By becoming more consciously aware of your breath and freeing yourself of intrusive thoughts, you can reap many positive benefits from meditation. “It can be an effective tool to find inner peace and promote physical, emotional, spiritual and mental wellbeing,” says endota Retreat guide and Somatic Movement and Meditation teacher, Martina Healey. 

Some of the benefits you may notice after meditating include:

• Improved sleep quality
• Lowered cortisol levels (the prominent stress hormone)
• Increased self-awareness
• Lowered blood pressure
• Improved positivity levels and thoughts
• Increased emotional control
• Enhanced energy and productivity levels
• Improved focus and clarity
• Feelings of relaxation and calm.

While some of these benefits may be immediately noticeable, others may take longer to develop through repeated practices over a period of time. 

With an array of meditation practices and techniques available, there is sure to be one that best resonates with you, your life and any goals you may be wanting to achieve. Some are quiet while others involve a guiding voice, some rely on an upright posture, others movement or simply lying still. Some of the most well-known or practised meditations include:

Guided meditation

This type of meditation is led by an instructor who guides you through the process, usually led via audio or video. It’s the most common type of meditation and particularly useful for those who are just starting out or may need extra guidance on their journey, especially for visualisation purposes.

Mantra meditation

During this meditation you find a phrase or word to focus on and repeat throughout the practice. Mantras are useful for improving concentration and shifting your frame of mind. Mantras can be repeated in your head or out loud, whatever you find most comfortable and beneficial. A variation of this is the vedic meditation style, which is performed twice daily for 20 minutes each (usually morning and night).

Breathwork meditation

Changing your breathing pattern is a form of active meditation, where you control your body’s response to encourage a change in your mood or frame of mind. Whether taking slow, deep breaths or quicker, shallow breaths, the focus and change in pace can help to ground, calm, uplift and energise you overall.

Moving meditation

Particularly useful for those whose attention span is shorter or less suited to a seated or lying down meditation, a moving meditation is exactly that — meditating while moving. Whether this is while stretching, walking or performing another wellness practice, such as Qigong or yoga, these gentle movements provide stimulation to your senses and better align your focus while listening to or repeating meditative phrases.

Sound healing meditation

Phoebe mentions sound healing’s ability to work with brainwave entrainment, meaning your brain waves move in sync with the sound and sound frequencies. “Sound healing allows us to drop into the parasympathetic nervous system and, once you drop into that state, the frequencies created by the sound healer's instruments are able to nourish and help release stuck emotions.” During a sound healing, instruments are played to create various sounds, which have an emotive response on your body.

Chakra meditation

Balancing and unblocking either all seven or some of your chakras is done through this meditation practice, usually through visualisation. Picturing your body with an internal channel that needs to be cleared will help aid your mind when practising this type of meditation. You can learn more about the chakras here if you are deciding whether this practice is the right one for you.

While this is just a guide to some meditation styles, there are many more that you may choose to try or combine with one another.