10-minute forgiveness meditation script will help you make progress towards forgiving yourself. As we go through this world, we make all kinds of mistakes. It happens every day. We hurt people we love,…
Not every meditation technique works perfectly for everyone. From Vipassana to Chakra meditation to Zazen to mantra meditation, there are different types of meditation techniques to experiment with as you look for the practice that best connects with you. Oftentimes, experienced meditators go through multiple forms of meditation before settling on one that connects best…
To avoid quitting meditation, understand that you’ll experience natural changes in motivation over time. Then, just ride the waves. I’ve given these motivational phases catchy names and organized them into five stages: Optimism, The Slump, Unraveling, Abandonment, and Rediscovery. Building a meditation practice is hard work. Sometimes, setbacks occur. Failure is part of the process…
The main difference between contemplation and meditation is that meditation is a practice that focuses on clearing the mind, while contemplation is a more analytical and reflective practice that involves thinking deeply about a particular topic or concept. Sometimes, all you need is to understand your own thoughts. When that happens, you sit down and…
When meditating, you should put your hands in the position that’s most comfortable for you. Common poses include one hand clasping the other, and each hand resting on one knee. There are also a number of ‘mudras’ you can try that carry meaning in some meditation traditions. Whether you’re just starting meditation or have been…
Wondering how to meditate in a noisy environment? Surprisingly, it’s possible, not only with noise-canceling headphones—but also by training your mind to observe noise differently. It’s hard enough meditating with all the thoughts your mind generates. Adding environmental noise on top of your normal mental chatter can create a distracting atmosphere where it feels almost…
Shaolin monk meditation techniques originated hundreds of years ago in China, and they show up frequently in movies and popular culture. But what exactly is Shaolin meditation? And how is it different from other meditation techniques? Meditation never looks cooler than when it’s being done by Shaolin monks. If you’ve seen a martial arts movie,…
The effects of meditation are most commonly seen within eight weeks of daily practice. However, it’s possible for meditation practitioners to notice small changes before that—even as soon as the first meditation session. Remember that the experience differs for everyone. If you’ve recently started meditation, you might be wondering how long you should meditate, how…
Signs of progress in meditation are subtle. If you’re not as bothered by what used to bother you, you’re more often in the present, or you’re having random “mindful moments,” you’re probably making progress in meditation. The only way to see how much progress you make over time is to pay attention to your daily…
The main difference between prayer and meditation is that prayer involves belief in a deity and active communication, while meditation requires no beliefs and is an independent practice of nonjudgmental observation. Meditation and prayer have a close relationship. Both have been around for thousands of years, and to make matters more complex, there are forms…
Yes, meditation is a hobby. Some people have a hard time conceptualizing meditation, which is defined by “being” rather than “doing,” as a hobby. However, if meditation is part of how you like to spend your free time, it’s a hobby (and you can put it on your resume or CV, too). Have you ever…
Mantra meditation occupies your mind, stopping your normal train of thought and clearing your mind. For the purposes of this article, I reviewed the history of mantra meditation and also tried it myself using a free app, so I could compare it against my experience with other forms of meditation. Mantra meditation is a form…
